A doula assists with before, during, and after childbirth as part of your birth team. A doula aims to create a more positive birth experience for you and your family through a peaceful presence, relevant education, ongoing support, and physical comfort measures. Doulas also support others on your birth team and help with position changes to help with labor progression. 

A doula is not a medical professional, so we do not perform clinical tasks, prescribe medications, give second opinions, or perform newborn procedures. Rather, a doula is an ongoing support person through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.

While you are in labor, we support you in the following ways: Attend to the laboring mother from active labor (or earlier) to birth, provide information on what is happening, use comfort measures for pain management, suggest relaxation techniques to enhance the environment, help the father (or primary support person) be involved, remind the mother to eat, drink, urinate, share the mother's birth preferences with the medical team, ask questions to support informed decisions, assist with breastfeeding during golden hour, accompany the parents if an unplanned transfer happens, and remain with the family at least 2 hours after the birth. 

We help mothers advocate for themselves and ask questions we believe may be helpful to give you more informed consent. An example of helping moms advocate for themselves may look like this: if we notice a care provider pulling out scissors (as used in episiotomies) and an episiotomy was not on the birth plan we would ask the mom directly "Did you want an episiotomy?" so that they mom can answer no for herself. We want our moms to always have a voice during labor and believe this helps the mom feel more empowered. 

It is helpful to know when early signs of labor begin, such as when you lose your mucus plug, notice spotting, have consistent contractions for an hour, or as soon as your water breaks.