We hired a Doula

After much consideration, Sharon and I hired a doula this week to be present at our birth. 

 

What is a doula?

 

A doula accompanies a woman in labor, mothers the mothers, takes care of her emotional needs throughout childbirth. A doula also provides support and suggestions for partners that can enhance their experiences of birth. A postpartum doula continues that valuable emotional support and guidance, helping a family make a smooth transition into new family dynamics.

 

What are some benefits of hiring a doula?

 

The presence of a Doula

• reduces the overall cesarean rate by 50%
• reduces the length of labor by 25%
• reduces the oxytocin use by 40%
• reduces the pain medication by 30%
• reduces the the need for forceps by 40%
• and reduces the requests for epidurals by 60%.

Doula support enhances the well-being of mothers and babies, leads to fewer medical interventions in the process of labor and delivery, and saves money for individuals and medical providers.

(Mothering the Mother-Marshall Klaus M.D., John Kennell, M.D. and Phyllis Klaus, M.Ed., C.S.W)

 

I already feel a weight lifted off my shoulders since we hired Stacey.  I think she will be great in the delivery room and will be helpful for both Sharon and myself.  She will help us with labor positioning and labor with us at home before we go to the hospital.  That will be nice because I've heard of so many first time mommas going to the hospital too soon. 

 

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Labor Dream

I'm still getting wacky dreams.  This weekend I had a dream about labor.  It's true, I may be getting a little worried or anxious about labor, especially with the information that we get in our lamaze class and the videos we watch.  Last week one of the videos was very intense for me and I think this precipitated my latest dream.  We watched all of these women who were in the "pushing" stage of labor and basically just watched them in contractions, moaning, hitting their partners, etc. and then giving birth.  Okay, can you say traumatizing.  First of all, I have never been to a live birth so seeing these babies coming out was in and of itself frightening.  Secondly, to go from one woman to another who is either moaning, screaming, hitting their partner, chanting, etc. with no break for about 30 minutes was almost too much for me.  I was near tears through the entire video.  Since this class, I've been doing more reading and actually the doulas reassured me of some of the fears I have in general of labor so I'm doing okay with all of the information now, so I thought...then I had this dream:

My dream was about delivering the baby and I was in labor for 34 hours AND the doctors put me under.  So I was unconscious throughout the entire labor.  When I came to, they handed me my baby and I was convinced it wasn't mine, I mean how did I know that they didn't just give me someone else's baby.  I was very upset with the doctors for putting me under as I wanted to experience my labor and see my baby enter the world.  It was pretty creepy and that's all I remember of the dream. 

When I woke up that morning, I was sharing my dream with Sharon.  She didn't seem alarmed by the dream and I emphasized, "they put me under, how do I know that was my baby."  She said, "it was our baby, I was right there with you."  I said, "how do you know?"  And she said, "You were unconscious, I'm just filling in the missing pieces."  It was very sweet.

 

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