Why Doula Care? Part One

38 weeks (& 3 days)

When we found out we were expecting, one of the first persons I contacted was Sarah Stanford-Stogryn, an acquaintance at the time (now a friend) who I knew to be a doula. I wasn't entirely aware of all that a doula did or was 'qualified' to do. 

I had never heard of a doula before meeting Sarah and was instantly attracted to what doula care entailed. Here is a quote from her website: " A doula is a woman, trained and/or experienced with pregnancy, birth, and the early postpartum days, who offers continuous hands-on support to women during the childbearing year.  Whether you are planning a hospital birth with an epidural, a homebirth with midwives, or any variation in between - - a doula can help! " 

 I knew that our wishes for an unmediated homebirth would make things a little more challenging and we would be wise to look for the help we could get. My concerns were these:

First, I thought that if we did qualify for an homebirth, I would need someone to help me deal creatively with the pain since there would be no epidurals stored in my pantry. Furthermore, we would also need someone to help Mat be more involved with the labour, rather than a spectator on the sidelines, or an eager helper with no real guidance on how to actually help.

Second, I thought that if, for some reason, we didn't get our homebirth, I knew we would want an advocate at the hospital who would know our birthing wishes and protect us from being unwitting victims of unwanted or unnecessary procedures.

So after considering these things and recognizing that an helping hand in our corner couldn't be a bad thing, we hired Sarah (sadly, OHIP does not cover doula care) What we did not know was just how much more doula care would mean to us and how much more care we would receive than what we initially thought.