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Health: Doula's help during childbirth becoming popular
Having a baby is a magical and anxious time. Hannah Gray learns about a growing trend for hiring a doula, who can guide women through this often overwhelming experience.
Having a baby is a magical and anxious time. Hannah Gray learns about a growing trend for hiring a doula, who can guide women through this often overwhelming experience.I'm rather ashamed to admit it, but I did have some preconceived notions of what a doula and her clients might be like.
I imagined it as a self-consciously hippy trend of middle-class mums with a bit too much money to burn, and that the doula herself would be an "earth mother" type, all bangles and baggy clothing.
In reality, Sharon Budworth is down to earth, clever and also – significantly – a very calming person to be around.
Her clients come from a real mix of backgrounds, and Doula UK, the body which trains doulas, even has a hardship fund aimed at people who really want the help of a doula but can't afford the fees.
For the uninitiated, a doula is a woman who is employed by the mother or parents to offer support, but not advice, before and during labour.
There are also postnatal doulas, who support women after the birth.
In many ways, the kind of advice and support doulas offer sounds like the kind of backup a woman would expect to get from her own mother.
Of course not every woman is close, either physically or emotionally, to her mum, but I wondered if Sharon's clients were largely people who could not rely on their mums for support, for whatever reason.
It turns out that it is a real mix, and often even if they are on hand, mums are not always the right people to support women during child birth.
Sharon said: "There are women that do have mothers close by but they find their mothers are too close to them emotionally.
"I think you find that sometimes you could begin to worry about your family or they could influence you in a different way but with me they know they've booked me and I'm there for them."
Sharon (39), who lives near Huntingdon, became a doula in 2005 and has helped out at 14 births.
To train for the job, she went on a course accredited by Doula UK and also had to be assessed for her first four births.
Being mother to Poppy (10) Florence, seven, and Seth, three, she also had a wealth of experience of her own to draw on.
It was after having Seth that she decided she did not want to go back to her job in HR.
She had supported friends through labour and decided that was the kind of thing she would like to do in her career.
At about the same time as she became a doula, she started training training to be a yoga birth teacher, and now runs classes several times a week, including at Alwalton Village Hall.
These classes encompass, as you might expect, yoga, but also breathing for pregnancy and labour, birth preparation, a bit of physiology about the process of labour, interventions, inductions and life after birth.
Many of these elements can be found in the preparation that Sharon does with clients when working as a doula.
Typically, clients can expect to meet Sharon two to three times before the birth, and Sharon feels strongly about working with the couple to ensure they are all ready for the big event.She is then on 24-hour call-out for two weeks before and after the baby's due date.
When she gets into the delivery suite she is on hand to offer help and suggestions on comfort measures such as breathing, relaxation, movement and positions.
Most importantly, she provides support and reassurance, for both the woman and her partner.
After the baby has arrived, Sharon stays for an hour or two until she is convinced that the new family is doing well.
And once mother and baby have gone home, she usually follows up the process with a postnatal visit.
Sharon's birth package costs 500, regardless of how many visits are needed and how long the labour lasts.
She said that each client's needs vary.
"Some really do need lots of birth preparation and others want to have the reassurance and know that I'm going to be there and apart from that they don't need me much," she said.
Although being a doula is a job, clearly Sharon is never going to become a millionaire through it.
Because she is on call when her client is about to go into labour, she can only really have one client at a time and therefore only takes on six or seven a year.
She also does not initially snap up potential clients straight away, as she would rather ensure the woman finds the doula which is right for her.
"I always encourage the ladies to meet quite a few doulas," she said. "Apart from experience you really do need to click with that person."
One thing I was particularly curious about is how well-received Sharon is by the midwives.
Surely there must be some resentment at having another person in the delivery room?
"I've actually had all good and positive experiences with midwives. You do read, and I have heard, that there could possibly be friction for whatever reason," she said.
"I don't know why that comes about. I'm always respectful of them completely."
I'm also slightly curious as to how fathers feel about her, a relative stranger, being in the room for this most intimate of occasions. I think because they've signed up to it and we've already met beforehand, they've already sorted it out as a couple why they want a doula," she said.
