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    Doulas: Why Every Pregnant Woman Deserves One
    Doulas: Why Every Pregnant Woman Deserves One
    Doulas: Why Every Pregnant Woman Deserves One
    Ebook190 pages2 hours

    Doulas: Why Every Pregnant Woman Deserves One

    By Susan Ross

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    An emotional and powerful book that discusses the positive difference a doula can make during any pregnancy

     

    A doula can help women achieve a birth that is exactly the way they would like—quietly and peacefully in a dimly lit room, in absolute control of the labor and birth, feeling safe and supported. Doulas are trained to look after women, both emotionally and physically, during pregnancy, labor, and birthing. They empower women to negotiate the best care for themselves and their babies. They act as an advocate, steering women and their partners through the sometimes daunting hospital system, or if they are having the baby at a birth center or at home, the doula provides support, reassurance, and encouragement. Educating expectant parents on what a doula is, why a pregnant woman needs one, and what to look out for when selecting one, this resource includes information on Australia, UK, France, and the United States.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIndependent Publishers Group
    Release dateMar 1, 2014
    ISBN9781921878909
    Doulas: Why Every Pregnant Woman Deserves One

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    • 5/5
      Incredibly comprehensive yet succinct guide to bringing babies into the world. So informative and inspiring.

    Book preview

    Doulas - Susan Ross

    A Rockpool book

    PO Box 252

    Summer Hill

    NSW 2103

    Australia

    www.rockpoolpublishing.com.au

    www.facebook.com/RockpoolPublishing

    First published in 2011

    This electronic edition first published in 2012

    Copyright © Susan Ross, 2011

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

    National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

    Ross, Susan.

    Doulas : why every pregnant woman needs one / Susan Ross.

    9781921878909 (.epub)

    9781921878893 (.mobi/prc)

    9781921878916 (.pdf)

    Includes bibliographical references.

    Doulas–Australia.

    Natural childbirth–Australia.

    Dewey Number: 618.450994

    Cover and internal design by Seymour Design

    Images: Front cover, author photo, vii, 15, 34, 39, 47, 52, 70, 76, 87, 92, 111, 118, 130, 135, 136, 138, 140, 145, 148, 152, 158, 168: Rebecca Fraser — New Beginnings Photography; pp 8, 64: Erika Elliott; pp viii, 22, 105: John Maverty; p. 133: Susan Ross

    Edited by Kathryn Lamberton

    Dedication

    I wish to dedicate this book to my two sons, Lachlan and Angus. My pregnancies, labours and births were empowering experiences and mothering continues to be richly rewarding. I also have a very gorgeous grandson, Blake.

    A very big thank you to all the wonderful doulas out there. The commitment that you make to support women cannot be underestimated. There is no financial reward large enough to compensate for all the ‘doula giving’, spiritually, emotionally and physically. It is no wonder women have a strong attachment to their very special doula, recognising the power of this extraordinary relationship.

    To all the pregnant women who are buying this book, you do deserve the best care and trusting in a doula is your first step to ensuring an amazing pregnancy and birth.

    Acknowledgements

    Thank you to all the contributors to this book. Your ideas, stories, photographs and willingness to participate, often at short notice, is much appreciated. Thanks to Rebecca Fraser from New Beginnings Photography, for her sensitive photography and her wonderful work as a doula; Erika Elliott for her beautiful photographs and doularing; and the wonderful couples who allowed their photographs to be shared — I know they will inspire all who read this book.

    Susan Ross has been a midwife for more than 30 years, working in both the public and private sector, and community health. Susan has worked in city and country hospitals, interstate and overseas, and has witnessed many changes to birthing practises. Susan is a childbirth educator, HypnoBirthing® practitioner, trainer, author of the book Birth Right and a hypnotherapist. She is the founder and director of Birth Right, providing information, education, counselling and support to pregnant women and their partners. Birth Right is the leading doula training school in Australia, and the only one run by a midwife with more than 30 years experience. Susan is the mother of two sons and has one grandson. She is passionate about supporting birthing women, making sure they understand their options and choices. www.birthright.com.au

    Contents

    Dedication

    Acknowledgements

    Contents

    Introduction

    Every pregnant woman deserves a doula

    Chapter 1

    Why choose a doula?

    Chapter 2

    About pregnancy and choices

    Chapter 3

    Fear — and how it relates to birthing

    Chapter 4

    Hormones — let them flow!

    Chapter 5

    The role of the doula in your labour and birth

    Chapter 6

    Breastfeeding

    Chapter 7

    Helpful support during pregnancy

    Bibliography

    Introduction

    Every pregnant woman deserves a doula

    Imagine birthing your baby exactly the way you would like — quietly and peacefully in a dimly lit room in absolute control of your labour and birth, feeling safe and well supported, without interruption, so you could do and be what you needed to, to ensure your baby would emerge gently and calmly from the womb, down the birth path and into the world. What a wonderful start in life you would be giving your baby!

    If we want to create a non-violent world, we must begin with how we connect to our babies in utero, how we birth our babies and how we treat each other from the beginning of life, because this is where our deepest patterns of behaviour are set. From these roots grow fear and hatred or love and trust.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) advises that for a normal birth there should be a valid reason to interfere with the natural process.

    Birth is both a miracle and an experience shared by every one of us. It is our gateway into the human family and forms our first impressions about being here. Pregnancy and birth can certainly be a physical challenge, but what are the possible psychological implications for mother and baby?

