doulas

Oprah.com article on alternative birth practices

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I was interviewed for this Oprah.com article about alternative birth practices. It’s a pretty good overview of the standard aspects of alternative birth practices: midwives, doulas, out of hospital births, techniques like water. I seem to be the only source the author quotes, so here is a round-up of my contributions. While I’m flattered to be used as a resources I wish he had also talked to some other experts on the issue!

Also of note is that what seems to have drawn the author to the subject was his wife’s own delivery with a midwife in a birth center wing of a hospital just three months ago. He told me this during the interview, it wasn’t in the actual article. It’s so often that awareness about childbirth only comes when a person or their partner go through it themselves.

Read the whole piece here and see my quotes after the jump.

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Know of a volunteer doula program?

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As part of my new and expanded site, the page about becoming a doula (still in progress!) has a list of volunteer doula programs at the bottom. Here is my list so far is after the jump.

Do you know of other programs I should feature here at radical doula? If so leave them in comments or send them to me via email. International programs welcome.

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Doula program in the UK

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An article in the Times Online, a UK paper, talks about the role of doulas in the UK birth system.

In Britain, where women are urged to opt for fewer epidurals during labour and adopt more holistic approaches to pain, the numbers seeking the services of these new birthing partners could soon rise. Last month Dr Denis Walsh, associate professor in midwifery at Nottingham, criticised the “epidural epidemic” sweeping the NHS. The proportion of mothers receiving an epidural injection or spinal anaesthetic has doubled in 20 years to around 37 per cent.

Research in Britain and the US has shown that the emotional and physical support of doulas can shorten a first-time labour, vastly reduce the chances of a Caesarean section and lower the rate of medicated pain relief needed. The benefit of these birthing partners has persuaded the Government to support a doula programme across England.

So far so good. The article covers the situation with doulas in the UK, what they are, why you might want to use them and an analysis of a new voluntary network of doulas around the UK, including some who provide volunteer services to women for no cost.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the way they ended the article, attempting to sum up the pros and cons of having a doula:

The Pros and Cons

Pros

Doulas offer continuous support in labour if midwives are too busy.
Give back massages and create a calm atmosphere for mothers.
Provide back-up for anxious fathers unsure of what to do.
Reduce the chances of a Caesarean section and any medicated pain relief needed.

Cons

Not medically trained.
Not regulated.
No standardised training.
May make fathers feel redundant.

It’s overly simplistic to try and make a pros and cons list–whether or not to have a doula is such an individual choice, and depends on a number of factors. I also think all of the cons listed are not really cons–doula’s don’t need medical training, since we’re not performing medical procedures. Regulation is up for debate–but I think a doula’s reputation does a lot for making sure people work with doulas they can trust. And no, partners should never feel redundant or unnecessary, as a doula serves a different role than the partner and support person for the mother.

Thanks to Susanna for the link

Dooce’s full birth story up now–read for some laughs

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Dooce, the big mommy blogger I mentioned last week, has her full birth story up now in three parts. You should read it, it’s damn funny.

The best part? She talks about her doula. Now that’s some good exposure for us. There are some nice pictures too.

Part one, part two and part three.

Great segment on doulas in the mainstream media

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This is unusual, but refreshing! A great segment on the benefits of doulas on the Today show.

The only feedback, as usual, was the lack of racial diversity in the segment. But they only talked to one doula and one family.

Thanks to Tanya for the link!

(Note: I removed the embedded video because it was not functioning, but go here to watch the video.)

Guestblog from Muneera Fontaine: About the ICTC Full Circle Doula Training

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Muneera generously offered to write a guestblog about her experiences with the ICTC doula training.

About Muneera: Muneera Fontaine is a wife, busy mother of two, doctoral student at ICDL Grad School, Infant Special Educator, and Full Circle Provisional Doula. She should be writing a research paper instead of this blog post but saving our babies can’t wait…and the research can. When not juggling all the different hats she wears, she can be found at Doulas of Color or curled up with a good book and some herbal tea!

I offered to do a guest blog for Radical Doula on my doula training with the International Center for Traditional Childbearing (ICTC). For the record I do not work for ICTC and I have no personal gain by writing this blog. I just felt compelled to let others know about this amazing training that I was able to take that really changed my life. I am going to try and keep it short and simple because I could go on and on about most any topic related to birth. 🙂

I initially wanted to become a doula because of my own personal experience with having my first son by Un-necesearian ( a whole other blog post!) and then my daughter eight years later by a midwife in a birthing center. The difference in support and control that I felt were unmeasurable. It was then that I realized that I wanted every woman to be able to claim that as their own. I felt that every woman deserved to feel the empowerment of visualizing and achieving the birth where she was an active participant. In particular as women of color, I felt that we are already so dis-empowered on a regular basis that we come to expect it. My personal observation was that we are less informed because we are often not given the same amount of information as others. You cannot have power without choice and you cannot have choice without information. And ICTC definitely sends you home with lots and lots of information!

There are five main topics that I think are distinct to the ICTC doula philosophy which was developed from a traditional midwifery model of care. That means they strive to be community based, and work to “empower families to improve birth outcomes, breastfeeding rates, and reduce premature birth” (Shafia Monroe, African American Infant Mortality), especially in communities of African-American women and other women of color. We have the worst infant mortality statistics here in the United States and the goal is to change that from within our own communities.

