What is Doula?"Doula" is an ancient Greek word.
Loosely translated, it means assistant to women. In past centuries, a woman during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum was supported and attended by other women in her family and surrounding community. Until the 1900's women were typically attended by midwives for medical care, and birth took place at home with the woman surrounded by family and friends. In recent years the word Doula has come to mean a person, generally a woman, who supports women, couples, and families during pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum. Doulas are individuals and each of us has our own strengths and areas of expertise. There are assistants with different specialties such as fertility, high-risk pregnancies, difficult birth circumstances, adoption,breastfeeding, postpartum depression and so on. Many assistants attend births; however there are Doulas that contract exclusively for postpartum support. |
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What is a Doula?