What is a Postpartum Doula?
A postpartum doula provides non- medical, physical, practical and emotional support for women postpartum. Her focus is to support household so that the newborn mother and baby can rest, recover and learn the dance of breastfeeding. Ideally, family and friends might help out once the new family has settled in after birth. A postpartum doula can help to fill in the gaps by providing education, guidance and nurturing support to new moms, dads, grandparents or any other caregivers. The benefit of inviting a postpartum doula into your home, is that this guidance is tailored to meet your needs and provided in the comfort of your own home.
What Exactly Does a Postpartum Doula Do?
The Prima Doula provides practical, emotional, non-medical physical support as well as various levels of postpartum wellness and breastfeeding education and support including but not limited to:
Creating a postpartum plan
Immediate postpartum support for vaginal and cesarean births
In-home postpartum care
Breastfeeding education and support
Processing your birth
Postpartum depression education, screening and referral, if necessary
Newborn care education and support
Light meal reparation, Grocery shopping
Light household tasks, Laundry
Nursery prep, To buy or not to buy
Have something else in mind? just ask!
But what about Dad? Grandma? Aren’t they enough?
Many partners feel like they alone will be enough to support the newborn mother as she navigates the waters of childbirth and postpartum. Yet, they fail to realize they they themselves can benefit from extra support during this time. By providing education, practical and emotional support, breastfeeding education and support and assistance with realistic postpartum planning, a postpartum doula can help everyone in the newborn household have a smooth transition into the new normal.
What kind of training does a doula have?
I completed my bachelor’s degree in Family Science at the University of Maryland in 2008. I then went on to work as a support worker for first time mothers with a community non-profit organization. In 2012, I completed my postpartum doula training with Birth Arts International.
