What a Doula can do for You
 A Doula is "a woman experienced in childbirth who provides continuous physical, emotional, and informational support to the mother before, during, and just after childbirth." A Doula also:
- Recognizes birth as a key life experience that the mother and her partner will remember all their lives
- Understands the physiology of birth and the emotional needs of a woman in labor
- Enhances the ability of the couple to fully engage in their birth experience
- Assists the woman and her partner in preparing for and carrying out their plans for the birth
- Stays by the side of the laboring woman throughout the entire labor
- Can ease the transition to the hospital, ensuring continuity of care through changing nursing shifts and alternating physician or midwife shedules
- Provides emotional support, physical comfort measures, and objective viewpoint and assistance to the woman in getting the information she needs to make a good desicion.
- Facilitates communication between the laboring woman, her partner and medical care providers
- Perceives her role as one who nurtures and protects the woman's memory of her birth experience
The acceptance of doulas in maternity care is growing rapidly with the recognition of their important contribution to the improved physical outcomes and emotional well-being of mothers and infants. Studies have show that having a doula results in a decrease of:
- Overall cesarean rate by 50%
- length of labor by 25%
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- Use of pitocin by 40%
- Mother's request for pain medication by 30%
- Need for forceps by 10%
- requests for epidurals by 60%
(information from Klaus, Kennel, Klaus, 1993,"Mothering the Mother")
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