It’s easy as a doula to migrate towards the world of homebirths and birth center births. As doulas, we tend to love the serene, comfortable setting of a birth center birth. The birth is treated as a normal physiological process and not something to be medically managed. It’s a beautiful experience where the doula is accepted as part of the birth village without question.
Hospital births may not be the same experience. The beeping machines, the continuous monitor belts that are always seemingly tethers to a bed, I.v lines and nurses who are constantly in and out of the room typing charts into a computer. Absent are the dim lights and the aqua doula tubs. Women are told that contractions are to be feared and medications are available. Doctors are not necessarily fans of a birth village and definitely not fans of doulas who advocate for alternative options to standard hospital procedures, let alone informed consent for standard ob procedures.
It’s these births where doulas can make a difference. A true and definitive difference. Bridging the communication gap between a new nurse who is confused about the importance of skin to skin, let around nursing in the first hour after birth, or just a gentle smile and words of respect to a doctor who isn’t thrilled with your presence or your reminder that AROM is a procedure in which the patient deserves informed consent. It’s this doctor who may bring this experience into his next birth knowing you weren’t a hippie crazy doula. You were a rational, well educated, professional doula and part of the birth team, there to support her client, and hopefully make birth normal.
Even though, as doulas, we need a birth center birth to revive us after a few rounds of hospital advocacy births, our skills are challenged and grow the most in a hospital setting. We learn how to mediate and graciously offer alternative to standard practice. We gain the respect of doctors by showing them our knowledge of birth and also by showing them respect for their knowledge. We humble ourselves to realize although we are birth professionals and valid members of the birth team, we are not doctors, midwives or nurses. We are doulas. We make birth normal by serving and supporting our clients well in any setting.