Why hire a doula?

Because your reproductive experience matters.

Our birth experiences stick with us for the rest of our lives and a doula is a risk-free and highly effective support. Your body matters. Your baby matters. Your feelings matter. Your story matters. You matter.

Evidence on Doulas

“Of all the ways birth outcomes could be improved, continuous labor support seems like one of the most important and basic needs for birthing people.

Providing labor support to birthing people is both risk-free and highly effective. Evidence shows that continuous support can:

  • Decrease the risk of Cesarean

  • Decrease the use of medications for pain relief and the use of Pitocin

  • Decrease the risk of a low five minute Apgar score

  • Increases satisfaction with your birth

  • Increase the chance of a spontaneous vaginal birth

  • Shorten your labor.

Although continuous support can also be offered by birth partners, midwives, nurses, or even some physicians, research has shown that with some outcomes, doulas have a stronger effect than other types of support persons.

As such, doulas should be viewed by both parents and providers as a valuable, evidence-based member of the birth care team.” (Evidence Based Birth)

My favorite words from my favorite doula

Sunni Hart, on the role of the doula both in pregnancy, birth and beyond:

“This experience is not only about the moment you give birth to your baby.

This is a cataclysmic journey that can be deeply healing and profoundly expansive.

We all come to birth with different experiences and stories. We have ideas about what birth is or perhaps what we deserve or are capable of. A doula can be the person to witness and prompt you to explore these ideas and understand the roots of them so that you may begin to unfurl and clear some of the less helpful ideas and bolster the ones that make you feel powerful as you prepare for labour, birth and postpartum (which is forever.)

A doula is there to remind you of all the choices you have and to advocate for you. They can teach you how to advocate for yourself. They are deeply intuitive and generous listeners. Doula’s do not empower you, they show you what it is to empower yourself. You have everything you need within you. A doula can be your partner or mirror in this excavation and exploration.

Doulas are just people with their own stories so understanding this and recognising that there is an energetic exchange that happens within the doula and client relationship opens us all up to the power of inter-relational healing. It also means that choosing a person who ignites feelings of safety and trust is imperative for both sides. We are stronger when we do this together.

A doula cannot do the work for you, they cannot birth for you, they cannot and should never claim to save you. There are no gurus in birth because every birth is different and a deeply personal journey. A doula is there to support you and teach you how to support yourself so that you can reclaim your body, your birth, your choices, your pleasure - your agency over your life.

I’d love to get to know your story and see how I could best support your family.