10 Tips to be Doula Friendly

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Is your caregiver and/or facility Doula-Friendly?

Read our guide for caregivers/providers & facilities to be more Doula-Friendly

1.  Have a written policy that is routinely communicated to health-care staff explaining a mother’s right to unlimited support by a doula or persons of their choosing.

2. Encourage mothers to research the role and benefits of doula support.

3. Keep Mother – Doula together at all times and allow mothers to have as much or as little access to their doula during pregnancy, labor and childbirth (including cesareans) as they wish.

4. Respect that a doula’s role is to support MotherBaby, Father, Partner and family.

5. Provide the mother time and space to lean on their doula for emotional and physical support and comfort.

Debra 116. Be respectful of the mother’s wishes to have a doula present.

7. Allow the mother opportunity and time to try comfort measures and non-medical positioning to encourage progress of labor with the assistance of her doula.

8. Provide the mother with the time and ability to make informed decisions with all the information, and (when possible) to use her BRAIN:  

Understand the Benefits and Risks of the intervention, learn of and understand the Alternatives to this intervention, trust her Intuition and have the ability to say Not now or never to the intervention. The BRAIN will support the mother in her right to informed consent or informed refusal, with her doula to facilitate positive communication when desired.

9. Support the doula’s role to create personal birth ambiance and enhance a woman’s sense of safety, privacy and feeling unobserved to allow her hormones to flow for a safe, satisfying and pleasurable birth experience.

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10. Honor a doula’s role as part of the maternity care team – protecting and enhancing a woman’s memory of birth.

Do you have tips/ideas for practitioners to be more Doula-Friendly, and be more MotherBaby Friendly in the process? We’d love to hear – share in the comments below or on FaceBook or Twitter

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