The Many Hats of a Postpartum Doula - Part 1

The many hats of a postpartum doula, part 1

Okay, now the labor is over. 

The easy part of child-rearing begins, right?

Oops! Did no one warn mom about her wacked-out sleep schedule or late night feedings? That dishes still aren’t cleaning themselves? That eggs still come unscrambled and bread still comes untoasted from the grocery store?

Being a new mom is a glorious time, but it comes with challenges. Having a trained, and CERTIFIED postpartum doula there those first days after birth can be a life saver for any new mom!  Not all postpartum doulas come with all these skills - so make sure yours is certified and not just "trained" which could mean anything.

A postpartum doula wears many hats as she assists mom and dad in those early days with baby.  Here are just a few of her "Hats":

1. Breastfeeding supporter. New to breastfeeding? Postpartum doulas are there for mom to assist her during those first stages of breastfeeding. It can be stressful or difficult to breastfeed at first, but mom’s doula will make the process more enjoyable. Difficulties will not faze an experienced doula who will lovingly guide mom and baby until they reach success.

2. Health coach. Is mom getting enough to eat and drink? Postpartum doulas make sure that the mother is having well-balanced meals and plenty of liquids to keep her energy up and health in prime condition. This in-turn will ensure baby has a well energized mommy to care for him or her.

3. Maid. Remember those dishes that are piling up in the sink and those eggs that can’t seem to scramble themselves? A postpartum doula will make sure that the kitchen gets cleaned up before the next morning. Mom will wake up smiling when she walks into the kitchen to find dishes done, countertops clean, and a hot breakfast on the table.  A postpartum doula can also do the other things that pile up, like laundry and basic nursery organization tasks.  You will wonder at how one little person can produce so much dirty laundry every 24 hours!

4. Chef.  Speaking of eggs that don't scramble themselves.  A new mom is a hungry mom.  Particularly if she's breastfeeding!  A postpartum doula will make sure mom has something to drink every time her baby feeds.  She will prepare snacks to keep mom nourished which helps with recovery as well as milk supply.

A postpartum doula wears these hats as well as many others! 

Stay tuned for Part 2! 

How nice! Massage in Labor...

Did you know....?
Massage benefits laboring moms in a lot of ways!

When was the last time you had a massage? It may have been a professional massage at a spa or it could have just been a quick backrub from your honey, but didn’t it feel good?

According to research, massages can actually assist mothers to labor faster and more comfortably. Even a quick and simple massage can do wonders for decreasing a mother’s anxiety and pain. 
Just check out the findings from this study:
“Twenty-eight women were recruited from prenatal classes and randomly assigned to receive massage in addition to coaching in breathing during labor, or to receive coaching in breathing alone. The massaged mothers reported a decrease in depressed mood, anxiety and pain, and showed less agitated activity and anxiety and more positive affect following the first massage during labor. In addition the massaged mothers had shorter labors, a shorter hospital stay and less postpartum depression.” (1)

During labor, sometimes the focus can all be put on having the mother breath and push. Without a relaxed body, however, focusing all energy (emotional and physical) on these important tasks becomes difficult for mom. Having nurturing support she can trust and feel safe with is important.  Massage facilitates this.

That’s where a well-trained, certified, professional Doula comes in. Having a doula there who knows how to massage and comfort a mother with touch throughout the labor process means that mom can receive that much-needed massage any time she needs it! Find a doula who is certified and specifically trained in maternal-fetal positioning, and the best techniques for helping mom relax her muscles. A massage during labor (whether from Dad or Doula) also allows the mother to breathe easier and keep her rhythm. The results? A less-stressed, less-depressed mom and a shorter labor process and hospital stay. 

Who can say no to that? 


Resources:
(1) Field, T., Hernandez-Reif, M., Taylor , S., Quintino, O., & Burman, I. (1997). 
Labor pain is reduced by massage therapy. Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and 
Gynecology, 18, 286-291.

Help! My Baby Won't Sleep!

Sleep Deprivation

Have you ever experienced sleep-deprivation? Many of our military have... It's a form of mental and physical training and often used as a torture practice to wear an enemy combatant down, make them submissive and controllable.

