The word "Doula" comes from Ancient Greece, meaning "a woman who serves". Today it is used to refer to a woman who is a trained, experienced professional that provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to the mother and her partner either during her third trimester (sometimes earlier), during birth and just after birth (birth doula); or who provides emotional and practical support during the postpartum period (postpartum doula). The information contained on these pages will focus on the birth doula portion of this service.  

What a doula does:

• Recognizes birth as a key life experience that you will remember forever.
• Understands the physiology of birth and the emotional needs of a woman in labor.
• Assists the woman in preparing for and carrying out her plans for birth.
• Stays with the woman throughout the labor.
• Provides emotional support, physical comfort measures and an objective viewpoint, as well as helping the woman get the information she needs to make informed decisions.
• Facilitates communication between the laboring woman, her partner and her clinical care providers.
• Perceives her role as nurturing and protecting the woman's memory of the birth experience.
• Allows the woman's partner to participate at his/her comfort level.

Benefits of Having a Doula

• Shortens labor by 25% 
• Decreased need for narcotic pain medication by 30%
• Decreased need for forceps/vacuum extraction by 40%
• Decreased need for labor augmentation
• Reduced overall cesarean section rate by 50%
• Decreased requests for epidural by 60%
• Increased positive feelings of childbirth experience
• Increased mother/infant bonding
• Increased success and satisfaction with breastfeeding
• Decreased postpartum depression
• Increased acceptance of their infants
• Decreased neonatal problems
• Increased woman's self-esteem and self-confidence
• Increases woman's confidence with partner