What are the advantages of having a birth doula?

A doula helps you before labor and delivery by answering your questions about what to expect, easing your fears, helping you develop a birth plan, and generally getting you ready for the arrival of your baby.

Birth Plan Worksheet

Learn about your options for labor, birth, and after, and make your wishes clear.

During labor and delivery, a doula provides constant, knowledgeable support. She can make suggestions about positions during labor, help you with breathing through contractions, and provide massage. She can also answer questions you and your partner have about what's happening.

It's impossible to predict or control how birth and labor will go. Will you connect emotionally with your labor and delivery nurse, and will she have time for you? How will you react to the pain? Will you have a swift delivery or a long, drawn-out labor? How will your husband or partner hold up under the pressure?

Faced with these uncertainties, many women find enormous reassurance in having a doula by their side. Research has found that women who have continuous one-on-one support during labor tend to use pain medication less often, have slightly shorter labors, and are less likely to have a c-section or a forceps or vacuum-assisted delivery.  In fact, if you're serious about trying to give birth without pain medication, a doula may be your best ally.

Women who have continuous support are also more likely to report being satisfied with their birth experience. One theory is that mothers who have continuous support produce lower levels of stress hormones during labor than women left alone or attended by inexperienced coaches.

If you’re seeing a midwife in a low-volume hospital practice, or planning to give birth at a birth center or at home, you’re likely to have continuous one-on-one support from your midwife.

If you have your baby at a hospital, it's likely to be a different story -- and hiring a doula may be the only way to make sure an experienced coach will be with you throughout labor.

In a typical hospital setting, doctors and some midwives don't stay in the room with you continuously during labor. Labor-and-delivery nurses often have to split their time between several patients, and they come and go according to their shifts.

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