Labor Doula Services

What Does a Doula Do?

The following is a general description of what you might expect from a 9 Months & Beyond, LLC labor doula. Our doulas are trained and/or certified by various doula organizations. They must renew their certification on a regular basis through continuing education hours from conferences and trainings.

Your may meet and choose your primary doula at our Free MaterniTEA event (usually on the3rd Saturday of each month) or during a free one-on-one interview. You can expect 1-2 prenatal meetings with your doula. She may help you develop a birth plan, share educational materials about birth options, learn about your preferences and desires for labor and teach relaxation, positions, visualization, and breathing skills useful for labor. Your doula will help you find resources, be available for questions and be on call during your last month of pregnancy through your first 6 weeks postpartum. She can also make referrals to various community providers and help you navigate all the decisions and choices of pregnancy, birth and postpartum. Your doula will also help your birth partner(s) feel more at ease by helping him/her know what to do, or at least who to call, when things “get going”.

Most importantly, the doula will provide comfort, support, and information about birth options.

A doula can help the woman to determine practice labor from your birthing time and early labor from active labor. At a point determined by the woman in labor, the doula will come to her and assist her by:

  • Helping her to rest and relax
  • Providing support for the woman's partner
  • Encouraging nutrition and fluids in early labor.
  • Assisting her in using a variety of helpful positions and comfort measures.
  • Constantly focus on the comfort of both the woman and her partner.
  • Helping the environment to be one in which the woman feels secure and confident.
  • Providing her with and information on birth options.

A doula works cooperatively with the health care team. In the event of a complication, a doula can be a great help in understanding what is happening and what options the family may have. The doula may also help with the initial breastfeeding and in preserving the privacy of the new family during the first hours after birth. Your service includes at least one postpartum visit to discuss the birth and how the postpartum transition and breastfeeding are going.

Please see our doula contract for full list of services and what a doula does and does not do.

*Thanks to Cappa.net for general information.

For more information on doulas see the following resources:

Books
The Doula Advantage: Your Complete Guide to Having an Empowered and Positive Birth with the Help of a Professional Childbirth Assistant (2003), by Rachel Gurevich.

The Doula Book: How a Trained Labor Companion Can Help You Have a Shorter, Easier, and Healthier Birth (2002), by Marshall H. Klaus, John H. Kennell, and Phyllis H. Klaus.