It Takes a Village: Doula Support For The Whole Family
/The birth of a baby is a team effort.
From your delivery team to your partner, a good support system involves a mix of important people. Whether it's your labor doula or postpartum, a doula supports your whole family as another link to the emotional and physical care you need to deliver and heal.
Your doula and your partner are a team within the team, offering multi faceted support that is comfortable and familiar.
Doulas don't replace the role of your partner through this incredible journey. Instead, they seek to empower your partner where they need it and support them too.
Go Team!
Teamwork makes the dream work and teaming up with a doula helps your partner feel more equipped to comfort you through labor or those first few days home with baby. Comfort measures are more effective because your partner is participating alongside your doula, their touch connecting with your body on a chemical level to boost stress-reducing hormones and promoting a more comfortable labor experience. When working together, both parents can feel engaged with the entire process and never left in the dark about what to expect along the way.
A Doula's Role
Doulas don't replace. It's our jobs to give your whole family specialized comfort through the stresses of labor and postpartum and leaving the space that parents need for their own experience. It's our role as a doula to stay comfortably present and respectfully separate from each parent's birthing experience. Pushy comfort or judgement is never an element of a doula's birth or postpartum session. You can be certain your parenting styles are being supported and partners can feel that they are being included and connected with the laboring mother all along the way.
First and foremost our job is to provide the education and encouragement that a birthing couple needs to feel confident, aware and in control of this important moment of their lives. This education leaves them feeling equipped to handle the tasks ahead and certain that they will succeed. A partner can assure a mother, a doula assures the couple.
Partner's Role
As the person who has the closest intimate connection with a laboring woman or postpartum mother, a partner's role is extremely valuable. You can provide comfort that waves relief like no other and in times of stress you are the rock to lean on. As this advocate for your growing family, you can help make decisions on birth plans and develop the birth and parenting experience that makes this moment special for both parents. A partner helps bridge communication and the connection between the laboring family and their doula to keep the birth and postpartum space calm, aware and respected.
It really does take a team!
Whether you're introducing a brand new baby into the world or settling in at home as a new family, a strong support team makes a world of difference. Working in tandem, your partner and doula can be the strong support system you need to feel confident and in control of your birth and postpartum experience.