Choosing a Doula for your pregnancy and birth by Patricia Stratton. http://www.befriendingbirth.org

1. Befriending Birth
image: joanna orpia
Choosing a Doula for
your pregnancy & birth
Patricia Stratton - Doula
0431 224 202
patricia@befriendingbirth.org
www.twitter.com/Doula

2. Congratulations on your pregnancy, I wish you the very best
for the remainder of your pregnancy and a joyous, empowering
birth experience ahead for you and your baby.
-Patricia Stratton
What is a Doula?
A Doula is a dedicated birth
support person who is there to
image: Christine Szeto
guide and support you through
your pregnancy, at your birth,
and into the early days of
parenting. They are trained to
inform and guide you as you
contemplate your birth options, and help you to create a birth
plan tailored to your individual needs and wishes. They are a
wealth of knowledge and support for you to draw upon as you
need; and while they don’t act as a primary care giver in a
medical sense, they can be a valuable member of your overall
birth support team.
My beliefs about birth
Birth is a normal, natural process. I believe it also happens to
be the biggest miracle for us to experience as living beings.
Birth is the beginning of another chapter in the life of a family,
and should be honoured as such. I am a natural birth advocate.
I believe that women deserve to be supported to feel
empowered and excited about birthing their babies naturally. I
also believe that an empowered natural birth is conducive to
joyful, confident early parenting as well as settled, contented
little babies.
Befriending Birth - Choosing a Doula for your pregnancy and birth
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3. My aim as a Doula
I offer education prenatally, so that women have a better
understanding of their bodies, and the amazing processes that
take place within them to facilitate birth. It is so important to
feel prepared for your experience, and to trust that your body
will know exactly what to do when the time comes for your
baby to be born. Through education, guidance and support on
a mental, emotional, and physical level, I aim to help women
and their partners prepare for, and achieve a birth that
empowers them beyond any expectation. This, I believe, is
every woman’s right.
What I can offer you
Antenatally
During this very important and
impressionable time it is
important to surround yourself
image: Ira Mejías
with knowledge and positivity
in preparation for the birth of
your baby. I will help you to:
formulate a birth plan;
understand the process of birth as a natural and normal body
process; prepare yourself mentally, emotionally and physically
for your impending labour and birth (up to five 1 hr sessions).
I will also make myself available to speak with you by phone or
email and answer any questions/discuss any concerns that may
arise as best I can, wherever I can.
During the birth
I can come to your home (whether or not you will be birthing
there), and support you as your labour gets established.
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4. If you are going to hospital I can help to transport you there
when you’re ready.
I will be with you, supporting you and your partner throughout
the entirety of your labour and birth journey. I can offer you
natural pain relieving techniques such as: massage; the use of
homeopathic and Australian bush flower remedies; the use of
heat packs and hot compresses; helping you to regulate your
breathing throughout your labour and birth; suggest
visualisations to help you open and to work with the intensity
of your contractions.
I will assist you to remain
active during your labour, and
help you to assume positions
that are comfortable for you,
image: Joanna Orpia
and are conducive to the birth
process. I will advocate on
your behalf, and will draw
attention to your birth plan
whenever it’s necessary and
appropriate. I will be whatever you want me to be, while
reassuring and encouraging you and your partner as you
embrace the task of birthing your baby!
Postnatally
I will be available for a period of 2-3 weeks (3 visits) following
the birth of your baby to help establish breastfeeding, and to
offer my support where it’s needed, so that you may embrace
early parenthood happily and confidently.
You are also welcome to call/text or email me whenever you
feel you need to.
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5. The benefits of my service to you
Having a doula present at your birth has many benefits on a
mental, physical and emotional level. Studies have shown that a
Doula assisted birth tends to involve a shorter labour; a lower
incidence in requests for medical pain relief; a reduced rate in
forceps and vacuum assisted births; fewer episiotomies; a
reduced rate of syntocinon use and a huge reduction in
caesarian rate, among many other things.
Part of my role is to help your
image: Tom Adriaenssen
partner understand what’s
happening, and how they can best
assist you as you labour; so they may
feel more comfortable with getting
involved.
Women whom I have assisted have reported that they felt
much more relaxed about being in a hospital environment,
knowing that there was someone who was completely aware
of all their wishes and choices regarding their birth journey.
They have also commented about how important is was for
them to have someone supporting them with whom they have
built a rapport and a level of trust (continuity of care) – we are
not shift workers!
A Doula can advocate on your behalf when appropriate, and
can help you and your partner explore any options you have
available to you.
Benefits of having a natural childbirth
A woman who’s labouring naturally has a lot more freedom
and ability to move around and change positions according to
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6. the birth process. Medications and some kinds of monitoring
can restrict the kinds of movement that is beneficial to the
birth process.
Being totally aware of your body, allows you to respond to
natural urges that are conducive to your baby’s birth, such as a
change of position, or an urge to push. These messages are
sometimes scrambled by
medication, making for a
longer, more difficult birth
experience than necessary.
image: Tom Adriaenssen
In addition, the intensity of
your contractions and any
associated sensations felt,
serve a purpose: as a guide to
what your body needs to be
doing in order to birth your
baby, ie. intense sensations in the back encourage a labouring
woman to refrain from laying on her back (laying on your back
is not a good position for giving birth).
For this reason, the intensity of your contractions shouldn’t be
feared – they are a multidimensional force that will help you
birth your baby.
The complex cocktail of hormones released by your body as
you give natural birth help you to get into a good mental state
for birth, help you cope with the intensity of contractions, give
you a feeling of euphoria as your baby is born, and help you to
bond instantly with your baby at birth.
The recovery from a natural birth is faster, less limited, and the
woman usually regains her appetite more or less straight away.
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7. Babies born naturally are more alert at birth and show an
interest in breastfeeding much sooner than babies who have
medications in their systems. Also, the endorphins produced in
a natural birth help the baby to cope better with the birth
process, and to bond with their mother at birth.
The utter elation you feel as you push your baby out of your
body and into the world makes all your preparation and hard
work worthwhile!
My Fees: $350 includes:
• Up to 5 x 1hr antenatal visits
image: Alan Turkus
• Doula support at your Birth
• Up to 3 x 1hr postnatal visits
(As of June 2008. Fees subject to change
please check website for current fees)
Disclaimer
It is not within the parameters of my role as a Doula to offer
any advice of a medical nature; this is reserved for the health
professionals responsible for your care alone. I am not
medically trained to be able to deliver your baby or to conduct
any medical tests or procedures.
It is my role to support and guide you on your journey, to give
you any information that I feel is relevant and appropriate
according to the circumstance, and to help you discover and
explore any options that might unravel for you along the way.
Patricia Stratton 0431 224 202 Images are used
herein under
patricia@befriendingbirth.org creative commons
licences and are the
www.befriendingbirth.org property of their
respective authors.
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