Doulas Are In A Unique Position to Educate – What Is A Doula? Part 4
In the fourth and final installment of our “What Is A Doula?” series, we’ve defined the role of a Doula and shown what it takes to join the amazing, growing field of natural birth. Now, see how joining this field puts you in a position to change the very way that people look at birth by becoming a Doula.
The Doula: In-Demand and Uniquely Positioned
Doulas are in a most unique position to educate and open the door to new ideas for a birthing mother & family. When the doula expands her birth knowledge beyond providing physical assistance and emotional support into the realm of natural health and remedies, she also expands her opportunity to ease suffering, reduce complications and interventions, shorten long extended labors and enhance mother-baby bonding & futures.
Many women might desire a natural or unmedicated birth, yet even if they call themselves “crunchy mamas,” they have little or no experience with natural remedies. Many may wonder if it’s even “ok” to use natural remedies while pregnant or breastfeeding!
Those who consult their physicians generally find that they have minimal experience in the field of natural health at best, and their perspective is often negative & uninformed.
It could be said that women consulting a doula have already educated themselves more than most and are highly motivated to take action to have a most positive maternity outcome. The majority of people do not seek additional education past their high school or college completion, yet 34% of mothers take a childbirth education class. This is the one state of life with a large proportion of the population are actively learning.
Doulas have the opportunity to capitalize on this window of interest and introduce ideas that not only may ease their way in birth but may also support their healthier child through their empowered experience with healthier diets and natural remedies.
This information has the power to help to empower the doula client to have a healthier and more comfortable labor and birth. This is more important now than ever, as women are overcoming a tsunami of cultural fear, routinely handing over power to ‘experts’, and living in a time where lifestyles have no template for a “birth pause.”
Natural Methods for Safe Birth
Women in the U.S. generally have extremely limited time off for their maternity season. Symptoms of pregnancy, labor & birth during medical care are commonly left unrelieved until they are so disruptive, severe or dangerous enough as to warrant medical intervention through pharmaceuticals, pain medication, or surgery.
Natural remedies such as therapeutic essential oils, homeopathics and herbs can offer a gentle correction or rebalancing for the body/mind system before things reach a crisis.
The impact of a well-timed remedy can be hugely positive. Which of us would not wish to relieve a laboring mother of constant vomiting, or save them (and us) a long night of intense contractions while waiting for a swollen cervix to reduce? Often these remedies can help to avert a need for medications, reduce the incidence of cesarean surgery, and in all ways smooth & enhance the mother-baby recovery and post-partum journey.
