Partners Benefit From Hiring a Doula

In the past 5 years of supporting families in Northeast Saskatchewan, I have had quite a range of experiences with partners and their willingness to hire a doula. Some partners are 100% on board with hiring me, and already know and understand the value of what I bring in my service to them.

But more often than not I have found that the partner has one of the following worries:

• what does a doula even does exactly (do they catch the baby? isn't that what the doctor is for?)

• is a doula worth the expense (most try and figure out $/hr that I'll be working for)

• is there need for an extra person in the room (not knowing how many people can actually potentially be in the delivery room)

• what he will do if the doula "does everything" for the mom

Having these types of concerns is totally understandable, because if you don't know what a doula is, it is hard to wrap your mind around hiring one.

This article put out by Evidence Based Birth does a wonderful job of explaining how a doula can be used as a form of pain relief and how they benefit the birthing person.

In the article they talk about a specific study that "looked at giving couples a doula, they found that all of the partners rated their experience with a doula as positive or extremely positive. So, typically, both the birthing people and their partners are highly satisfied with the help they got from their doula."

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"all of the partners rated their experience with a doula as positive or extremely positive" ~Evidence Based Birth

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Here are some specific ways that hiring a doula can be beneficial for the partner.

~The doula provides a calm presence and can reassure the partner that the noises or actions the birthing person is doing are okay.

~Having a doula relieves the pressure of being the only support person the birthing person has. This can become quite overwhelming to some partners the closer they get to the birth and having a doula hired eliminates that worry.

~The doula can provide the partner a chance to rest, go to the bathroom, or grab a bite to eat. They can take some time to take care of themselves without worrying about leaving the birthing person alone.

~The doula provides practical support by being familiar with the hospital that they are birthing in. This can be anything from going and filling water bottles as needed, to grabbing an extra pillow, or even parking the vehicle.

~The doula can act as a translator between the partner and hospital staff. Quite often partners haven't done as much reading as the birthing person has, so the language used isn't familiar to them. The doula can help explain what is happening in terms that are easier to understand, which can make the situation a lot less intimidating for partners.

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"R. says it was helpful to have Sheila there. It helped take stress off of R. while he was waiting, and it was helpful to have someone else there when he had to scramble around to fill out forms. R. also felt more comfortable being there with someone who was familiar with the process."          ~ R & K (2018)

This is what a doula supported birth can look like.

"T. really appreciated having you attend our birth! He's a big advocate for doula's now and likes to tell other men that the information we obtained and his comfort/confidence level with everything that was happening was greater because of our choice to hire a doula. He was more confident helping me labour and understood a lot more about what to expect in the whole process. If we decide to have #2, we both agree that a doula is a must!" ~ T & M (2017)

If you and your partner are considering hiring a doula for your birth, and have more questions about what a doula could do for you specifically, please send me a message and I will be happy to help.