What is the Role of a Birth Doula?
Your Birth Presence doula is responsible for helping to address any questions or concerns that you and your partner may have within the prenatal period about the birth. During this time, she will also help you to develop, organize and review your individual birth plan. She will assist you in accessing information and provide you with referrals when necessary, from the time you select her as your doula to 3 months postpartum.
Once regular contractions have been established, your doula will join you in your home or at the hospital and remain with you until your baby is born. During labour, your doula can offer to use physical comfort measures and relaxation techniques to help you cope with contractions and to ease you through emotionally challenging moments. She can offer verbal coaching and make suggestions throughout labour to help you stick to your birth plan and achieve the birth you desire.
Following birth, she will remain with you until you've had a chance to settle in with your new arrival/s and can help you to initiate breastfeeding. Approximately 1 to 2 weeks after birth, your doula will follow-up with you, in person, to see how you and your baby/babies are doing and to discuss your birth experience.
Check out the birth doula care package.
Once regular contractions have been established, your doula will join you in your home or at the hospital and remain with you until your baby is born. During labour, your doula can offer to use physical comfort measures and relaxation techniques to help you cope with contractions and to ease you through emotionally challenging moments. She can offer verbal coaching and make suggestions throughout labour to help you stick to your birth plan and achieve the birth you desire.
Following birth, she will remain with you until you've had a chance to settle in with your new arrival/s and can help you to initiate breastfeeding. Approximately 1 to 2 weeks after birth, your doula will follow-up with you, in person, to see how you and your baby/babies are doing and to discuss your birth experience.
Check out the birth doula care package.
I Have a Doctor and a Nurse. Why Would I Need a Doula?
Your doctor and nurse are often attending to other patients simultaneous to providing you with care. Your doula is hired by you, not the hospital. You are her only concern from the time she joins you at the hospital until your baby is born. This aspect of care is especially critical throughout the process of natural childbirth.
Her continual presence and ability to provide you with emotional support separates the care she offers from the care provided by your clinical support team. With a doula present, you are never left without a helping hand.
Her continual presence and ability to provide you with emotional support separates the care she offers from the care provided by your clinical support team. With a doula present, you are never left without a helping hand.
I Plan to Have an Epidural. Can a Doula Still Help Me?
Sure! Doulas can support clients hoping for a natural birth as well as those wishing to receive some form of analgesia during labour. A doula is able to support a client receiving pain medication in a way that reflects her wishes and specific needs, whether or not the decision to use medication was part of her original birth plan.
I'm Having a Scheduled C-Section. Can I Still Have a Doula?
Yes! A doula can provide informational and emotional support prior to, during and after a c-section. She will stay by your side throughout the procedure, providing emotional comfort and reassurance. In the OR, her main priority is to make sure you feel safe and cared for.
Prenatally, part of your doula's job is to ensure that you have access to all the information you need about the procedure itself and postpartum recovery from a surgical birth.
Prenatally, part of your doula's job is to ensure that you have access to all the information you need about the procedure itself and postpartum recovery from a surgical birth.
I Have Chosen Adoption. Can a Doula Still Support Me?
Of course! A doula can provide labour support to a birth mother who has chosen adoption for her child. A debriefing of the birth, as well as emotional support, will be provided to her in the early postpartum period. The doula can also share evidence-based information on physical recovery from birth and, depending on her individual needs, refer the mother to groups and professionals that may further assist her.
What is Meant by the Birth Doula's Scope of Practice?
The doula's scope of practice refers to the various types of support services, collectively speaking, that she is able to provide to clients.
Any task that has clinical implications lies outside the birth doula's role and must be attended to by the midwife or medical team. Examples of tasks that the birth doula does not perform are below:
The birth doula does not...
Any task that has clinical implications lies outside the birth doula's role and must be attended to by the midwife or medical team. Examples of tasks that the birth doula does not perform are below:
The birth doula does not...
- assess fetal heart rate (FHR)
- perform internal exams
- provide blood pressure checks or measure temperatures
- prescribe or administer any drugs during labour
- make clinical diagnoses for mother or baby
- make decisions on the mother's behalf
- speak to clinical staff, in place of the mother or her partner
Check out our tips for interviewing birth doulas