What is a Doula?

A Labor Assistant or “Doula” is a professional care provider who understands and trusts the process of birth, who respects its transcendent and sacred aspects as well as its physical and emotional aspects, and who facilitates the birth experience for the parents, baby and primary care provider. A doula provides continuity of care prenatally through the postpartum period including: emotional support, informational support and advocacy/facilitation.

Labor support doulas are trained and experienced labor support persons who attend to the emotional and physical comfort needs of laboring people to smooth the labor process. They do not perform clinical tasks such as heart rate checks, or vaginal exams but rather use massage, aromatherapy, positioning suggestions, etc., to help labor progress as well as possible. A labor support doula joins a laboring person either at their home, in hospital or birth center and remains with them until a few hours after the birth. In addition to emotional support, doulas work as advocates of their client’s wishes and may assist in communicating with medical staff to obtain information for the client to make informed decisions regarding medical procedures.

Accourding to the March of Dimes: 

The benefits of doula care

Studies suggest that doula care can make labor and delivery safer for pregnant people and their babies. Benefits of doula care include:

• Fewer c-sections (cesarean sections)
• Less anxiety and depression for pregnant people
• Less pain-relief medication during labor
• Shorter time in labor
• Fewer negative childbirth experiences
• Better communication between pregnant people and their health care providers
• Lower healthcare costs

In fact, compared with pregnant people who don’t use doulas, those at high risk for complications during labor and delivery under the care of a doula are:

• Two times less likely to experience a birth complication
• Four times less likely to have a low birthweight baby
• More likely to breastfeed
• More likely to feel happy about the care they received

Women of color in the United States are affected by higher rates of maternal death and severe maternal morbidity (unexpected and severe complications from labor and childbirth). There are many reasons behind this, including social, economic and environmental factors just to name a few. March of Dimes supports increased access to doula care as one tool to help improve birth outcomes and drive change.