Although the image I've chosen to accompany this post shows me holding a client's baby - what a doula does is not actually about the baby so much. For me it's about supporting the woman or birthing person to have the very best birth experience we can manage.
Most doulas I've met have a very similar ethos to me but some have additional skills and service offers that I don't, so rather than generalise I'll talk about what I do as a doula.
There are two strands to my work - Birth Support and Postnatal Support.
Birth Support
Actually this is misnamed, because much of the support and the magic that happens is in the ante-natal period. Once you've hired me, we will need to get to know each other. I'll learn about what other birth preparation courses or activities you might have signed up for; find out about yours and your partner's (if you have one) hopes, needs and fears for the upcoming birth and then together we'll set about making sure the fears are explained and hopefully put to bed, find ways to make sure that your needs are met and find out how the hopes and dreams can come to pass. I bring my experience, my ongoing education and my passion to our meetings and we talk. I can provide information about anything pregnancy, birth or baby care related (there's a very high chance I'll lend you a book or three!) and I can signpost you to other local services if you identify a need for them.
I'll support you in writing your birth plan - multiple plans actually - we'll talk through the birth process and identify places where things might not go to plan and write a plan for those too. (I've said plan too much now) I don't provide any guarantees but I can say that working with a doula is proven to reduce the length of your labour and reduce the chance of an instrumental or caesarean birth. Which doesn't mean that those things won't happen but I'll be with you if they do. You'll feel informed and confident in the decisions that are right for you.
Usually my clients ask for me to be one of their birth partners, but I have also been asked to stay with existing children if the family have chosen a hospital birth and they have no-one else who they know will turn out in the middle of the night and stay for as long as is needed. Either way I go on call from 38 weeks until the baby is born.
If I'm a birth partner I'll come out to you as soon as you feel you want me, whether that's early labour or in more established labour, at home or in hospital. If you've agreed to an induction, I'll join you as soon as you are in "active labour" or whenever your partner needs a break. I'm very happy to support you in theatre for a surgical birth. I suppose the key word to use here is flexibility. If you need it, I'll do it, that's what you pay me for. Most of the time I'll stay with you until the baby is born and you are settled in your baby bubble whether that's in your own bed with the drink or tipple of your fancy and a delicious nourishing snack by your side, or on a postnatal ward.
Postnatal Support
Postnatal support can be booked alongside "Birth Support" or as a stand alone and it really does what it says on the tin. If we have not met through a birth support agreement we will meet antenatally for me to learn (again) what your hopes, needs and fears are for your postnatal period. Maybe your partner only has a few weeks off work and you want support with existing children and your new-born when he goes back to work. Maybe you need an extra pair of hands while you recover from a surgical birth, maybe the whole family wants/needs to be fed and light housework completed while you all bond and connect with your new family addition. I am an adequate cook and can bake a decent cake. Again I can provide information and signpost you to other services if you need it. I can support most initial breastfeeding journeys but if there appears to be something I don't have the skills to support I will definitely signpost you to the excellent lactation experts I've collected locally over the years. You can buy my postnatal support by the hour, or you can book a block of 20 hours to be taken as and when you need them.
What I don't do
I don't judge, expect anything of you and have no agenda in relation to your birth or postnatal period. However your family looks, whatever type of birth you want, wherever you want to give birth, that's all about you and I will support you fiercely. What I might do in similar circumstances is irrelevant because I am not you.
What a doula does is the very best job in the world.