Birth Roots Doula Collective Doula Care

As modern women have discovered this age-old tradition of woman-to-woman support, doulas have once again become the key to safer, easier, and happier births.

Doulas Defined
A doula is a woman experienced in childbirth who provides you with continuous emotional, physical, and informational support before, during, and after the birth of your baby.

A doula:

Shares her knowledge of the physiology of pregnancy and birth and the emotional needs of a woman in labour
Gets to know you prenatally, helping you identify what is important to you about your birth
Attends the birth, day or night
Offers suggestions for coping with labour, and helps labour unfold as quickly and easily as possible
Facilitates communication between the woman, her partner, and her clinical care providers
Works together with the mother's partner to provide support to the mother, and suggests ways the partner can help

Doulas Make a Difference
In modern days, labours attended by doulas have been found to be shorter, with less complications and requiring fewer medical interventions.

A recent Systematic Review of 15 gold standard Randomized Controlled Trials studied doula support of over 13,000 women. This study found that women supported by a doula were:

26% less likely to give birth by cesarean section

41% less likely to give birth with vacuum extraction or forceps

28% less likely to use any analgesia or anesthesia

36% less likely to be dissatisfied with or negatively rate their birth experience
Source: Continuous Support for Women in Childbirth (2003). E D Hodnett, S Gates, G J Hofmeyr, C Sakala.

Doulas Work With Everyone
There are no women that doulas cannot support. High risk or low risk, midwife or doctor, homebirth or hospital birth-- you and your partner are entitled to the support of a doula. As well, doulas work with clients who want to avoid drugs, as well as those clients who are planning on using drugs.

For more information about your specific situation, please view our FAQs or send us an email.

As both the mothers who have used doulas and the doctors who have studied them will tell you, hiring a doula is the best thing you can do for your birth.

Have another question?

There is much more information about doulas available on our site. To learn more about doulas, please explore:

To book your doula, you may Register Online. Alternatively, you can reach us by phone at (204) 792-6769, or you can send us an email.