Welcome!
If you found this site than you are probably already asking yourself
how to have a safe and enjoyable birth experience. Whether this is your
first pregnancy or a subsequent pregnancy, a doula can help you have a
more satisfying birth experience. In fact, families who choose to add
doulas to their birth team are less likely to have interventions like
assisted or surgical delivery. Women who are supported by doulas also
report significantly higher satisfaction with their overall birth
experience and feel that they are active participants in their care.
This empowerment translates to a smoother transition to motherhood, more
successful breastfeeding initiation and lower rates of postpartum
depression.
A Labor Assistant, or Doula, is a professional care provider who
understands and trusts the process of birth, who respects its physical
and emotional aspects as well as its transcendent and sacred aspects,
and who facilitates the birth experience for parents, baby and primary
care providers. Doulas do not replace fathers or partners at the birth,
but instead help them to be involved and supportive.
Doulas provide continuous, uninterrupted care for the laboring woman
and her partner, and help them participate fully in their experience by
offering physical and emotional support and information about the birth
process, available technology, and alternatives. The working
relationship between a doula and her family begins in the prenatal
period. Good prenatal support and information is the best preparation
for birth.
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