The Doula Craze
Parents love them. Hospitals aren't so sure.
by Vivian Manning-Schaffel
December 3, 2007
When you're pregnant, birth stories start seeping out of the woodwork. And as I await the birth of my second child, all the tales being told by the parents in my playgroup have one thing in common: a doula.
"Thanks to my doula, my birth was so comfortable!"
"I don't know what I would have done without my doula!"
"My doula made my child's birth such a beautiful experience!"
Doula, doula, doula.
My husband may have been too stunned to respond to my request that he drag the anesthesiologist into my room by the hair, but he didn't do so badly as a birthing advocate. He held my hand, kept me in ice chips, and supplied enough pithy commentary to keep my head from spinning off my body. Luckily, my first child came into the world after only six hours of active labor, and we both thrived in the aftermath.
Yet, upon hearing my friends' birth stories, I felt like my first experience lacked a magical, mystical birthing fairy that would have ushered my child into the world with the joy and merriment of a Broadway musical.
The DONA (Doulas of North America) International website cites numerous studies that claimDoulas' blend of medical knowledge and advocacy can be indispensable. doula support is instrumental in decreasing Cesarean rates, dystocia (non-progressive labor) and the need for pain medication.
Brooklyn mother Marisa Schwartz claims that her doula made all the difference in how both her children's births turned out. Having experienced a serious allergic reaction to an epidural during her first birth, she credits her doula for keeping her out of harm's way the second time around.
"She went to the mat to figure out an alternate pain-relief cocktail," Schwartz says. "To this day, I'm thankful for her big mouth. My husband would've been way too intimidated to say something like that!"
Doulas' blend of medical knowledge and advocacy can be indispensable to moms who are afraid their attending medical personnel will dismiss their carefully laid birth plans in the melee of the big day.
©2007 Vivian Manning-Schaffel and Nerve Media
About the Author
|
|
Related Articles
|
|
Vivian Manning-Schaffel has written for Parents, Parenting, The Advocate, The New York Post, Business Week and a variety of other publications. She lives and works in the heart of breeder Brooklyn with her husband and two kids. She's on the web at vivianmanningschaffel.com. |
|
|
-
by Jean Railla
Why today's women are choosing to have babies alone.
-
by Miriam Axel-Lute
Official advice about lead poisoning is either too scary or not scary enough.
-
by Kathi Alexander
Is "child-centered" parenting producing a generation of brats?
|
