A new path

It's official... I'm becoming a birth doula!

I feel like I have finally felt my professional calling, and of all the work I've done I am most excited about this next chapter in my life!  This past weekend (Friday-Sunday) I attended a very intense workshop that has provided me the necessary training to become a certified birth doula through DONA International.

A doula is a woman who serves a pregnant mother.  She provides support throughout pregnancy and especially during labor, providing her experience, training, and know-how to the expectant parents.  After birth, doulas help with breastfeeding and usually offer a postpartum visit, although postpartum doulas complete a separate training course.  Since I've been trained through DONA, I will also adhere to a code of ethics.  What's really important is a doula does not provide medical advice, and she does not speak for her client!

There have been so many studies that show that a woman who uses a doula during labor tend to have shorter labors, reduced desire/need for epidurals, forceps, episiotomy, pitocin, and cesarean sections.  Maybe even more importantly, parents who use doulas tend to have more satisfying births and settle in together as a family much easier and quicker!

What really surprised me about my training was the clarification about when and how it becomes important for a woman to receive interventions, and how as doulas we are still needed to support women and men who have to cope with a change in their birth plan right in the middle of labor.  Women who desire an unmedicated hospital birth benefit greatly from a doula, but even women who plan to use epidurals or other interventions still benefit from doulas, especially considering everything that might happen when interventions are used! 

I feel like my personal experience provides me a great background for this.  I've had a hospital birth where I wanted to go med-free but changed my mind and had the epidural, experiencing the slippery slope of other interventions.  I look back on that and think that things could have- probably would have- gone so much differently if we'd hired a doula!  I've also had two unmedicated births, one pretty good one and one awesome one.  But, as a doula, it's not about me, it's about my client.  My experience should help her to have an amazing, life-changing experience!

Now that I've finished the training, I have a list of other requirements before I become officially certified, including attending and writing about three births, and reading several books on pregnancy, labor, breastfeeding, and doula labor support.  When I'm done with all of this and have my official certification (hopefully in the fall!), I'll be launching a company web site and blog. :-)

The DONA International web page has a lot of great information; this video below is produced by them and explains quite a bit!