A doula is a woman who provides support to mother and their families during labour, birth and post-natal period. She is not a medical professional and does not provide clinical tasks or give advice, but complements the work of medical providers.

During labour, the doula’s role is to provide emotional support by encouraging the woman to trust her body and the process of labour and birth. She reassures the labouring mother that her body is taking its natural course and honours her feelings and helps her to express them and ‘let go’ to birth her baby. She also safeguards the birth space and ensures that the labouring mother feels protected, safe and relaxed.

Research has concluded that women who received continuous support, in comparison to those who did not, were less likely to:

Have regional analgesia

Have any type of analgesia/anaesthesia

Give birth by caesarean

Have a baby with a low 5-min Apgar score*

Report dissatisfaction or a negative birth experience 

 

Also, women who received continuous support, in comparison those who did not, are 

more likely to:

Give birth spontaneously – with neither caesarean nor vacuum extraction nor forceps.

Have a shorter labour. (Continuous support for women during childbirth, 2007) 

 

‘In general, continuous intrapartum support was associated with greater benefits when the provider was not a member of the hospital staff, when it began in labour and in settings in which epidural analgesia was not routinely available’. ( The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 2003).

 

*http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/labourandbirth/labour/apgarscale/