Little Origin doula services Calgary doula supporting women and families through labour and childbirth.

Birth Journey.....forever in your heart.
Labour support gives a woman the ability to discover her own birth experience. She is better able to cope with the pain associated with labour and birth and better able to make informed choices when supported by her birth partner and her doula. A doula has a responsibility to be unyielding in every aspect of her care. She is not there to decide or speak on behalf of her client but to support, encourage, inform, mediate and negotiate for her client in a birth experience that she has expressed. A doula is to uphold professional integrity and stay abreast to the professional practice through continuing her education about women, labour and birth. Every woman, every baby and every birth experience will be different and learning from each should be something to strive for. Doulas are limited to non-clinical tasks but are well educated in procedure and protocol in order to inform her client and birth partner of happenings in her labour care.

The Role of a Doula.....
In nearly every culture throughout history, women have been surrounded and cared for by other women during childbirth. Artistic representations of birth throughout the world usually include at least two other women surrounding and supporting the birthing woman. One of these women is the midwife, who is responsible for the safe passage of the mother and baby; the other woman or women are behind or beside the mother, holding and comforting her(11). The modern birth doula is a manifestation of the woman beside the mother.
Birth doulas are trained and experienced in childbirth, although they may or may not have given birth themselves. The doula’s role is to provide physical and emotional support and assistance in gathering information for women and their partners during labor and birth. The doula offers help and advice on comfort measures such as breathing, relaxation, movement, and positioning. She also assists the woman and her partner to become informed about the course of her labor and their options. Perhaps the most crucial role of the doula is providing continuous emotional reassurance and comfort.

(The Birth Doula’s Contribution to Modern Maternity Care A DONA International Position Paper, www.dona.org/publications position_paper_birth.php )

‘Becoming aware of the wide range of possibilities in birth-giving can help us better understand our own culture of birth. We can see what is missing for women today and can work to enrich our birth culture.’

- Sheila Kitzinger

‘Rediscovering Birth’

Published in the UK by Little Brown ISBN 0316853933
Published in the USA by Simon & Schuster ISBN 0743412737

page 12

for more information about doulas please visit

www.dona.org

Calgary birth doula supporting women and families through labour and childbirth

403-852-3345 Little Origin doula services info@littleorigin.ca

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