Read the rest after the jump!

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Thoughts from comments: On doula certification

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Often times people will find old posts I’ve written and add their thoughts to the comments. Many times it’s really great stuff and it makes me sad that it gets buried on old posts. So I’d like to highlight this comment from a soon to be radical doula Mel on my post about DONA and doula certification:

this blog (in totality) is air to me. thank you. i just found the blog a few days ago, and getting to this post is right on time…as i’m preparing for DONA workshops and certification starting tomorrow. i’m not a doula, yet. i’m a partnered queer woman of color (qwoc) and worry about finding a doula and midwife that get us. my partner and i are planning our first baby, and in figuring out my own birth plan…a natural-at-home-in-the-water-orgasmic-birth…i thought, “dang, if i knew about this ten years ago i would’ve gone to midwifery school!” i talked to a co-worker about my feelings and she said, “why not become a doula.” my research began and i made my decision. i do not intend to quit my job (teaching) to become a full-time doula. i recognize that quitting my job would force me to charge high fees for support, which would make it so that white upper-class women make up the bulk of clients. i want to be really clear…i’m neither anti-white, nor anti-wealth. however, the reality is that options are already abound in these communities. many american born/cultivated Q/WOC don’t even know what doulas are, or have no idea of the benefits of having a doula assist birth (in addition to having no idea how dangerous it is giving birth in a hospital!)…i want to work with qwoc, because historically we have fewer resources, less access and higher statistics. so you can pretty much guess that reading about how DONA ignores issues of race, class, gender, etc…comes as a bummer. HOWEVER…i wonder if abstaining from being DONA certified is the best response to this issue. wouldn’t it be beneficial to become certified…become a trainer…and give affordable or free workshops in our communities to empower doulas of the future? or do the same and provide workshops outside of our communities that force folks to look at and grapple with these issues? perhaps it’s my inexperience in the birthing community coming to the surface in my response…but in having dealt with other types of “fucking with the system”…i see that this may be an instance where you need to be in the system, if only for a minute, to fuck up the system. who knows, in 3 sundays i may have a different view 😉

You can read more from Mel here.

Now that I am looking into beginning my volunteer doula work again, this question of whether I made the right choice in not getting certified comes up again and again. I hear many different view points, including the thought this commenter shares. Isn’t it better to get as much training as possible, and then use that to create our own new system?

I’m going to try and do this every once in a while, to bring attention back to older threads with great comments.

New video about doulas, with one glaring omission

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Doulas of color.

I’m all for videos that promote the work of doulas, but we need these materials to reflect all doulas and moms. It may be a small group, but they are out there. We’re never going to be able to reach out to a wide range of mothers if we don’t show people that doula care, midwifery care, out-of-hospital care, is not just for affluent white people.

Let’s work on this, please?

Lost in translation

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My inspiration for this post.

I’m bilingual. I spoke Spanish before I spoke English because I grew up with two Cuban immigrant parents. My mom likes to joke about how she dropped me off at my preschool in my mostly White Southern town and handed the teacher a Spanish/English dictionary so she could communicate with me.

Being bilingual gives you an interesting lens on the world. Mine is particularly interesting because although I am Latina, you wouldn’t necessarily know by looking at me. I pass, most of the time, as white. That means a lot of things, some of which I may some day tackle here, but in this context it means I get to hear things, in both languages, that other people don’t.

As a doula this was particularly enlightening/challenging because I got to hear and understand everything a doctor was saying but not communicating to their patient when she didn’t speak English. I got to witness the jokes between doctors, the decisions about care that were being made without consultation, the idle chatter and conversation that they carried on in her presence. Then I had to make a decision. Do I tell her what they are saying?

I was taught that a doula shouldn’t be a translator. My doula trainer explained, with the best of intentions, that those roles should be separate. Just like a doula doesn’t replace a partner, they can’t replace a translator.

That’s great in an ideal world, where everyone has exactly what they need. But let’s remember where we live: planet not so ideal. On this planet, translators are only brought in when there is paperwork to be signed. On this planet, doctors/medical students/nurses with a working knowlege of Spanish get to communicate with the patient when and if they want to. On this planet, a Spanish speaking doula may be the only thing helping a Spanish speaking mom/family/partner feel safe.

So I had to make decisions. Constantly. Decisions about when to translate, what to translate, how to translate. Having to be a filter never felt good, even when I felt like I was protecting her from hearing something she wouldn’t want to hear.  I didn’t want to be the only one in the room who could communicate her needs/questions/concerns to her providers. I didn’t want that power.

What would my ideal world look like? Well, first of all, women would get treated exactly the same regardless of what language they spoke. Doctors/nurses/people wouldn’t talk about a patient in a language she didn’t understand in front of her. They would get consent for everything they did, before they did, and explain every step along the way. 

And that’s just the beginning.

In search of: African American Doula in St. Louis

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My husband and I are searching for an African-American doula in the St. Louis area (preferably close to the city) to prepare for the birth of our new baby girl – due May 5th.  We really would like to work with an African-American doula, and so if you are one, or have the contact information of one, please email me at tinabevansATgmailDOTcom.