What Does a Doula Do?

I always thought “What do you do?” is a fairly straightforward question.

When it’s met with, “I’m an electrician, “ or “I’m a bank teller” people have a little picture in their heads of what fills your workday. And then I became a doula. The first handful of times I was asked, the conversation would go something like this:

Them: “What do you do?”
Me: “I’m a birth doula.”
Them: “A what?”
Me: “A doula. I help women with the birth of their babies.”
Them: “Oh! You’re a midwife!”
Me: “Well…no…I’ll try to explain…”

I quickly realized, for my sake and the poor people I was confusing, that I needed to come up with a better initial explanation.

Now when I’m asked the innocuous question “What do you do?” I generally respond with something along the lines of: “I’m a professional non-medical labor attendant. I provide informational, emotional, and physical support to women before, during, and after childbirth.”

After that explanation, the response is usually one of two things: 1) “Wow, that’s wonderful! I wish I/my sister/my wife/etc. had had a doula.” or, 2) “What?! People pay you for that? And you’re trained?!”

From a professional standpoint, I truly don’t mind the variety of responses and I joyfully welcome any and all opportunities to talk about birth. From a personal, empathetic, or societal standpoint, I yearn for the doula profession to become more mainstream so that more families can experience the satisfying and positively transformative births that everyone deserves.

Most of my doula-client relationships begin months before the baby arrives. During this time we develop a relationship that allows me to more fully understand the needs and desires of each mom. The more I understand what is important to each individual mother, and the more comfortable and confident she is with me, the more likely she is to have a satisfying birth experience. The needs and desires of each family vary, but it is my role and duty to provide information and then support them unconditionally in their birth process. I wholeheartedly believe that there is no one right way to birth a baby.

Look around you and notice the vast differences – in personalities alone – between the families and individuals you see. Doesn’t it naturally follow that each of these people is going to have a different opinion and outlook about what a “good” birth looks like?

Some women come to me with the desire to have an unmedicated birth, some have the desire to avoid the physical pain as much as possible and ask me to help them cope until and through having an epidural, and some are relieved at the thought of support of someone who is familiar with birth who can assist her and her partner through the often likely rollercoaster of birth. Sometimes birth is just plain long and hard, and I love seeing the relief in a partner’s eyes when they’re able to slip out to grab a cup of coffee (or even take a tiny nap after being awake for two days!) and know that they’re not leaving the laboring mom all alone.

Once labor begins, my presence and support are continuous — whether you’re in labor for 2 hours or 3 days (and I have experienced both of those timelines!). Doulas do NOT perform any medical tasks (giving medication, checking dilation, etc.), which is one of the many reasons why a good doula knows it’s essential to work well alongside hospital and medical staff. It’s a beautiful sight to see all the moving parts of a birth team seamlessly working together: a dad looking into his wife’s eyes while I squeeze her hips during a contraction, a nurse monitoring the baby’s heartbeat, and an OB popping in to see how mom is coping.

More hospitals in the U.S. are now following the lead of other nations’ healthcare systems and hiring doulas as full-time staff, and those hospitals are seeing the results of fewer Cesareans and more satisfied patients.

The emotional and physical exhaustion of supporting a mother through labor is difficult to put into words — as is the intense exhilaration and gratitude I experience every time I’m present at birth. I’ve learned that being a doula is a calling rather than just a job, and I couldn’t feel more blessed to have found my calling.

Warmly,
Christina