User:Birthamiracle

Birth Doula
A Birth Doula Provides:

Emotional Support (encouragement, reassurance, continuous physical presence)

Informational support (assistance to families in gathering information about labor and their options, explanations, non-medical advice)

Physical Support (comfort measures, positioning, massage, breathing, relaxation, and other non-medical pain relief measures)

Advocacy (interpreting the mother’s wishes to hospital staff)

Partner Support (role modeling, encouragement, reassurance)

Accoring to a 2003 Cochrane Collaboration study, women using a birth doula, who is a non-hospital employee, receive the following benefits:

26% less likely to give birth by cesarean section

41% less likely to give birth with vacuum extraction or forceps

28% less likely to use any analgesia or anesthesia and

33% less likely to be dissatisfied with or negatively rate their birth experience

21% reduction in the length of labor

The authors of the Cochrane Collaboration study on 13,000 women who used a birth doula concluded that all women should have support throughout their labor and birth.

Using a Birth Doula Can Improve Your Early Mother-Infant Relationship. Six trials have researched the postpartum outcomes of women who have used birth doulas. Four to eight weeks following birth, the participating mothers who used birth doulas reported these positive outcomes more than those who did not use a birth doula:


 * Enhanced breastfeeding
 * Better maternal-infant interaction
 * Less postpartum depression, anxiety, and greater self-esteem
 * A higher maternal assessment of their baby compared to the “standard baby”
 * Greater satisfaction with their birth experience

References: (1) www.dona.org (2) Cochrane Collaboration. 2003. (3) Hodnett ED, Gates S, Hofmeyr GJ, Sakala C. “Continuous Support for Women During Childbirth”. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2003. Issue 3. (4) Kennell, J.H., Klaus, M., McGrath, S.K. et al. Continuous Emotional Support During Labor in a U.S. Hospital. JAMA, 265:2197-2201, 1991. (5) Simpkin, Penny. “Benefits of a Continuous Doula”. DONA Birth Doula Workshop Manual. 2006.