Doulas: A Key to Shorter Labors and Better Births

Doulas: A Key to Shorter Labors and Better Births
By Kristen Hart

What would you do if you were told that scientific studies have uncovered a way to have a shorter labor with less pain -- and that method is completely natural? Would you get excited? Many women hope for a shorter, natural birth. And studies have proven there is a way for women to have this. This amazing way to help laboring women is called the doula.

A doula is another woman who stays with a mother throughout labor and birth. The word "doula" comes from a Greek word that means "servant" or "women’s servant." A doula is a traditional role that women have been filling for centuries. Careful scientific studies in this century have proven what birthing women have always known -- doulas help women to have better birth outcomes.

Proven Around the World

International studies have shown the benefit of doulas to birthing women. Women who have continuous doula support during labor have a lower cesarean section rate and a lower rate of assisted vaginal delivery (forceps and vacuum extraction). These results are consistent no matter what country the woman is giving birth in.

One to one care has been shown to shorten labor by two hours or more. A hospital in Dublin, Ireland gives all birthing women one-to-one, continuous support. At this hospital almost all mothers have labors of twelve hours or less. Studies in the United States have also shown that women who use doula support have shorter labors.

Doulas even help women choosing epidural pain relief to have better birth outcomes. A woman who chooses and epidural and doula support is less likely to have a cesarean section and is more likely to have an unassisted vaginal delivery.

Minimizing Interventions

A birthing woman who chooses to have a doula support her throughout labor is less likely to need synthetic oxytocin (Pitocin). Synthetic oxytocin results in stronger, harder contractions that many women have a hard time dealing with. The doula is full of wisdom to help a woman progress through labor, which lessens the likelihood of needing a synthetic hormone boost.

If a woman is induced or has synthetic oxytocin given to her during labor, her doula is able to help her cope with the strong contractions. Doulas are able to assist birthing women in a multitude of ways.

Helping Fathers Too

Even fathers find that doulas benefit them. Births where a father and doula are present usually result in happy parents. The fathers feel like they were given the support that they needed. A doula is able to help the father help the mother as much as possible. Doulas are also able to give continous care to each mother, allowing the father to take a break or freeing him to be there emotionally for the mother.

A True Asset

Doulas help mothers of all ages. Studies have shown that when young mothers are given doula support they have better birth outcomes and a higher breastfeeding rate. Older mothers are also assisted by a confident doula who has many ideas to help the mother through labor.

A doula is truly an asset to any birthing team. If you are looking for a shorter labor with less pain, find a doula in your community. Your doula is in infinite source of wisdom and support -- no matter where you give birth, how you give birth, or who else you want with you. Allow yourself the luxury of someone focused completely on your success -- have a doula on your team.

Kristen Hart is the owner of http://www.naturalbirthandbabycare.com She is passionate and committed to helping women have healthy pregnancies and happy, natural births. Learn more about doulas, pregnancy, and natural birth at http://www.naturalbirthandbabycare.com

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Being a Doula

The Ins and Outs of Being a Doula
By Julie Johnson

A doula is a Greek word meaning “woman servant.” Doulas are trained professionals helping and guiding a woman and her partner through childbirth. A doula provides a continuous presence during labor and delivery as she takes care of a mother’s emotional and non-medical needs.

ARE YOU DOULA MATERIAL?

Do you pick up childbirth magazines, immediately turning to the labor section, and you aren’t even pregnant? Do you long to talk to anyone who is pregnant? I was this way before I became a doula or labor assistant. When I was looking for a new career path after the birth of my second child, I came across a doula when I was waiting in line to register my son for preschool. I was in a certified doula training class a month later and have never looked back. Now, I want to help other women who are passionate about childbirth and want to pursue a life change into the doula world. Once you decide that you want to become a doula, you will never be the same person again.

ALL NIGHTERS AND SHORT DELIVERIES

No one can prepare you for the all nighters. This is the hardest part of being a doula. You are consistently offering massage, suggestions on positioning and explanations of medical procedures throughout the night. You do all this with a smile on your face and a positive attitude. Some labors will take you through two whole nights. Try doing this when you are not a coffee drinker.

