WHAT DOES A POSTNATAL DOULA DO?
Coming home with your new baby is a day filled with emotions - from excitement and happiness to worry and fear. You may have no family nearby to help, or may not want to rely on your loved ones during those early weeks - preferring to find your own way. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little support along the way…
FINDING THE RIGHT DOULA
The most important first step is to think about the kind of help you need. The key difference between a doula and other postnatal support like a maternity nurse, is that the doula is focused on the parents rather than the baby. A postnatal doula aims to support the new family to bond and settle in - helping them to be the best they can be in those early weeks and making their journey as easy and pleasurable as possible. The phrase often used to describe what a doula does is “mothering the mother” - looking after the parents so they can look after their new baby.
This comes in many forms and all postnatal doulas offer different levels of support. Most will prioritise making sure you’re fed and have time to shower and recharge, and will also give support with feeding, bathing, sleeping and any other early questions you’re wrestling with. They won’t advise you or tell you what to do, but they will come armed with a wealth of information and avenues for support - and will also share with you the secrets learned from other families, things that many parents before you have found helpful.
THE POSTNATAL PACKAGE
Every new parent needs different levels of support at different times, so the best way for a doula to support them is to be flexible. We would start with a package of hours that can be spread over a few weeks - used when you need them most. For example, you may start with a package of 40 hours and decide to have your doula visit for 3 hours a day for the first week to support you as you settle in. Then you may have family coming to support you the following week so may only want your doula to come in every other day, increasing back to five days the following week. The support is as unique as your family. Many parents ask friends and family for a package of postnatal doula support as their baby shower gift rather than toys or clothes for the baby - and the evidence shows its the gift that keeps giving.
SUPPORTED AND INFORMED
New parents in the Netherlands are visited by a state-provided kraamverzorgster in the days and weeks following birth. This postnatal fairy godmother is somewhere between a British health visitor, a maternity nurse, and a doula - and her warm but practical approach helps get new parents off to a start that far surpasses other wealthy westernised countries. Dutch children are rated by UNICEF as “The Happiest Kids in the World” - a concept that also inspired an excellent parenting book of the same name about the Dutch approach. The authors - Rina Mae Acosta and Michele Hutchison, an American and a Brit who both married Dutchmen and welcomed babies in the country - agree that this solid, supported start is one of the reasons that Dutch parents, and also their children, find family life easier and end up happier. A series of randomised trials carried out in recent years support the theory that being cared for by a postnatal doula can improve breastfeeding rates and help improve the symptoms of postnatal depression.
GET IN TOUCH
If you’re about to welcome a new baby, or are at home right now with a newborn, and want to find out more about the kind of support I can offer - let’s have a chat. Call, text or email and we can meet for a coffee to discuss.
Tel: 07850 132060
Email: lauren@thedoulahub.co.uk
