Doula Question ??

anyone - information??

sorry, karin. i don't have any info.

that woman sounds great though!

my good friend is a doula and she kept offering her services to me (for free) but i thought it would be too weird having her there so i declined. she never really told me what her services were though, i think she just assumed i knew.

i've never heard of hiring a photographer for the delivery. that's kind of neat.

I don't have any first hand information either because this is my first baby but i've read about them and my sil had one at her delivery. I think they just do all the massaging and helping you be comfortable while you're in labour. I want to get one but we can't afford the $300 or more that they charge so my friend told me she would do it for free but i know her from work and i felt like it would be too awkward. I feel bad enough that my mom and who knows who else is going to be looking at my hoo hoo.

Anyway, we had another lady offer to do it on a sliding scale, meaning we could pay whatever we can afford, but she was supposed to be here on sunday to meet with us and make a birth plan and she didn't show up and hasn't called again. I feel like we're pretty low priority now just because we don't have the money that other couples do. I'm thinking about just cancelling and doing without rather than feeling like she doesn't really want to be there. Both my sil and bil said their experience with the doula was wonderful and they were so glad to have her there, but they ended up having a c section anyway (she was induced). I have books and stuff on it if you are interested, but I'm sure you're looking for first hand knowledge.

I wish that we could afford a doula. Having a doula in the room significantly lowers your risk of having a c/s or using pain meds. I think it would be great to have someone else there that knows how to do all this stuff. I say go for it!

Thanks everyone. I also would find it awkward to have a friend, especially from work, be my doula. For some reason, it makes it easier when it's someone you don't know but you know has a lot of experiences. I did have a friend take the birth pictures and I had initially thought it would be strange for her to see me in full view. She was more of an acquintence (sp?) type friend through church so that wasn't so bad.

If those books are any good, perhaps you can PM me the names. I can see if they have them at my local library or I may just go to Barnes and Nobles. That woman who just didn't show up sounds extremely flaky. I can just see her skipping out on the labor and having some really lame excuse as to why she wasn't there. That is just so unprofessional. Perhaps something happened??

This women is charging $200 for everything and I think that is including pictures. It actually seems a bit low if it does include pictures. I guess it just depends where you live. It's still a bit pricey but my birth experience last time around really wasn't a good one at all. I really am going to attempt natural birth because last time I was so drugged up I couldn't even hold my son. I think it affected him as well. He opened his eyes immediately after birth but then didn't open them up until two days after. I had three epidurals that didn't work and ended up having a narcotic. My child was sunny side up and the back labor pain was so horrific my blood pressure was off the charts. I almost fainted a few times, which is why they gave me a narcotic. Either that or they gave me a narcotic because I kept yelling, "C section please!!"After that, I was flying high. I only pushed four times and he was out. However,due to the medication I couldn't feel the full emotions of just giving birth. My emotions were pretty much masked due to the narcotic. My whole family laughs when I tell them I want to go natural because I have absolutely no pain tolerance. I figure with a doula, she will do everything she can to keep to my birth plan.

That sounds great. I don't know anything about doulas. The delivery pictures sound awesome. I've never heard of that. It's something I would do if I'd ever go vaginally, but it looks like I'll just do sections for the rest. I did maternity pictures though at a studio with my husband. I love those pictures!!!

I had a doula both times, and the support was fantastic. She helped my dh keep it together when things got serious. I was so glad both times that I did. I ended up with a section the first time and the Doula stayed with me while dh went with baby. I had a very painful labor the 1st time and was so thankful for the extra support. The second time I had a breech baby who turned 2 weeks prior to her birthday. Which is too bad, because my labor was painless even at 7 cm. I had to do a c section again due to her being breech, and was agian very happy that someone could saty with me while my dh went to "protect his little girl" from the nursing staff. I say go for it!

"Mothering the mother" is a book about how doulas can help during labour. I think reading "birthing from within" (pam england) would also be a good idea if you are planning to go natural, plus it has information about doulas. I had a couple other books but i can't remember what they are called now because i took them back to the library. "The birth partner" (penny simkin) is a good one for your hubby if he is a reader. my guy is definitely not a reader, i got the book but he didn't even open it. i also got him a little book called "don't just stand there" for dads and he read most of that one. it's just a small handbook but he took the time to go through it because it had lots of pictures .