Postpartum doulas are an invaluable, lesser known birth professional. As a new mother or father, you can benefit from inviting a professional postpartum doula into your home after giving birth.
Whether this is your first or fifth child. or if you gave birth vaginally or by C-section, a postpartum doula can help make your time after giving birth a blissful, enjoyable time.
New parents who have enough practical and emotional support adjust to parenting better than those who do not. A postpartum doula helps take care of the home so that you can focus on bonding, breastfeeding, resting and recovering.
A postpartum doula is right there to encourage and support you when you need it most.
New mothers who have a support network including their partner, family members, care providers, doulas, counselors and peer groups have greater breastfeeding success, greater self-confidence and feel less overwhelmed.
Hiring a postpartum doula can benefit not only you and your baby but also your partner, family and extended family as well. A postpartum doula can teach you and anyone who will be caring for the baby about the newest methods and philosophies in parenting as well as reaffirm methods tried and true.
The postpartum doula fills in the gaps when you do not have enough support available. This could be because you are separated from loved ones by great distances, work demands or many other circumstances. This could mean that you are ill- prepared or feeling overwhelmed or isolated.
By hiring a postpartum doula, you will benefit from the wealth of information and experience on what to expect in the days, weeks and months after giving birth.
The doula does this by educating and supporting the parents hands on with breastfeeding support, newborn care and what a healthy newborn looks like, bonding and attachment, and coping skills.
The postpartum doula can also connect you with community resources and local care providers as needed. The doula will also help you access, expand or even create a circle of support within your community.
Parents who have the type of support that a postpartum doula can provide, enjoy the following benefits during their postpartum period:
| • Increased chance of breastfeeding success | |
| • Reduced chance of infant dehydration and hospitalization with health complications due to informed care | |
| • Less chance of maternal postpartum depression and shorter duration and easier for mother to cope with it if it occurs | |
| • Less maternal exhaustion, frustration, and apprehension during early weeks. | |
| • Reduction in unnecessary calls to pediatricians | |
| • Dad back to work sooner with less anxiety | |
| • Greater understanding of newborn emotional and physical needs and behavior | |
| • More independent control of baby’s care in the face of overbearing relatives and advice givers due to education and early positive experience. | |
| • Earlier bonding due to more confidence | |
| • Paying for a doula gives relatives a way to give constructive help |