If you've ever had a new baby in the house, you'll know what sleep deprivation is like. When you're really desperate, you may have even considered the counter-intuitive, old practice of making your baby "cry-it-out". We now know that making a baby "cry-it-out" has a strong, negative effect on infant brain development. Parents who cringe at the idea of rejecting their baby's only mode of communication when it comes to sleeping, were right all along. There ARE better ways!!

Being sleep deprived has a negative effect on parents both physically and emotionally, that is certain. However, the experience can also be beneficial to YOUR development as parents. During those foggy brained nights and days, we are still able to meet our baby's needs. We are quick to answer their calls, and we find a deeper patience and resilience within ourselves that we didn't know we had before.

Sometimes our sleep deprivation is caused by a baby who isn't sleeping much more than a few hours at a time (which is physiologically normal and good in the first few months), or it can be caused by our own anxieties or something else. At times, parents get so sleep deprived that they cannot even sleep when they want to. How frustrating!

The trouble with the negative effects from sleep deprivation is that we often times don't know how to cope with the challenge of this transition into parenthood. In America, we turn to medications to help us "fix" the depressed state that comes along with lack of sleep. This in turn can lead to a dependence on mood-altering drugs and usually, an end to the breastfeeding relationship - which is not beneficial for Mom or Baby.

With insight into what babies need to sleep well (and longer) at night, you can troubleshoot and help yourself and your own baby to sleep more at night. Eventually, the deeper phase of sleep will last longer and longer, until baby and parents are sleeping through the night safely and soundly.

At this months' PTN in San Antonio, I will be featured, as a local Infant Sleep Consultant, and will teach parents about newborn physiology in regard to sleep and provide a short quiz to identify their own baby's obstacles to sleep and help them to get more rest!

This will be a mini class, and a full-session class will be held on Oct 6, 2014.
Please contact us to register for class: 210-548-8800

Historical Doula

Couldn't have said it better myself:

"Having someone by your side during the marathon we call childbirth is not only helpful, but it's historical.
What do we mean by that?

 

Well, for as far back as there are birth stories to be told, you will hear about women attended by other women, supported, encouraged, and often times physically held by the strong arms of this wise, nurturing companion.

Doulas are nothing new, but they have found a name for themselves in the Greek. To be simple, it means servant. With a humble heart, these precious women patiently wait with the mother while actively assisting her to labor more quickly, easily, and safely. Doulas provide information, reassurance, positioning and pain relief without the use of drugs."
Thanks, MaternityWise International, for that!!

To get more familiar with doulas, please read my other blog posts.
If you feel an urge to become a doula yourself, feel free to send me an email and ask some questions about the process.
You can also find more here:
http://www.maternitywise.com

 

Who is Anne Doula? (Part 1)

Client:  "Hey Grandma, come meet Anne.  She's my doula!"

Client's Grandmother:  "Hello Anne Doula.  That is a curious last name.  Is it French?"

hahahahaha
and so I became Anne Doula.

Doula is actually a Greek word.  It's used in the Bible when describing Jesus, as He washed his disciples' feet.  He took on the form of a "Doulos" or male servant.

Doula generally referred to the woman servant, who helped the mother of the household with pregnancy, birth and childrearing in the early years.  She was a hand-maiden, a personal assistant, a second mama, a close friend, confidant, and often she was also a wet-nurse.

These days, there are women who call themselves doulas, yet have no training, or even any idea that doula = servant.  They hear the term, want to attend births cause it sounds exciting, and then off they go, calling themselves a doula...  hmmmmm.....  not cool.

Why is it not cool?  Well, for several very good, very important reasons: 

