Doulas & Hospital Birth

Typically, doulas are of great use to couples who plan to birth in a hospital. They can be a continuous source of support when medical staff is in and out of the labor and birth room. Birth attendants at a hospital are charting information and recording data, as well as attending to laboring and birthing moms in other rooms on the floor. Couples see their labor and delivery nurse when she comes in to tend to her many duties for each mom in labor, and they may see their OB or CNM even less, and in most cases, at the very end during the actual delivery.

As labor can be many hours or even span through a few days, the doula at a hospital birth is useful in that she is there only for the couple who has hired her to support them. She will provide continual emotional, physical, mental and spiritual support in an undistracted and nurturing way.

Doulas & Home Birth

For those couples who plan to birth at home, a birth doula is useful in both similar and different ways than for a birth planned in a hospital setting. We used to think that doulas were not needed as much at home births, since midwives who assist at a laboring couple's home are not in and out of the birth space, nor are they tending to many other birthing women in the same building. However, after having served as doulas at home births, we realize just how useful a doula is in this different birthing situation.

For example, a doula can labor at home with a couple in the beginning of their labor journey, arriving several hours before the midwives need to, providing intimate support and extra hands to attend to whatever is needed in each moment. Acting in the same way as doulas serving at hospital births, they offer suggestions, provide information and alternatives to interventions, and hold space for the laboring mom to "come undone" and surrender to her own birth process.

Also, it has been our experience that extra hands are always appreciated at home births, and midwives are happy to have anther member of the birth team who is also a support expert with labor and birth. From massaging the pregnant mother to holding a lamp, or making labor tea and then filling the birth tub, a doula at a home birth finds many ways to make herself useful!

Whether birthing at hospital or home, a doula will provide much needed support appropriate to each unique situation for the couple during their incredible rite of passage into new parenthood.