"I think they're just very glad for the additional support. When I'm booked it always seems a joint decision from both partners."
What I find really touching is that Sharon stays in contact with her clients after her job is done. She said. "It's always very sad to say goodbye, its nice to keep in touch and receive pictures of the babies growing. They always know I'm here regardless of how long it's been, to give them some support."
It is also heartening to see how passionate she is about her work.
She said: "I like informing them so they can have a choice. I think it's really important that they have positive a experience whatever happens in their labour."I love babies anyway. I just love helping and supporting people and I just thought 'how wonderful to find something as a job that I already love doing'."
'Sharon was the one who was by my side'
Rebecca Coston (30) decided to employ a doula after becoming concerned about a lack of hospital staff.
"There were a lot of things in the press at the time about lack of staff, lack of midwives and really it was that sort of thing that made me decide on a doula," she said.
Initially she had thought of having a private midwife but found this was quite expensive, and so the midwife she had been talking to suggested a doula. I'm really pleased I did it. I don't think I could have got through it with just my husband because at the end of the day, she's got the experience," she said. Rebecca's mum lives fairly close by but was concerned that having had her children 30 years ago, she may not be all that much use in the delivery room.
Rebecca said: "I did say to my mum did she want to come and she said 'no way'. She said it's all changed and she said she didn't think she'd be much help."
Before the birth of Thomas, who is now three months old, Rebecca saw Sharon three times. During the labour, at Peterborough District Hospital (PDH) she found Sharon's help invaluable.
"I must admit Sharon was the one who was by my side all the time, I didn't necessarily want my husband.
"I had warned my husband, I said 'when I'm in a lot of pain I probably won't want you, I'll want Sharon'," she said.
Rebecca's husband Paul (29) also found the experience positive.
"I think he got a lot of comfort from Sharon," she said.
'She was fulfiling the same role as my husband'
City woman Chetna Patel (33) cannot sing Sharon's praises highly enough.
"I would say to people that are anxious and feel they need someone or need that extra support, in particular first-time mums, that it's a real benefit.
"It is like an extension of your family. It's someone that you can rely on," she said.
Chetna decided to have a doula partly because her family do not live in the Peterborough area.
Her parents live in Leeds and originally she asked her mum to come down for the birth, but when she researched doulas, decided that was the route she would rather go down.
Afterwards, her mum said she felt it had been the right decision.
"She said 'I don't think I could have done it because I'm too emotionally involved with you'. It was hard enough for my husband to see me in pain.
"I think even if I was closer to home I would have had a doula."
Her decision was also driven by a need for information as her pregnancy progressed.
"I guess we just felt uneasy about the lack of information. I'd read about doulas in one of my books, I'd read they were very common in America and Australia," she said.After Sharon's first visit, both Chetna and husband Jatin (36) were convinced they wanted to book her.
"For me I just wanted someone there who was going to know what I was going through. The minute we took her on my husband was relieved and felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders and I felt calmer," she said. When Chetna went into labour in June this year, Sharon went to the Patel's house, and remained there until she felt it was time to go into hospital.
Sharon then remained by Chetna's side throughout the 13-hour labour.
"She was almost fulfiling the same role as my husband but she's a bit more in tune with it because she's done it. She was really encouraging but she's not in your face. She takes your lead as to whether you want her there more or less," Chetna said.
During the labour, Sharon provided reassurance for Chetna and Jatin and also massaged Chetna and showed her better birthing positions.
Chetna started her labour in the midwife-led unit at Peterborough District Hospital but during the process, staff wanted to move her to the delivery suite.
Feeling she wanted to stay where she was, Chetna asked for more time, something she says she would not have done without Sharon's comforting presence.
"I think had Sharon not been there, because it's the first time, you take what somebody in authority is saying as a given," she said.
Chetna and Jatin's daughter Shivali was eventually born in the midwife-led unit and Chetna was able to have a bath in the same room where her newborn baby slept.
She says the whole experience was very positive, both in terms of having Sharon and also the work of the midwives.
"It was a brilliant experience, I couldn't fault the midwives that were there. It was good to also have Sharon there as well," she said.
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