What is a Doula???

[Fuchsia!]

Yeah probably a silly question but i live in the country and i have never heard of one!!! until bubhub that is! So i am curious as to What exactly does a doula do? Im guessing it is a person who supports you through the birthing process? Am i right?

also how do you become one? do you go to uni? do you have to be a middie?

thanks! :)

[Fuchsia!]

Anybody???:)

Somebody has to know:laughing:

[subaruforestermum]

LOL we have alot in common its scary.

I have always wondered as well, but just let it pass over, I couldnt be bothered asking...lol..

Glad someone asked for me, now I might find out...lol

[Fuchsia!]

LOL we have alot in common its scary.

I have always wondered as well, but just let it pass over, I couldnt be bothered asking...lol..

Glad someone asked for me, now I might find out...lol

lol it is scary!!! its ok hopefully someone will come along!!:)

[Ange&Seth]

Yeah I'd like to know too!!! Come on guys - now's the time to fill us in!

[mm85]

i know basically its a support person for the mother and the father she helps the mumma with positions and massaging and breathing, and you have a few meetings before birth and one after. you dont need to be a middie or go to uni you can do it by corrispondance i just enrolled through optimum birth but havent started yet! hope someone can asnwer the question better haahahah sorry :)

[~Emmylou~]

You want the short version, or the long version? :laughing:

OK I'll give you the short version :D

A doula is a person (usually a woman) who is trained in providing emotional and physical support to the pregnant and birthing mother.

During pregnancy, a doula will spend time with you to talk about your birth - what you want, how you feel about it, what you're scared of or concerned about and help you find ways of addressing those feelings and fears. She'll help you with your birth plan if you're writing one. She'll direct you to evidence based information if you're concerned about a particular aspect or decision you need to make about your pregnancy. She'll work with you and your partner before the birth to help you prepare well for labour. She's someone you can call if you're worried or just want to blow off some steam ;)

During labour a doula provides emotional support and encouragement, as well as uses physical techniques (massage, positioning and breathing suggestions, visualisations, and lots of other things) to help mum manage her labour. She'll stay with the mother throughout her labour and basically be her slave - whatever she needs the doula will do, including supporting her partner as well. She will also help the mother to make sure that she has all the information she needs to make informed decisions about interventions or other procedures during labour. Using a doula has been shown to reduce the need for these significantly.

Some doulas also do postnatal work (informal breastfeeding support, light household duties etc).

It's a very wide role and covers a lot, and I find it's individual to every woman. It's basically about looking after mum throughout pregnancy, birth and postbaby.

Doulas have no medical training though, so they can't listen to the baby, take blood pressure or anything like that. Nor do they catch the baby. They are purely there to support the couple.

That kinda covers it LOL. I'm sure someone else will have another perspective to add :)

[Fuchsia!]

~emmylou~ that was the short version?:laughing:!! thanks for that! it sounds really interesting! i always wanted a job to do with pregnancy/birthing babies and a middie is way out of my league! i wonder if they need doulas in the country? i have never heard of it before!

what happens if the mother is in labour for 20hrs? do you have to stay awake with her?

[~Emmylou~]

~emmylou~ that was the short version?:laughing:!! thanks for that! it sounds really interesting! i always wanted a job to do with pregnancy/birthing babies and a middie is way out of my league! i wonder if they need doulas in the country? i have never heard of it before!

what happens if the mother is in labour for 20hrs? do you have to stay awake with her?



Ha ha yeah I tend to go on a bit once I start :laughing:

I always wanted to be a midwife as well but something about the medical aspects didn't sit well with me....until recently you had to do nursing before doing midwifery and I have no interest in sick people. Pregnant people aren't sick people ;)

Word is spreading and I think doulas are necessary anywhere that women are having babies atm. It's very hard to get out of a hospital birth without some form of intervention, whether minor or major these days and so many women are not happy about it (rightly so!).

Yep, if your mum is in labour for 20 hours then you're there.

