I agree whole-heartedly in using a doula, even though we were not able to use ours!
My husband and I went to a free seminar were we used to live, where six doulas answered questions, gave basic information and were available afterwards for individual discussion. We were able to talk with three doulas that night, and "officially" interviewed one that we "clicked" with the best.
Well, my son was born 2 months early, within 2 hours, and we were not even able to call our doula! (I thought the doctors were going to stop my labor when we reached the hospital, but when they checked me, the head was already visible!!). It was a sad call to our doula, to tell her that we had our baby. I would have liked the after-care, as we were 2,000 miles away from any family at the time. I also heard it is great to talk with them about the birth; my husband and I were in such shock we didn't really know what had happened, and it is definitely an event that you need to "debrief"---haha!
We live near our families now, but we would likely still hire a doula to help us with the end-stage pregnancy, labor, delivery and post-delivery of our next child (in a few years...). I would still choose a hospital-delivery, and it is great to know that a doula can help navigate the system and be your voice when you are too weak/in pain to have a voice during contractions. One piece of advice I would give: make sure your OB/GYN feels OK with having a doula, and some doctors have doulas they work with on a routine basis. For me, it just felt better to know there weren't any professional-dramas going on behind-the-scenes and that my doctor was not "threatened" by my having a doula (if she were, I probably would have changed OB/GYN doctors).
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I agree whole-heartedly in using a doula, even though we were not able to use ours!
My husband and I went to a free seminar were we used to live, where six doulas answered questions, gave basic information and were available afterwards for individual discussion. We were able to talk with three doulas that night, and "officially" interviewed one that we "clicked" with the best.
Well, my son was born 2 months early, within 2 hours, and we were not even able to call our doula! (I thought the doctors were going to stop my labor when we reached the hospital, but when they checked me, the head was already visible!!). It was a sad call to our doula, to tell her that we had our baby. I would have liked the after-care, as we were 2,000 miles away from any family at the time. I also heard it is great to talk with them about the birth; my husband and I were in such shock we didn't really know what had happened, and it is definitely an event that you need to "debrief"---haha!
We live near our families now, but we would likely still hire a doula to help us with the end-stage pregnancy, labor, delivery and post-delivery of our next child (in a few years...). I would still choose a hospital-delivery, and it is great to know that a doula can help navigate the system and be your voice when you are too weak/in pain to have a voice during contractions. One piece of advice I would give: make sure your OB/GYN feels OK with having a doula, and some doctors have doulas they work with on a routine basis. For me, it just felt better to know there weren't any professional-dramas going on behind-the-scenes and that my doctor was not "threatened" by my having a doula (if she were, I probably would have changed OB/GYN doctors).
July 17, 2008 - 1:09pmThis Comment
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