1. Mothers hear about doulas in the media, or from books about pregnancy, and they kind of have an expectation of what sort of value and skill-set a doula will bring to their experience.  If all doulas are on different levels as far as education and philosophy, how can mothers know who to choose, what is a reasonable amount to pay, what to expect, etc.?
2. Birth isn't always easy, fast, or safe.  Don't get me wrong, I birthed my last 2 of 5 babies at home, and one arrived before the midwife, so I'm probably what you'd call a "Birth-Truster" and I believe that birth is normally safe, and that interference and intervention is normally risky.  However, we do know how bad information can lead to bad choices which can lead to bad outcomes.  This is a HUGE reason why doulas - who give advice and help mothers to educate themselves - need to know their role, when to refer moms to a specific professional, and what is a silly trend and what is serious medicine.  Untrained, uncertified women who call themselves doulas are not qualified, and often do not know or understand the bounds of what their role entails as a complementary care provider.  Because of this, you often find they lack the information parents really need, and sadly, they also lack the ethical standards as well.
3. Unfortunately, women who feel they don't need training, or are above attaining a certification, are many times, the same women who have their own birth trauma or other serious personal issues to deal with.  I was just speaking to a dad yesterday, who said he had interviewed half a dozen doulas in our city, and each one revealed through their philosophy, personal stories, or unsolicited advice their own resentment toward a doctor or nurse during their own experiences.
4. Women who claim to be "trained" but cannot provide you with their credentials are basically women who are shortcutting the system.  They took a workshop, but they didn't have the integrity to complete the rest of their training.  In my opinion, they should not be calling themselves "trained" simply because they did not complete the entire "training process".  Parents are getting savvy to this however, and more and more families are turning down doulas who don't have those coveted letters after their name or a certification award to prove they completed a course to become a true doula.
5. When a woman cannot afford doula care, there are a few states where it is mandated for insurance companies to reimburse a portion of their care expenses.  Why would insurance companies want to reimburse for care that has no value to them?  Saving them money is how doulas look good to the insurance company.  How would having a doula save them money?  By lowering the cesarean risk, for starters.  So it's important that certified doulas continue to seek out insurance reimbursement.  That, and the fact that mothers who want doula care, but cannot afford it will be more likely to receive that care including better outcomes for themselves and their babies, if insurance companies were on board with paying a portion of that expense.  Some states like Minnesota and Pennsylvania already do.
6. The last and perhaps most upsetting reason (to me) of why it's not cool that women take on the title "Doula" without completing a certification process is that is blows the stats of good doulas out of whack.  For example, the Cochrane report from the 1990's showed that having a doula by your side reduced the rate of cesarean by almost half.  In the late 2000's, after being a doula became trendy, that rate in another Cochrane review showed that the stat was now hovering around 25%  Why?  Because women who are not properly trained are out there practicing and mothers are not getting the benefit of having a skilled woman by their side.  Those numbers, by the way, tell me that having an uncertified doula means your rates of cesarean is no different that those of the general public without a doula.

Part 2 coming soon............

Kissy Faces

Kissy Faces

Seriously, who wouldn't want to spend time with adorable little faces like this?  When my little ones were still nurslings, I relished every moment of quiet face-making and knew the entire time that we were having real communication.

I remember a time when my little Rosebud was learning to breastfeed and she looked up at me with milk dripping down her cheek and a big open mouthed, toothless grin.  She was a few days old. 

Now, surely we've all heard that this is not real communication.  As a mother, and as a doula, I've heard everything from uncontrollable reflexes, to gas and everything in between.  There is no doubt in my mind that, that day my now-seven-year-old, smiley, outgoing girl was sharing with me her internal happiness.

The people who say this is not real communication are the same people that say babies cannot feel pain.  It's silly.  It's not logical and in fact, it's just unprovable.  Sadly, it reminds me of practitioners who give no anesthesia before cutting a boy's foreskin off.  It's the same ill-logic.  If a baby winces in pain, we know by the sound and facial expression.  How else do we interpret it?  Why should we disregard happy expressions?  Rather, how beautiful when we begin to see our babies for the small people they are!

We don't ignore older children or adults.  We should not ignore our newborns' amazing (albeit limited) ability to communicate as they experience life, process information and learn, learn, learn from us!  Take away language and we can all communicate with each other in the simplest of terms - namely facial expressions.   I think it's a scary beginning and a very frightening life, to have your every need (physical and emotional, too) depending on someone who sees you as not a real person or fully human. 

I just have to say...  I don't do well when left to cry.  I sometimes need to eat before dinner is served.  And occassionally I need to sleep in, in the morning and nap in the middle of the day.  I'm so thankful no one deprives me of what I need - emotional or physical.

Next time you're with a little baby, the newer the better...  Look into their eyes and listen to what they tell you.  It can stir your soul and you might just understand those kissy faces have meaning after all.