What is a Doula?

Through countless generations and across the world, women have helped other women give birth. It wasn't until the field of medicine, and obstetrics in particular, took hold, that women helping women slowly faded to the background and lost importance. Now, in the twenty-first century, women are rediscovering the lost art of helping each other out on the long journey to motherhood.

A doula is, quite simply, a woman who helps other women give birth. She is not a doctor, a nurse, or a midwife. She does not have special medical knowledge. She doesn't even necessarily need special training. What she does have is a sympathetic heart, warm hands, and a whole lot of extra strength and encouragement to lend to mothers as they work to bring a new child into the world.

Many scientific studies have been performed in recent decades, all of which indicate that the presence of a doula at a birth significantly lowers the intervention rates, from the use of medication to the need for a ceasarian section. Women who have had doulas present at their births report that the pain of labor was much more easily tolerated, just because of the presence of a loving, caring woman.

For more information about doulas, read these articles from around the web:

- What is a Doula? (from Storknet.com)
- What is a Doula? (from Childbirth.org)
- What do Doulas Deliver? (from Babyzone.com)
- Questions to ask hospital, doula, or midwife (from Socialbirth.org)

Doula Certification Organizations

DONA - Doulas of North America
CAPPA - Childbirth and Postpartum Professionals Association
ALACE - Association of Labor Assistants and Childbirth Educators

 

page last updated on January 27, 2005