Some doulas put a limit (say 18 hours) then call a back up doula but most don't. I know I couldn't walk away from a mum I'd been with for that long knowing she hadn't birthed yet.

[Fuchsia!]

wow im really interested now! I wanna be a doula:smiliedance:!!!! I don't really like the part about staying awake though:laughing: i like my sleep:sleeping:!!!

How on earth could you stay awake for 35hrs then? I just had a look at the optimum course and there are no doulas anywhere near my district! How wonder i never heard of it before!

Can i ask how much does the course cost? Does centrelink cover it?:)

[mm85]

its around 400 dollars i dont think centrelink covers it either,
there are 4 modules you have to buy you can purchase them seperatly 110 each or all four for 400...

[~Emmylou~]

Generally, you won't be there from the first contraction. The woman will usually call you to come when she starts getting to the point that she feels it's getting difficult to manage on her own...so that can be some hours into it. In a 35 hour labour nothing is happening quickly so the mum would probably do fine on her own for quite a while before she needed you.

I also ask my clients to allow me up to two hours (depending on the time of day - im in the city so peak hour traffic) to reach them. I have two little kids so I can't drop and run with 5 minutes notice. Most doulas have little ones though so it's not a problem.

The courses are around the 500-$700 mark depending on who you do it with. Not sure if Centrelink will cover it you'd have to check.

[Ange&Seth]

So are doula's mainly for homebirths? Or hospital too? I think I've read here somewhere that people having homebirths have ONLY had a doula, is that right? so what happens then if the mum tears?

[AM]

So are doula's mainly for homebirths? Or hospital too? I think I've read here somewhere that people having homebirths have ONLY had a doula, is that right? so what happens then if the mum tears?

I think doulas tend to be used more in hospital birth, most women who birth at home will use an independant mw, some will also have a doula, especially if they have other children who may need support.

Some hb'ers will birth with only a Doula, and some will birth completely unassisted just themselves and perhaps their dh or close friends or family...there are many ways to homebirth! :)

O and if you tear, it depends on the tear. some will be left to heal themselves, stay immobile with legs closed for a few days, or your mw will stitch you if need be, or you can have a mw on call to come and stitch you if needed, or you can go to hospy to be stitched if needed. Heaps of options. Some people even use superglue!

[Ange&Seth]

Some hb'ers will birth with only a Doula, and some will birth completely unassisted just themselves and perhaps their dh or close friends or family...there are many ways to homebirth! :)

But what then happens if the mum tears? I mean, if there's just the DH or a doula? I wouldn't imagine that doula's are able to stitch a tear :confused: Maybe I need to read through the homebirth threads to find some answers.

[AM]

I just added to my reply above. :)

[~Emmylou~]

I think doulas tend to be used more in hospital birth, most women who birth at home will use an independant mw, some will also have a doula, especially if they have other children who may need support.

Some hb'ers will birth with only a Doula, and some will birth completely unassisted just themselves and perhaps their dh or close friends or family...there are many ways to homebirth! :)

O and if you tear, it depends on the tear. some will be left to heal themselves, stay immobile with legs closed for a few days, or your mw will stitch you if need be, or you can have a mw on call to come and stitch you if needed, or you can go to hospy to be stitched if needed. Heaps of options. Some people even use superglue!

:yes:

In the case of an unassisted birth at home (ie. one where there is no midwife or other medical person present), a doula would not be responsible for catching the baby or anything medical. Bascially a couple who decide to birth this way are fully responsible for catching the baby etc and people who birth unassisted are generally fine with this and are very well educated about the whole process anyway. I don't actually know many doulas who will attend an unassisted birth but there are some. Most are happy to do homebirths with a middie present though.

The need generally seems to be more for hospital births - because it's in hospital that you're more likely to have interventions you don't want or don't need, and are more likely to feel you're out of your depth etc because you're out of your own environment. This can cause labour to go off track in all sorts of ways and women who understand this use a doula to help them avoid it.