Some deliveries are long, some are short. This helps balance your doula practice. Thirty-six hours or 4 hours, either way you walk away from the delivery on a natural high. You feel on top of the world because you were apart of an extraordinary experience. You were able to provide assistance to a laboring mother and serve in a unique way.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The first thing you have to do is check into a certified doula program with CAPPA, Doulas of North America(DONA) and Lamaze International for local trainings. Get involved with local doula groups for support and friendship. Read everything you can get your hands on and talk to every pregnant woman you find.

Julie L. Johnson is a wife and mother of three who has experienced every pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum and breastfeeding situation there is and has lived to tell about. She is a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator, Certified Doula and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant practicing in Southern California. Her website http://www.mybirthangel.com provides services and products to help ease transition through motherhood. The products also make great doula “Thank You” gifts or for a baby shower.

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Acupuncture Helps Mothers Breast Feed

Acupuncture Helps Mothers Breast Feed
By Susanna Ng

So now not only acupuncture can control pain, it can also help a mother to have a smooth breast feeding experience. A group of Swedish scientists set out to compare acupuncture treatment and care interventions for the relief of inflammatory symptoms of the breast during lactation, and to investigate the relationship between bacteria in the breast milk and clinical signs and symptoms in a randomised, non-blinded, controlled study.

The researchers are from Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Helsingborg Hospital and Faculty of Social and Life Sciences, Karlstad University in Swede.

205 mothers with 210 cases of inflammatory symptoms of the breast during lactation agreed to participate. The mothers were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups, two of which included acupuncture among the care interventions and one without acupuncture.

All groups were given essential care. Protocols, which included scales for erythema, breast tension and pain, were maintained for each day of contact with the breast feeding clinic. A Severity Index (SI) for each mother and each day was created by adding together the scores on the erythema, breast tension and pain scales. The range of the SI was 0 (least severe) to 19 (most severe).

Significant differences were found in the mean SI scores on contact days 3 and 4 between the non-acupuncture group and the two acupuncture groups. Mothers with less favourable outcomes (6 contact days, n=61) were, at first contact with the midwife, more often given advice on correction of the baby’s attachment to the breast. An obstetrician was called to examine 20% of the mothers, and antibiotic treatment was prescribed for 15% of the study population. The presence of Group B streptococci in the breast milk was related to less favourable outcomes.

“If acupuncture treatment is acceptable to the mother, this, together with care interventions such as correction of breast feeding position and babies’ attachment to the breast, might be a more expedient and less invasive choice of treatment than the use of oxytocin nasal spray,” the researchers wrote.

However, no significant difference was found in numbers of mothers in the treatment groups, with the lowest possible score for severity of symptoms on contact days 3, 4 or 5. No statistically significant differences were found between the treatment groups for number of contact days needed until the mother felt well enough to discontinue contact with the breast feeding clinic or for number of mothers prescribed antibiotics.

The researchers add that midwives, nurses or medical practitioners with specialist competence in breast feeding should be the primary care providers for mothers with inflammatory symptoms of the breast during lactation. The use of antibiotics for inflammatory symptoms of the breast should be closely monitored in order to help the global community reduce resistance development among bacterial pathogens.

Journal: Midwifery. 2007 Jun;23(2):184-95. Epub 2006 Oct 18

I’m a Vancouver-based newspaper editor. I have long wished to build an info website about evidence-based Chinese medicine. Chinese Medicine News is an info weblog dedicated to reporting evidence-based studies and research on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). With the growing interests in alternative medicine from the public around the world, it is important for them to get informed of the validity and reliability of the herbs they want to take / are taking. For more information please visit: Chinese Medicine News

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Seek Breastfeeding Help

Seek Breastfeeding Help From Professionals
By Apurva Jain

As a first-time mother, you might be quite unaware of the techniques and intricacies of breastfeeding and in such a situation breastfeeding help can be a good source of much needed information. You can get proper advice regarding many aspects of breastfeeding such as how to take care of the baby, the right time to feed it, what type of feed you should take, when you should go to sleep and what to feed the baby if you run out of milk. Breastfeeding help would be ideal when you are exhausted after the birth of the baby. You would also gain immensely from the advice of lactation consultants at this stage.

Lactation consultants are available either in hospitals or in the office of a pediatrician. They also work privately and it is advisable for first time mothers to consult them shortly after the birth of the baby so that proper breastfeeding techniques are adopted from the very beginning. It is essential to know about latch-on basics but merely reading text and seeing pictures might not be of great help. Instead, if voluntary breastfeeding counselors show you the techniques practically, you would be in a much better position to feed your baby properly and also avoid latch-on problems such as sore nipples and the baby getting less milk. Lactation services are also provided by many hospitals as a component of their maternity schemes.

