Spirit HeARTJourneys

I am a trained professional labor support provider who works with women and their families toward the birth experience they desire, one in which they feel knowledgeable and fully empowered to make good choices for mother and baby. I received my doula education at the Seattle Midwifery School.  Doulas provide labor support in the hospital, at home or in a free-standing birth center, offering emotional, physical and informational support.  Using techniques to encourage and comfort in birth, including massage, positioning and tender emotional care, a doula remains focused on the mother and her needs and desires throughout labor while encouraging family members as they work to support her. A doula is not a medical provider and will not provide medical interventions or recommendations.  A doula will, however, work with your provider be they a midwife, OB/gyn or family practitioner, to ensure a healthy prenatal period and birth.  I served as a co-doula with Cheryl Murfin Bond, Executive Director of the Seattle Midwifery School, for my first births.  

What I offer as your Doula

• I recognize childbirth as a key life experience that the mother will remember all her life and work with mother and family to make that experience one remembered with joy and pride.
• I understand the physiology of birth and the emotional needs of a woman in labor.
• I assist parents in creating and implementing a birth plan.
• I stay by the side of the laboring woman throughout the entire labor – whether it is a few hours or several days.
• I provide emotional support, physical comfort measures, and an objective viewpoint. I work to ensure women and their families get information they need to make decisions that they feel good about.
• I facilitate communication between the laboring woman, her partner, and clinical care providers.
• I use every resource available to me to nurture and protect the woman’s memory of her birth experience and to make her story sacred.

BIRTH DOULAS MAKE A DIFFERENCE ~ The value of providing laboring women with continuous emotional support, physical comfort, and encouragement has been recognized worldwide.

Given the clear benefits and no known risks associated with intrapartum support, every effort should be made to ensure all labouring women receive support, not only from those close to them but also from specially trained caregivers. This support should include continuous presence, the provision of hands-on comfort, and encouragement.
Hodnett, E.D. “Support from caregivers during childbirth” (Cochrane Review) in Cochrane Library, Issue 2. Oxford Update Software, 1998. Updated Quarterly.

A doula provides support consisting of praise, reassurance, measures to improve the comfort of the mother, physical contact such as rubbing the mother’s back and holding her hands, explanation of what is going on during labour and delivery and a constant friendly presence. Such tasks can also be fulfilled by a nurse or midwife, but they often need to perform technical/medical procedures that can distract their attention from the mother.
Care in Normal Birth: a Practical Guide. Report of a Technical Working Group. World Health Organization, 1996.

Facing unprecedented pressures to reduce expenses, many hospitals are targeting the largest single budget item—labor costs… (An) unintended consequence of nursing cutbacks may be an increased cesarean rate; the inability of pared down nursing staff to provide continuous coverage to laboring mothers (has been) shown to increase the chance of a cesarean…Doulas clearly improve clinical and service quality; they provide an absolutely safe way to reduce cesareans and other invasive birthing interventions.
Coming to Term: Innovations in Safely Reducing Cesarean Rates. Medical Leadership Council, Washington D.C. 1996.

Professionals have paid much attention to innovative technology and the many new options for monitoring and managing labor. While the technology is important, it can become so prominent that clinicians ignore both the natural aspects of labor and the non-technical needs of women in labor… Changes that support the patient in labor and reinforce the natural, physiologic process…. Includes providing one-to-one psychological support for patients using nursing staff or doulas.
Reducing the Cesarean Section Rates while Maintaining Maternal and Infant Outcomes. Bruce L. Flamm et al. Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Boston, 1997.

The continuous availability of a caregiver to provide psychological support and comfort should be a key component of all intrapartum care programs, which should be designed for the effective prevention, and treatment of dystocia (non-progressive labor).
Guidelines on Dystocia. Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, 1995.

©DONA 2002. Permission granted to freely reproduce in whole or in part with complete attribution.