Thursday 1 June 2017

Having a Doula in Labour


Happy International Doula Month!
Post from the wonderful women at Orgasmic Birth.

All the time, I hear from women that they aren’t hiring a doula - because they have a great partner, the nurses will be there, they have a midwife, or that their hospital is great.
I like to ask - just because your car is safe, you trust the driver, and the weather is perfect with nearly empty roads - do you not wear your seat belt anyway?

Doulas are the seatbelts for birth - the continuous, supportive, agenda free safety net that is there only to honor and protect your birthing space. 
Not only is a doula there to protect your memory of birth, science and research supports the many benefits including shorter labor, less use of interventions, and healthy MotherBabies.

“Peace on Earth Begins at Birth”

 Doulas are what midwives used to be before all the paper work was heaped on us. We used to be able to rub backs and work with women in labour instead of sitting down writing about women in labour. And yet I have found that only Jewish women, who take birth very seriously, have a doula during their labour and birth. I love them, they do everything I wish I had time to do and they really help the women take control of their labour and as a consequence, labour much better than most women who do not hire a doula. I do not know how much they charge, could a normal lancashire lass even afford one? Please let us know if anyone out there has knowledge on how much you can expect to pay for a doula during your labour. Thank you.




 
 

MUM'S UP AND MOBILE for labour

MUM'S UP AND MOBILE (MUM)

Research by Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust found that when they got mums off the bed and let them move around in labour. freely adopting positions that they felt comfortable in, their normal delivery rate rose from 59.9% to 64.7%.

At Last! A trust that is giving woman centred care instead of work load led care. They should be given a medal!

OK, my blog has been telling women for the past 6 years that they should never lie down in labour or allow themselves to be laid down by hospital staff who do not give a toss if they get a normal delivery or not. Now I am backed up by the whole of Gloucestershire. Yay.

For women who needed a trace of their baby's heartbeat due to a risk factor they used CTG machines that were wireless. However, I have found that even if you only have the wire CTG machines, you can still get your Mum Up and Mobile, you just have to be a little more inventive.

Comments from mums who took part in the project: "Moving more during labour really helped me as I had a quick labour due to me walking all day and using the ball."
Invited to move around as much as I wanted to, informed about wireless monitoring to enable easier movement." 
"Felt able to move as much as I wanted and I was encouraged to find comfortable positions for myself."
It was nice not to be confined to the bed!"
I was encouraged to move around in labour by my midwife but chose not to."

Hopefully, this initiative will spread and become a UK wide project. This will happen faster if women actually mention this research in their birth plan and ask to have the choice of movement during their labour. Giving women back control has been found to empower them to feel confident that, yes, they can do this. They are not just a piece of meat waiting to be processed. They have a choice. A real one.

No matter what you see on One Born Every Stupid Minute, get off the bed, it is no place to labour!