    Perinatal psychology is the study of the psychological impact of the pregnancy and birthing experience, from conception and gestation to birth and bonding, for the baby and the mother. Psychiatrist Dr Thomas Verny says that a child’s personality is moulded during the nine months in utero, probably more than at any subsequent time in his life. So prenatal communication and prenatal bonding have to start at conception. Among his many publications, including his book, The Secret Life of the Unborn Child (1981), Dr Verny gives an extraordinary picture of the unborn baby’s world:

    The womb is the child’s first world. At sixteen weeks the unborn child shies away from light. At twenty weeks there is a response to speech patterns. At twenty-five weeks the baby can kick in time to music. And at six months the unborn child can understand the subtle shifts of its mother’s emotions.

    It is essential information for pregnant parents to know, and that talking, singing, playing games and communicating with your unborn baby throughout pregnancy is not only normal, but very important for their development.

    The Secret Life of the Unborn Child presents for the first time the challenging results of two decades of painstaking international research into the earliest stages of life. Dr Verny’s evidence of intelligent life in the womb is overwhelming. This knowledge gives both mothers and fathers an opportunity to get to know and help their unborn child. Now they can contribute actively — both before and during birth — to giving their child happiness and security for the rest of their life.

    The idea that infants are conscious and learning in utero and encoding these lessons is, however, far from mainstream. And many schools of psychology, psychiatry and medicine virtually ignore the possibility that prenatal and perinatal experiences may contribute to later mental health problems.

    Some Western governments, such as those in the USA and Australia, are experiencing crises in their health systems, which are predicted to get worse, placing huge demands on their health budgets. Those in charge of health dollars therefore need to take a long, hard look at the implications of how birth is managed. Birth is not a medical event, it is a normal event. Until that message is properly understood and medicalising birth is brought to an end, the public will demand more and more services. It will become a vicious cycle. If we get birth right and provide good education and proper support for our pregnant women, who are surely the most important people in the community, the ultimate drain on the health budget will be reduced.

    Attitudes need to change. Women are becoming more and more fearful about birth. We can’t afford to wait another generation for those women who are embracing birth in a positive way to pass on their beautiful stories to their sons and daughters. The media desperately need to be educated and start focusing on amazing positive birth stories, promoting the health benefits for mother, baby and the community, rather than on the fear that pervades every story that is run about birth. Women are bombarded from so many different sources with the fear of birth that it can be hard work to convince them otherwise.

    Recently, I met with a couple who were about 16 weeks pregnant with their first baby. Anna and Rick were very excited about being pregnant and simultaneously very, very scared. Both were intelligent and questioning. Both had been brought up in loving families but had been fed a lot of fear around birth. For most of Anna’s life she had heard other women in her extended family discussing the horror of pain and suffering in childbirth. Anna and Rick had booked into a major public teaching hospital in Sydney, believing that this was the best place as they would have access to operating theatres, anaesthetists and lots of doctors to cover all bases if ‘something went wrong’. They lived five minutes from a good local community hospital but believed it would not be safe to book in there in case there was an emergency.

    While they were both convinced, without a doubt, that birth was indeed a medical event, Anna had found my website on the Internet and had read about how positive birth can be, if you have the right support and education. She did want a normal birth. She did understand that this was probably best for baby, but she could not believe that this would be possible. I assured them that birth was simple and that it was important how we birthed our babies. When they asked about the role of the doula, I told them that I would support them emotionally throughout the pregnancy, answer all their questions and concerns, and guide them to make the best decisions for them and their baby. I said that I would support Rick, in particular, so that Anna could relax and enjoy pregnancy, labour and birth, without having the responsibility of making decisions alone and he could enjoy becoming a Dad. I told them that I would provide good education so that they could understand the process and how simple birth was. About two hours later they left with big smiles on their faces. Anna’s comment was ‘I actually feel positive and am almost looking forward to this experience. I didn’t think that was possible.’ Rick agreed.

    We had email and phone contact and several meetings throughout her pregnancy. We got to know each other well. They also attended HypnoBirthing® classes (these will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 2), which they both embraced with great enthusiasm because they came to understand the simplicity of birth. They both commented about how empowered they felt.

    I watched with great joy their complete turnaround from our first meeting to their daughter’s amazing birth.

    Anna: ‘There is no way that I could have had the confidence to birth my baby the way I wanted without having a doula. She was my rock, she was my sounding board, she was my advocate and most of all she was my nurturer. There was support on so many levels.’

    Rick: ‘I was hesitant at first, took longer to be convinced of the need for a doula, but cannot now imagine doing it on our own. The support, understanding, liaison with staff was amazing. I know it would have been a very different experience, and much more medical, had we not had a doula. I don’t know how anyone does birth without one.’

    This couple connected with their baby in utero and included the baby in all their conversations and decision making. Throughout the birth, Anna was working with her baby and together they birthed beautifully. What a wonderful start in life she has given her child. This baby will grow up as a happy, healthy and positive person.

    There is startling new scientific evidence to support the bond between biology and psychology. According to Dr Bruce Lipton, a Stamford cellular biologist, parents select for their babies gene programs based on their perceived beliefs about their environment, and that it is environment, not genes, that controls cells in the developing baby, a discovery which has the potential to rewrite the entire story of life. His study also shows that it is the environment that switches the genes on and off, that the genes are not capable of switching themselves on and off.

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