Episode 5: Doulas are awesome!

Hello and welcome to episode 5 of the Brave Journey Free Weekly Birth Preparation Videos! Today we're talking about Doulas.  I share a little bit about my own anecdotal experience with the awesomeness of Doulas as a birthing person, why I love being a Doula myself, and some of the evidence showing the positive impact of birth doulas.

Transcript:

Hi, I'm Cara Lee with Brave Journey and today is episode five of my weekly free birth preparation videos. And today we're talking about birth doulas. I'm Cara Lee I'm a birth doula. I'm a childbirth educator and I'm a birth preparation coach. And I equip birthing people and their birth partners with the knowledge, tools, and skills they need to bravely birth their own way.

Today for this video, our topic is: doulas are awesome.

I'm super biased, but there's evidence. Seriously though doulas are becoming more and more popular and for good reason. There's anecdotal evidence and there is actual actual evidence. To support it.

If you'd like to receive these weekly videos straight into your inbox, please go to bravejourney.com and enter your email address. And I will send these to you weekly. And also please enter your email address at bravejourney.com if you want to receive information, when registration opens for my Brave Journey Birth Preparation Program.

Now, on to our topic: birth doulas.

Anecdotal story time. When my spouse and I were expecting our first baby, we were on the fence about whether or not to hire a doula.

Honestly my spouse was a grad student. He was a neuroscience PhD student, and I was underpaid as a nonprofit executive and we didn't have a lot of extra money. So we were trying to decide. However, I was working closely at the time with social workers, therapists, and trauma specialists. And I would hear from my friends and colleagues story after story, both about difficult births that had lasting negative impacts. And then also from friends who had had doulas who had fantastic experiences: feeling supported, feeling like they knew all their options during their births and feeling like they were an active participant in their birth. Feeling empowered, no matter the outcome.

Then my spouse scientist, a neuroscientist, he looked at the data and he found studies that showed that having a doula lowered the risk of cesare an by 39%. 39%. So between our two information gathering strategies, we did decide to hire a doula. We scraped together our pennies and we hired our sweet doula. Hi Julie, if you're watching and she was amazing.

So she offered at our birth, she offered emotional support, physical support. She coached my spouse in offering physical support, showed him what to do. Held me up through contractions to give my spouse a break. Coached us both in various labor positions, especially when I was feeling discouraged.

She was so awesome. She gently shushed the medical staff who had started getting chatty while I was pushing, they were chatting about their weekend and she just gently reminded them to... shut up, shut up. She was really respectfully protecting my birth space. It was just wonderful. So after I had my baby, I made a career change and I became a birth doula.

I love offering physical and emotional support to birthing families. I love sharing knowledge to reduce fear, to increase agency. I love ensuring birthing families know their options and are active participants in their birth. I love making sure that birthing people are making choices grounded in knowledge and love and bravely birth their own way.

So I get to jazzed, obviously, talking about doulas. And so now a little backup, a little bit to talk about what doulas do and some of the actual evidence supporting doulas. So professional birth doulas offer emotional physical support. They offer knowledge about birth, and they're generally a comforting, continuous, steady presence to encourage birthing people and their partners if they get discouraged.

So birth doulas are familiar with various birthing locations and they help birthing families navigate unfamiliar surroundings. Birth doulas can help translate unfamiliar medical options into familiar terms and can help. ens ure birthing, people are aware of all of their options.

Birth doulas offer continuous labor support, something most hospital-based mid wives, nurses, and obstetricians cannot guarantee due to shift changes. If a shift changes during a birthing person's birth then they get a whole new team.

Continuous labor support of any kind decreases the risk of ceasarean section by 25%, which is pretty significant. Having a birth doula decreases the risk by 38%, which is even larger. Continuous labor support of any kind increased the likelihood of spontaneous vaginal birth by 8%. But having a doula increased the likelihood of spontaneous vaginal birth by 15% and having a doula is linked with a 31% decrease in the risk of a birthing person, being dissatisfied with their birth. And having a doula is linked to the 10% decrease in the use of pain medications.

And also, excuse me, with shorter labor. Lastly, continuous labor support is linked with a 38% decrease in the risk of the baby having a low Apgar score. So a low Apgar score it means the baby is struggling for a bit when they're first born, struggling to breathe, struggling to adjust outside of the womb and having a doula can decrease the likelihood of a low score of the baby having difficulty.

So all in all. I know I'm biased, but there's really good evidence for doulas, doulas, decreased pain and anxiety. Birthing people are much more likely to be satisfied with their birth birth partners are much more likely to be satisfied with the birth. So doulas benefit birthing people and birth partners. Doulas not only increase satisfaction, but They have a positive impact on outcomes, like decreasing likelihoods of cesarean births and decreasing the use of things like forceps and vacuum.

So I love doulas. I love being a doula. I love supporting doulas. A really great place to find a doula is on doula match doulamatch.com And if you're having trouble finding a doula in your community, definitely send out feelers and ask for referrals. To find a local doula in your area.

So thank you so much for listening to this. Listening to me talk about how much I love doulas for like six minutes straight. I probably could have gone on for twice as long. You're welcome that I didn't. And again, if you would like to receive these weekly birth preparation videos straight to your inbox, go to bravejourney.com and enter your email address and I'll send them to you.

I I won't spam and I won't share your information. It's just for me to email you these videos and I'll let you know when I open up registration for my Brave Journey Birth Preparation Online Program. So message me, let me know what you think. Send me a DM, leave a comment. I love hearing from you and let me know if there's ever anything that you would like to hear me talk about. Something you wish you knew before you birthed your baby or something that you'd like to know right now.

Any topic is on the table. Thank you.