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Doulas FAQ

Whether you want be it a hospital birth, an all natural birth (or unmedicated birth), a home birth, a lotus birth, a c-section, a birth center birth, an epidural... I've got you covered.  The right way to birth is the way you choose!

Find out why birth matters and birth justice is the answer.

Doulas & Midwives in Herstory

From the beginning of time, ladies have consistently offered help and help to different birthing persons during childbirth. Anthropological information just as recorded work of art shows that birthing people were seldom left alone during labor and birth. Truth be told, a birthing person planning to conceive an offspring was quite often encircled by no less than two different ladies. One, a nurse midwife, helped with the child's birth, while the other gave ceaseless solace and consolation to the birth person. 

Today, this well established act of carrying solace and consolation to the birth mother, essentially "mothering the mother," has reappeared as the advanced "doula."

 

The word doula originates from the Greek word for “slave” and was coined in 1976 by Dana Raphael to describe an experienced woman who, after birth, assisted the mother with breastfeeding her baby (Klaus, M., Kennell, Berkowitz, & Klaus, P., 1992). Doulas gained popularity during the 1980s when women became distressed at the ever-increasing rate of cesarean sections. Women began to invite a female friend, their childbirth instructor, or an obstetrical nurse with whom they were friends to provide labor support in order to have an advocate to help them avoid routine procedures that could lead to a cesarean (Gilliland, 2002). Although a primary goal of today's doulas remains helping women avoid unnecessary cesareans, their scope of practice is much broader.  

Beyond holding hands: the modern role of the professional doula.

Gilliland AL

J Obstet Gynecol Neonatal Nurs. 2002 Nov-Dec; 31(6):762-9.

What is a midwife vs a doula?

A midwife is a clinical expert who can give a similar sort of care as an obstetrician over the span of a low-risk pregnancy and labor. During labor and delivery, clinical consideration is as yet in the possession of the midwife or specialist, and the doula turns into an expansion to the birth group as opposed to a substitution. 

While doulas don't give clinical consideration or counsel, they can assist a birthing person with having a more limited-time labor, frequently without the requirement for torment of pain management prescriptions, by giving consistent direction and support.

How Doulas help you

Numerous women and birthing persons who deliver a little one in medical environments don't understand they might be totally alone for timeframes. Nurses are normally accessible, yet can't go through each second with a patient. A doula is with the mother consistently during labor, offering direction and supportive care. 

 

Doulas may propose positions to assist with laboring move hastily, or for the mother to be more agreeable, in any event, when meds are utilized. They can likewise recommend solace measures like back rub, warm packs, laboring in a shower or with a birth ball. 

 

Extra services may be keeping relatives quiet and secure, assisting with exploring the medical clinic or birth focus framework, offering lactation assistance  after the birth, and recognizing emotionally supportive networks to help the post pregnancy period go more seamlessly.

Doula Benefits

Utilizing a doula can assist birthing people with having a more limited period of labor, are less likely to have a cesarean, be less inclined to require medicinal pain management, and be less likely to have a forceps birth. 

 

Birthing people are bound to report a positive encounter of their birth and are better prepared to bond with their infants when utilizing a doula, which has the additional advantage of lessening risk factors for postpartum depression.

Are Doulas covered by insurance?

are doulas coverded by insurance

"Studies in three states (Minnesota, Oregon, and Wisconsin) have concluded that Medicaid reimbursement of doula care holds the potential to achieve cost savings even when considering just a portion of the costs expected to be averted "(Chapple, Gilliland, Li, Shier, & Wright, 2013; Kozhimannil, Hardeman, Attanasio, Blauer-Peterson, & O’Brien, 2013; Tillman, Gilmer, & Foster, 2012). 

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Constant labor support by a prepared doula has demonstrated advantages and is perceived as a successful system to work on maternal and baby wellbeing, upgrade commitment and fulfillment with maternity care, and diminish spending. Local area based doula projects can likewise decrease or kill wellbeing inconsistencies by offering help to birthing people most in danger for negative results. The best method to expand utilization of this proof based help is wipe out cost hindrances. Key suggestions recognize various pathways to seek after Medicaid and private protection inclusion of doula care. This far reaching and exceptional stock of repayment alternatives gives the doula, childbirth, and quality networks, just as strategy creators, with numerous ways to deal with expanding admittance to this high-esteem type of care.

 

Some—but not all—insurance companies will cover all or part of the cost of a doula. Check with your insurance company to find out.  All services are available with a monthly payment plan, so be sure to ask for one if you are interested.

“One of the most effective tools to improve labor and delivery outcomes is the continuous presence of support personnel, such as a doula.”

—Caughey, Cahill, Guise, and Rouse (2014)

Here at Blue Dream Birth services, we advocate for increased funding for Medicaid to include doulas as part of their benefits.

 

Doula care, which incorporates nonclinical enthusiastic, physical, and educational help previously, during, and after birth, is a demonstrated key system to work on maternal and infant wellbeing. Medicaid and private protection repayment for doula care would expand the accessibility and availability of this kind of help and would propel the "Triple Aim" system of the National Quality Strategy by 

• Improving the nature of care by making it more available, safe, and birth person and family-focused (e.g., by upgrading birthing persons' experience of care and commitment in their consideration); 

• Improving wellbeing results for birthing persons and infants; and 

• Reducing spending on nonbeneficial operations, avoidable inconveniences, and preventable ongoing conditions

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