Lactation consultants can provide proper breastfeeding help and breastfeeding tips if your baby finds it difficult to latch-on or suck or if some other medical problems are making it difficult for the baby to breastfeed. All that you need to do is to look around, make some queries and find a good and experienced lactation expert. You can take the help of your childbirth educator, or the health care provider for finding the best lactation consultant in your area. It’s important to check the credentials of the lactation consultant and you should look for the credentials IBCLC (international board certified lactation consultant) or CLC (certified lactation consultant) after the name.

Many nursing mothers get specific problems regarding breastfeeding. These problems need special devices such as pumps or breast shells to facilitate the discharge of the milk. A lactation consultant is the best person who can guide the mother on the proper use of the breastfeeding pump and how to eliminate the problem that created the need for the external device.

There are many volunteer organizations like La Leche Volunteers that provide breastfeeding help either on the telephone or through support meetings. Many leaflets and books are also published by them to provide breastfeeding help to the mothers and to give all possible information and support to the mothers who can gain sufficient confidence and practical knowledge. By attending the monthly meetings, the mothers can interact with each other and exchange notes based on their personal experiences. Moreover, the mothers can gain proper knowledge regarding positioning of the baby near the breast, public place breastfeeding and general tips regarding mothering.

You can get the best breastfeeding help only from professionals and as such you should turn to such lactation experts or to the volunteer organizations that have sufficient experience in this field.

If you have any doubts related to breastfeeding, do not worry because you can seek breastfeeding help from lactation consultants. You can either speak to your doctor or seek online breastfeeding help from volunteer organizations that would provide you more information and details about breastfeeding on issues such as, latch-on basics, using a breastfeeding pump. Search online for breastfeeding counselors or good books on breastfeeding.

Pregnancy provides more information on breastfeeding and pregnancy related issues.

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Benefits of Hiring a Professional Lactation Consultant

7 Benefits of Hiring a Professional Lactation Consultant
By Kristi Patrice Carter

A lactation consultant is an experienced professional that is specially trained to assist breastfeeding mothers. She may or may not be certified and will likely have varying experience working with mothers and their infants. In addition, their training will vary significantly. For instance, some Lactation Consultants are also Licensed Practical Nurses, or LPNs, and have successfully completed nurse training. Whereas some Lactation Consultants are certified IBCLCs (International Board Certified Lactation Consultants), who have completed course work, clinical practice hours, and passed an exam that covers breastfeeding, milk production, management of breastfeeding complications, etc. Unlike a nurse or physician, the IBCLC designation does not mean that they have a certain amount of experience; it just means that they have passed their exam and have been certified.

That said, if you're a new or experienced mother that is looking for support from a professionally trained person, then a Lactation Consultant is the way to go. Here are 7 Benefits of hiring your very own Lactation Consultant:

1. Your lactation consultant can help you with your breastfeeding concerns, which can include breast infections and clogged ducts, offer treatment suggestions, address milk production issues, etc.

2. She can answer all of your breastfeeding questions. Just
consider her your real live breastfeeding guide.

3. She can show you proper positioning or "latch on" techniques that can eliminate any physical discomfort.

4. She can help you diagnose signs of a breast infection and offer recommendations. For instance, if you have any redness or pain and/or have flu-like symptoms, she may conclude you have mastitis and give you a regime of warm compress, rest, more frequent breastfeeding, pain medication, etc.

5. She can provide general information about breastfeeding, as well as how to successfully wean baby when you're ready.

6. She can help you recognize signs that your baby is "rooting" or ready to feed so that you can respond to baby's hunger cues.

7. Your lactation consultant can help you increase your milk supply by suggesting you breastfeed more frequently, eliminate all pacifiers, or recommend holistic remedies like Milk Thistle, Fenugreek or other Galactogogues in order to increase your milk supply.

In conclusion, a professional lactation consultant can be your key to successful
breastfeeding. By hiring the right person and following her advice, you can receive the support you need and handle any breastfeeding issues with strength, knowledge and confidence.

For additional information about breastfeeding and weaning your child, please visit http://www.breastfeedingweaning.com, a valuable resource that provide mothers with quality information and tips on breastfeeding and weaning their children.

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