Meet Douglas

By KSEE Sales

January 2, 2013 Updated Jan 2, 2013 at 1:53 PM PDT

 

One of the most magical moments in a parent's life is the birth of their child. It's so important to preserve and protect the memory of your child's birth day, that's where a doula can help. A doula is not the doctor or hospital. The doula will meet with the family usually twice before labor starts so they can plan how they want to give birth. Couples can decide how long they want to labor at home, whether they want medications and other interventions used and other issues. The doula helped women in labor to help ensure a safe and satisfying birth experience, provide continuous emotional, physical and informational support form early labor all the way through till the baby is having its first feeding. The doula stays 100% focused on the mom for the entire birth. Doulas also meet with couples before birth to help with decisions and provide comfort measures for the end of pregnancy.

 

Birth goes through changes in our society, much like other areas of our lives. Many people are coming to the realization of how calm and loving a birth can be for a baby and how amazing a newborn is and the many things babies can begin to do as soon as they are born.

Experts used to say that new babies were not capable of experiencing much and we now know that this is not accurate.  The moments immediately following birth can be extremely special and rewarding for family. There is a significant amount of research showing that having a doula has many beneficial effects on childbirth including shorter birth, less requests for pain medication, fewer interventions like episiotomy and Pitocin, less surgical-birth, higher success with breast feeding and higher satisfaction with birth, baby and partner after the birth. There is also evidence of less incidence of post-partum depression.

 

According to a recent article by Barbara Anderson published in the Fresno Bee this October, cesarean rates in the valley are between 24 and 41 percent of all births. Lowering the c-section rate is a national goal. C-section is major surgery, which comes with serious risks to the mother and baby, it makes future pregnancies more complicated, and it is expensive.

Every birth whether it is at home, or cesarean, is a momentous event in the life of the mother that she will draw strength and self-esteem from for the rest of her life if she feels good about the way it goes.

 

If you would like more information, you can go meet the Doulas at GaGa Chic in Fig Garden Village on Wed., Jan. 9th from 4pm to 6pm. It will be an opportunity for women and families who are expecting a baby to meet some possible doulas to help them with their births and talk about birth.

To submit a comment on this article, your email address is required. We respect your privacy and your email will not be visible to others nor will it be added to any email lists.