Doula comes from a Greek word and means “mothering the mother”.  Motherhood is a major life transition.  The adjustment period feels less overwhelming when people are available to address your questions and concerns.  That is why women and their families value the help a doula offers.  By giving emotional and breastfeeding support along with practical newborn care tips and taking care of necessary household tasks such as:  grocery shopping, meal preparation, dishes, laundry or tending to older children, a doula helps ease your transition into motherhood.

In other cultures, a circle of women automatically provides for new families.  This community effort is often lost here in the US where Moms are expected to make the transition to parenthood instantly without support or recognition.  However, more and more of today’s new mothers are wisely seeking the assistance of a doula.  By retaining the services of a doula, you are insuring that your basic needs as a new mother will be met.  Those needs are simple:  rest so your body heals; gentle education and reassurance as you gain confidence in your mothering skills; healthy food and drinks; a relinquishing of household chores; knowledge about what is taking place with your body and spirit; some realistic guides about the range of emotions other women have experienced postpartum; someone to talk with about your birth and emotions; some mothering for yourself.  Seeking and planning these things does not make you a weak woman, but rather a wise one. 

Many of our mothers and extended family members are not always available to help.  Even if they are available, some of them do not have the breastfeeding experience to support a nursing mother.  Although it is “natural”, breastfeeding is a learned skill for mothers and babies. 

Phone: 618.243.6005

Email: 5locums@earthlink.net

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Did you know?

·           Dr. Sears recommends using a postpartum doula in his book, The Baby Book.

·           Much of parenting is a learned behavior and not all instinct and motherwit.

·           Nurturers of infants need nurturing themselves.

·           A doula decreases your chances of suffering postpartum depression.

·           Women started being discharged from the hospital earlier postpartum during WWII due to staff shortages.   Before then a minimum stay was 10 days.