A male doula??

[kristi001]

Just a qusetion is it possible for a male to be a doula?

My Dp asked out of curiosity and everywhere i look i can only find people refering to doula's as women!!

Is a Doula the name for the women or is a name of a profession??

IYKWIM

thanx in advance

[shed]

As far as I know its the name of the profession.

So a man would still be called a doula, same as a male midwife is called a midwife because the 'wife' part refers the the pregnant woman rather than the midwife itself.

I could be wrong though (about the doula bit, not the midwife bit)

[lilpearl]

At the last doula conference in Queensland, there was one male doula there, so, yes, a man can become a doula. Of course, a man's perspective on birth is going to be a little different from a womans (just in that a man cannot imagine what it would truly be like to bear children, and men, while able to give fantastic support, will be less "motherly" than a woman). I would imagine that a male doula would be coming from the perspective of the birthing womans partner more than a female doula, and would perhaps be a better support to the other support people. As far as I know, the male doula at the conference does more birth education than actual birth work.

The term 'doula' is a Greek word, meaning 'slave'. A doula was a female servant to women during their childbearing years to help in all sorts of ways (help the mother during pregnancy, help at the birth, and postpartum). Some doulas today prefer to be called 'childbirth support people", but I, and most doulas, love the term 'doula', as it is humble. The work of the doula is all about passion. No doula has ever made a decent living out of doula work alone. It's about putting yourself aside for another woman and being there, entirely for her. Everything revolves around the birthing mother, it is her moment, and everyone else is there to help her in any way she needs. A doula's main role is to "mother the mother", and so, in this respect, a woman would probably prefer another woman as her doula, rather than a man, just because women do tend to have a mothering instinct, that will always be different to a man's approach (but I do want to stress, men are fantastic at birth - but there will always be a different sort of connection between women when it comes to birth).