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Episode 54: Nuance of Post Cesarean Support
April is Cesarean Awareness Month! We often hear discussions about supporting a client through a cesarean birth. Yet we don’t often hear about how to support our clients after a cesarean birth. For labor doulas, post cesarean support can begin in the recovery room. As labor doulas, we may tidy up the labor room as the client and their partner are in the operating room. This can have a positive psychological impact on the client when they return to the room. Eliminating the visual noise of the room. At times we may find ourselves opening up a discussion about the labor and cesarean experience. This creates an opportunity for the…
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Episode 53: Unpacking Your Doula Baggage
One of the most common questions in doula forums is, “What’s in your doula bag?” What isn’t as readily talked about is our individual psychology. Those psychological and ideological things we carry in our mental doula bag. Our life experiences. Implicit and explicit biases. Work ethic. It is essential to learn how to peel back and get comfortable with the uncomfortable feelings that may arise when working with families. The first place to start is to identify your “shoulds.” When you think about birth, parenting, or infant feeding for yourself, what are your “shoulds?” Next is to examine if your “shoulds” can be tucked away. Can you prevent them from…
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Episode 52: Infant Feeding Fatigue
When it comes to the options for how a family can approach feeding their baby, the options feel infinite. Regardless of their approach, decision fatigue is a very real experience for many families. In addition, there is so much pressure to make the “right” decision. While the choice for how to feed the baby is often made before the baby arrives. The real-time process of infant feeding begins at birth. A time where the birthing parent is often tired, sore, and otherwise experiencing the after-effects of the birth process. As doulas discussion surrounding infant feeding can be most effective for the client when it begins during pregnancy. Allowing opportunity for…
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Episode 51: Immediate Newborn Care Plan
The immediate newborn care plan. When it comes to planning for birth and postpartum this area is often overlooked. For many labor doulas, the birthing process can tend to take center stage. For postpartum doulas, planning for once the baby or babies is home is often the focus. However, exploring the many options for the immediate newborn care plan holds just as much importance for many clients. An important part of guiding your clients through their options is to have a deep understanding of what their chosen birthing location will offer. This requires research on the part of the doula to discover the common immediate newborn care policies for the birthing…
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Episode 50: Conversational Boundaries
Part of the “getting to know you” process for many clients often involves questions of a personal nature. As a birth worker is important that you consider where your conversational boundaries are. Especially when it comes to more personal or controversial topics of discussion. Historically these conversations often centered around topics such as marital status, children, and occasionally religion, circumcision, vaccination, etc. However, in the wake of the pandemic, these conversations have begun to shift. Families are navigating their comfort levels to potential exposure to COVID-19. As a result, we are seeing an increase in questions that are focused on the birth worker’s medical history. Questions about social distancing…
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Episode 49: Normalizing Prodromal Labor
Prodromal labor is one of the most misunderstood topics amongst doulas today. The hallmark of prodromal labor is uncomfortable and often times painful contractions that stop and start. For some pregnant individuals, this happens over the course of days. For others, over the course of weeks. The changes that prodromal labor bring are not often observable from the outside. As a result, many doulas are taught that the cause for these contractions is a malposition of the baby. To understand prodromal labor one must first understand the definition: pre·cur·sor /prēˈkÉ™rsÉ™r/ a person or thing that comes before another of the same kind; a forerunner By definition and function, it…
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Episode 48: Obstetric Change
If there’s one thing that doulas know for sure, it is that there is a very real need for obstetric change. Yet many doulas do not know how that change typically happens. For many doulas, there is a belief that it is their direct activism that will bring about a quick change. However, if history has taught us anything it is that change in the field of obstetrics is dependably slow. In addition, it is not a simple process. When change does happen it is typically catalyzed from either research that forms best practice. Or from provider experience. However, change also comes as a result of consumer demand. The consumer’s…
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Episode 47: Season Two Wrap Up
Welcome to the Season Two Wrap-Up! To say that 2020 has been a strange year full of struggles would be an understatement. First, a global pandemic. Next, doulas being shut out of hospitals. As a result, many doulas faced challenges and obstacles to pursuing certification. The impact of the pandemic on doulas with children who are now facing remote learning has been particularly difficult for many doulas. Some have had to pause work with families. Others have become creative in juggling the changing needs of clients and their own families. However, there have been many positives this year here at Doulas of the Roundtable as well. As of the time…
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Episode 46: The Impact of Language During Birth
As we work with laboring individuals it is important to understand the impact of language on the birth experience. When working with families in the postpartum period, hearing a client’s birth story is often a part of the doula/client relationship. Understanding the subtext of a client’s birth story is a process that isn’t often taught in many doula workshops. As a result, it is vital that labor and postpartum doulas understand the power that words have. Words that can either build up or strip away the confidence of the birthing person. Birth is a process that brings both mental and physical vulnerability. In this episode, we break down one doula’s…
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Episode 45: Postpartum GPS
Postpartum planning – Helping your clients set their course for postpartum success. Birth planning is a common discussion between doulas and clients. However, postpartum planning is just as essential to growing families. Some clients will hire a postpartum doula before their baby is born. Others will seek postpartum care once their baby has arrived. As postpartum doulas, our goal is to help families explore their preferences and options. What feels right when making decisions about how they will care for their babies? What are their parenting philosophies? Teaching a newborn care class is a great way to help growing families become aware of the many benefits of postpartum care. It…
