Doula or not to Doula?

[doula7]

I am interested to know how many people have thought about, or even hired, a Doula to assist their births?
I am expecting my third child in January 2010 and was recommended a Doula service by my friend who had a positive experience. What do people think?
NB My previous two births were natural but both premature.

I had a doula with ds1 and she was literally a lifesaver! Got the midwife on the ball when things started going downhill and pestered them to bring in a specialist. They were going to let me labor another 7 hours and ds1 was actually breech

Ok, I am biased...., but if I were to do it again, which it can't happen, but if it could....I already have my doula picked out!!

I know how I would want things to go and I know that it would benefit me and my husband greatly, and increase the odds of things happening the way I would want them to if I had a doula present as well.

Hoping for a homebirth in a few weeks. But if I knew a hospital birth was definitely on the cards I would almost certainly hire a doula. For the same reasons as doulalc.

Also because I don't think my husband would be best 'qualified' to represent me if things took a turn for the worse. Of course he is very supportive but not used to hospitals/Dr's and probably too close to be objective.

I had a doula with DD2, she was fantastic and even though she felt she didn't do anything, she did loads:-

-taught DH counter pressure to relieve the slight back pain I had.

-seemed to intuitively know when time between contractions was increasing so would recommend I get off the ball or change position in some way. I know now she was obviously timing my contractions so she would know when the next was expected but she did it in such a way I never felt her focus was off me.

-help DH be there for me not for dealing with timing contractions/letting MWs in etc.

-was really reassuring when hospital had told DH there was no MWs to send to homebirth. He knew with her with us I could last a bit longer until shift change. DH phoned at 5am-ish, doula arrived at 6am, shift change was at 7.30am. MWs arrived about 9am DD2 born at 10.35am

-told me that it was the baby I heard crying wheb I kept asking what the noise was I was still waiting for it to get really painful and expected pushing to last longer than it did (4 mins!!!!!!)

I'm expecting again and have booked her for this home birth too. I can't wait to do it again.

Good luck with your pg and hope you find a really good doula to help with your labour. Try reading 'Blooming Birth' it has some great advice in it about labouring with a doula.

N.B. Obviously we knew our Doula was not a medical professional so could not legally deliver the baby (and we hoped this would never come up) but we discussed with the Doula what would happen if the hospital refused to send out a mw, she would go into another room and DH would 'catch'. The part about being able to wait til shift change was to do with coping not catching!

I am a Doula and we are ttc our 6th child.

I am definately getting a doula thits time around, and have full support of DH.

We hired a doula for the birth of our first DD - best money we spent, as she was fantastic. DD1 born in a busy London hospital, and we were worried about continuity of care during labour, and making sure that we understood what was going on, and what our options were. Our doula worked with the MWs to ensure our birth plan was followed as much as was possible, and provided support for DH and suggested ways for him to best support me. She was also a blessing when DD was taken to SCBU, as DH was able to go with her, while our doula stayed with me. Would absolutely use her again if we were to have another baby in London.