Today’s birth partners want to be involved in the pregnancy, labor, birth and postpartum process. A doula can help partners experience this time with confidence.
When doulas are present at labor and birth, women experience the following:
Shorter labors
Fewer medical interventions
Fewer cesareans
Healthier babies
Improved satisfaction
More partner involvement
What can a birth doula do?
A doula can help ensure parents get all the information necessary to make decisions and help facilitate communication between parents and medical care providers.
A doula can help partners understand the range of normal behaviors during birth.
A doula can assist partners in the use of coping techniques.
A doula helps partners share in the birth experience at the level that feels most comfortable to them.
A doula brings expertise to a birth and helps families as they transition into parenthood.
Support During the Postpartum Period
Doula support can help fill the gaps in postpartum care.
Doulas help partners learn how to care for mothers, encourage breastfeeding and/or share feeding responsibilities and incorporate other children – if applicable – into their new family dynamic.
Doulas validate and enhance parents’ intuitive ability to nurture their newborn and each other.
Doulas encourage parents to become confident todevelop and implement their own parenting style, leading to decreased anxiety.
Doulas provide emotional and practical support during postpartum recovery.
Credit - DONA Int.
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