What Are Doula Services?
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Kaely Harrod 0:01
Welcome back to Kaely Daily. Today's question is what are doula services? This is Kaely Daily, the bi weekly podcast about all things Doula Tips and Tits where we answer one question about pregnancy, labor, postpartum, or lactation, in order to have your journey in this parenting world be just a little bit more informed and filled with consent. Hello, and welcome back. I'm Kaely Harrod, the host of this beautiful podcast Kaylee daily. I am a doula childbirth educator, mom, and wife and I am coming today with one more doula question. So we're in the series of all about doulas. What do doulas do? How do you hire one? What kind of things should you ask them? And it came to my attention that maybe we haven't even just answered the really basic question of like, what are doula services? Cool? What does that even mean? Now I realize what is a doula is a question that we answered in season one. So it's not that this is brand spanking new information. But I do think it's worth diving into a little bit. So what are doula services? doula services are an extra layer of support in whatever area that you're using them in. So I sometimes joke that we need doulas for all different parts of life. And I'm only half joking because I actually think doulas would be lovely in all different parts of life. Like I would love a preteen parenting doula, right, like, people have death, doulas, there's abortion, doulas, there are illness, doulas, there's cancer like Survivor kind of do let ish companionship sort of stuff. What I think is lovely is having some kind of support that is for you. In that time. Ideally, that support also has some knowledge or expertise around the time, right, like so. I am a prenatal postpartum birth expert. Right? Like that's my field. That's what I do. That's what I love. That's what I've researched etcetera, right? So I am not a death doula because death is not my realm. That's not what I do. That's not what I'm trained in. That's not what I'm an expert in. Right. Um, but we sometimes joke around that like doulas doula each other. Right? We use it like it's a verb, where we like provide each other support, right so that we can we know that our clients will have a doula if we are busy for some reason or something like that. So when you think about what doula services even are, at the very core of what they are, they're a layer of support. Now, that layer of support is for whatever time you hired that doula for right like postpartum or abortion or birth or pregnancy or whatever it is, or all of those depending on what your plan is, right.
Kaely Harrod 3:11
And so, the idea is like, if you're hiring a postpartum doula, a postpartum doula should bring you a level of support and education in the postpartum time. And in preparation for the postpartum time. That feels a little bit cozier. I know that's kind of a silly word to use for this, but like, it feels better. Right? It feels like more prepared maybe or like, wrapped up a bit like like in the in the most wonderful way right. Now, I realize as I'm saying that, that not all doulas are really great at that. And I say that with a lot of caution because I love doulas. I think doulas are great, right. But not all of us are great. Right. And there are some doulas that don't do this work really well. And I say that to say like that's how a doula should make you feel like well supported, well educated, well informed and just taken care of. And if that's not the feeling that you're getting from your doula or from the doulas that you're interviewing, then it's okay to keep looking if you want to find that. Okay. The other thing about a doula is that because we're not medical support, we're sort of like if you think about your medical team, your midwife or your OB or your nurses or whoever is a part of that team, as your team that's like looking at the safety and looking at the the well being physically right looking at like, the danger physically medically of different things. Your doula is kind of the buffer for any emotional, spiritual, physical support in the midst of that. So where like, maybe your nurse might be primarily concerned with getting your blood pressure and your temperature in a certain time and labor and like managing the logistics of that medical portion, your doula at the same time might be like giving you very specific pressure in some part of your body, like, on your back or even like squeezing your hand a certain way. Because that like emotional and relational support is also very important, right? So in a beautiful, perfect scenario, on a birth team, for instance, a doula should be like a lovely space that is not otherwise filled, right? So it's a second person, or even a third person, maybe who is non medical, not looking at just the purely like, you know, logistics, data, stuff of birth. But also like looking at you holistically, like, how are you doing, how is your partner doing? How are you feeling about how things are going and that aspect of support, which kind of frees up the medical team to do their medical stuff, because you have that emotional support elsewhere. And then we can kind of all fit like nicely into our little roles that make this like beautiful puzzle, you know, kind of like leisure, we're sharpies that make this whole picture really lovely. So obviously, not all births function that way, I recognize that not all postpartum experiences are that even in some really rough and rocky times, a doula should feel like a lovely cozy layer of comfort. And I don't mean to say that to say like, our job is super fluffy, and like, you know, all of that. No, absolutely not. Like sometimes we're like, we're the person that's going like, Hey, listen, I need you to get your head in the game, right? Like, I need you to come back to us and focus and push this baby out. Right? Like you can do this, I know you can do this, you're a strong person. And I believe in you. And I want you to do this with us and, and for your baby right now for yourself, right. And so it's not that we're all just like, you're amazing. That's wonderful. You're wonderful. Although we do a fair amount of that at least I do a fair amount of that. But it also can sometimes be some like tough love or some like, you know, really firm encouragement or some caution. Sometimes it's like, I'm concerned about that, like, we need to give your team a call. You know, like, that's doesn't seem normal to me, I think we should chat with the midwife or the OB. And so it's not all fluffy, right? But it should bring a layer of reassurance
Kaely Harrod 8:03
that feels really lovely. That's what I mean, when I say that, right, is that it should feel reassuring and great. Even if it's a hard scenario that you're like, it would have been worse if we didn't have our doula with us. So that's kind of a rough synopsis in my mind, of what doula services are, right? We do have a number of questions still left in this doula series. So we're going to be on this doula kick for a couple more. Episodes like I think five or six ish. But if you have a doula question, I would love to answer it, please shoot me a message on Instagram. And I would really love to connect with you and hear what your question is and add that to the list before we jump on to the postpartum series. So in the meantime, I wish you lovely, well informed consent filled birth and postpartum tights. These episodes are edited and produced by Kaely Herat as I'm sure you can probably tell, and our amazing music is credited in the shownotes as well. So we look forward to seeing you on the next episode, and in the meantime, have a wonderful and consent filled birth.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
What Are Doula Services? A basic starting place…that maybe we should have started from! :) Doulas are a non-medical support to add to your already existing medical team during birth or postpartum. There are doulas in all sorts of fields, and I’m of the opinion that we all need doulas in a bunch of areas of our life.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Doulas add education, support, and comfort to their clients
Doulas fill an important role on a birth or postpartum team
The kind of support offered by a doula can be beneficial in all kinds of situations
Each person has their own emphasis on what part of that doulas work is most important in their situation
RESOURCES
FREE OXYTOCIN GUIDE:
6 Ways to Increase Oxytocin for Labor Progression
https://www.harroddoulaservices.com/free-guide-6-oxytocin-tips
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https://www.instagram.com/Harroddoula/
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Kaely Daily is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services
It is sponsored by The Birth Prep Blueprint Childbirth Class
Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay
