Building Your Own Doula: An Activity for Classes

I'm a doula. I love what I do, and I am really good at it. It is always an honor to help a family through birth by offering physical, informational, and emotional support unique to their situation. And I also recognize, as a certified Lamaze educator teaching families in the Bakersfield and Visalia areas, there are many reasons why a family might choose NOT to employ the services of a doula. These reasons might range from cost, to comfort, to hospital rules. In this situation, I want pregnant people to know how to shape their partner or other birth supporters into a doula. 

What are the advantages of a doula? How is she different than a partner, BFF, mom, etc.? She has no agenda or investment in this birth experience except to help a laboring person feel supported and know their options. 

What are the advantages of the partner, BFF, mom, etc.? You know this person better than anyone in the room. You know the likes and dislikes, the history and beliefs of this person, and you will be around after the baby is born.

I often open this topic by asking each person to tell me something he or she knows about the person they have come with. I like this activity because it shows there will be professionals surrounding this birthing family, and while the professionals will know all the medical "stuff," the partners will know the pregnant person better than anyone in the hospital. Labor support is not rocket science. When you know what a pregnant person likes and dislikes, when you know what care this person would appreciate when sick or stressed, when you know what relaxes and what tenses -- this puts you in a prime position as a supporter, and suddenly you have something just as important as the professionals around you. By sharing things they know about each other ("She loves rocky road ice cream," "He hates his head touched") they see already they are armed and ready to doula their loved one. 

​I make goodie bags for all the families. They are filled with objects that symbolize a trait, activity, or way to support someone in labor. 

• Ladybug Straw: stay hydrated; bugs remind us of germs and the need to wash our hands, put a towel on the birth ball, put shoes on when walking, etc.
• Tissue with Yoda on one side, R2D2 and C-3PO on the other: Yoda's "Do or do not, there is no try," for encouraging words, peace through The Force, learning from the master (who's the master???); the droids represent friendship/partnership, C-3PO interprets what R2D2 says like a partner can interpret what a laboring person needs
• Plastic Frog: all fours position for labor or pushing, staying active and changing positions,  change/metamorphism (if it's not working, change it up)
• Sucker: be sweet as you offer support, it's wrapped up like a baby in a pregnant belly, it can provide pressure to a receptor spot on the roof of the mouth which released endorphins, and a reminder to eat while in labor
• Ring Squirter: use of hydrotherapy -- shower, tub, ice
• Gold Medal: treat laboring person as a champion with lots of verbal reminders, and be a cheerleader
• Gum: it smells good (reminder to use comfort scents), partner is not allowed to have bad breath, it "sticks together" like partner and pregnant person
• Watch: of course we time contractions to help us know where in labor we might be, reminder to "watch" the pregnant person and not the machines or the clock
• Head Band: this can bring comfort for unruly hair, it can also remind us this is an athletic event
• Whistle: blow stress away, there may be loud noises, and as a support person, "don't blow it!" 
• The Princess bags: If there ever was a day a person should be treated like royalty, it's the day you birth your baby!

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When you love doulas, believe in their benefits, and are a professional doula yourself, it can be hard for class participants to feel you are unbiased on the subject (even if you are a professional childbirth educator, as well). I feel by offering an activity like this, you can show there are many different ways to create a birth support team -- and with anticipatory expectations of what a laboring person's needs are -- that doesn't have to include a doula.