Important Announcment!
Jenny has joined forces with three experienced doulas in the Acadiana Area. The new group is called MotherBirth
and offers a variety of services including birth and postpartum doulas, placenta encapsulation, as well as a range of childbirth education courses. Check us out at our blog and Facebook page:
A Doula is a woman who is experienced and trained in assisting women in childbirth. She provides the needed continuous physical, emotional, and informational support to a mother and her partner before, during and after childbirth.
A birth doula:
~recognizes childbirth as a key life experience that the mother will remember all of her life.
~aids the partner in supporting the mother.
~understands the physiology of birth and the emotional needs of a woman in labor.
~assists the woman and her partner in preparing for and carrying out their birth plan.
~stays with the laboring mother from early labor through delivery and early postpartum.
~provides emotional support, comfort measures, and aids the mother to make the right decisions for her family.
Doula support also provides long-lasting emotional benefits to a mother by providing her with:
~greater satisfaction with her childbirth experience;
~a more positive assessment of her baby; and
~less postpartum depression.
Doula support positively affects birth outcomes for the baby by:
~reducing hospital stays and admissions to special care nurseries; and
~making breastfeeding easier.
References:
Klaus, Kennell and Klaus, "The Doula Book"
Doulas of North America
