We are fortunate to have a fairly large contingent of doulas in the Hudson Valley. A group of local women who preserving the warmhearted tradition of the doula are making a difference in the lives of not only expectant mothers, but their babies and other family members, including, of course, the fathers or birth partners.
Tara Schatzel, herself a mother of three, has been a certified doula since 2003. She had always been interested in helping her friends who were having babies. Having had her own first child already, she assisted one friend and her husband who were having their first. Then, when an older woman who was nervous about a coming birth needed advice, Schatzel decided to educate herself, using both the internet and some nurse friends who told her about doulas. She found a lot to appreciate.
“We want every woman to feel happy at the end of her birthing experience,” Schatzel said.
To achieve this, it is necessary that the prospective mothers know all their options. “Our goal is to educate women early in their pregnancy as to their choices,” Schatzel explained. Letting women know all their options helps them make birthing plans best suited to their individual lives and preferences. “If you’re not educated to the options you may not have the birthing experience you want.”
Women making informed choices is important to the doulas. No longer restricted to one birthing method most health care professionals and childbirth educators today have embraced the plethora of techniques that have been developed by enlightened practitioners in recent decades, or, in some cases, re-discovered from ancient times. Among the many possibilities for mothers-to-be are the Bradley method (husband coached), Lamaze (breathing exercises), LeBoyer (dim, quiet room), water births, massage, and hypno-birthing.
However, “It’s not all about doing it one way. It’s important to learn many techniques,” stated Fiona Cottrell.
Cottrell is both a Birth Doula and a Post-Partum Doula, which means she also helps the parents adjust to their new lives with a baby, e.g., diet, feeding, and nap times. In addition, this mom works as an Obstetrical Technician in the Birthing Center at Northern Dutchess Hospital. Like Schatzel, Cottrell also had a friend who was concerned about an impending birth, and had asked Cottrell to be her doula. She looked up information about the service, and then, by a happy coincidence, Cottrell was visiting Florida when DONA training was taking place. Certified in 1999, she organized Hudson Valley Birth Professionals in 2006, and they held a free program about pregnancy and birth services at Babies R Us in Wappingers Falls. This was followed up by “Reel Event,” a film and discussion night in Fall of last year.
Sakinah Irizarry is another local member of Hudson Valley Doulas who is very keen on the many advantages of this age-old system of caring. Irizarry was inspired to get training when a younger sister was going through the pregnancy and birth process in 2005.
“I realized there is little support for young mothers in the hospital,” Irizarry said. “The great thing about doulas is they are with the mother and her partner every step of the way.”
Irizarry’s first birthing assistance was with her own nephew. The better to help her sister, she talked to a friend, lactation consultant, Leanne O’Connor, who led her to the doula training program. Irizarry then made contact with Cottrell and joined Hudson Valley Birth Professionals. She is also training as a massage therapist and plans to do both pre-natal and post-natal massage therapy.
This sort of whole care of the expectant mother may once have seemed like an auxiliary to mainstream ob/gyn medical attention, but more and more people are realizing how valuable such services as massage can be for any mother and child. The relief of stress is much more than a nicety; it can eliminate considerable pain and trauma for both parties.
One of the stress-relieving options that Hudson Valley Birth Professionals offer to women and families is learning ways to avoid medication when in labor. As Irizarry pointed out, it is absurd that women are told to avoid putting any unnecessary substances into their bodies while pregnant, and then as soon as they are in the labor room many of them are given pain relieving drugs that are not good for the baby. There are alternative techniques to medication that are just as effective in most cases. Such tactics as moving around rather than lying on one’s back during a painful labor, breathing exercises, visualization and deep relaxation techniques, massage by the birth partner and/or doula, and hypnosis are among the natural methods of pain relief that doulas tell women about. The recovery of the mother has been shown to be much quicker without drugs. For babies, too, it is a clear plus. They are far more alert and calm.
“The baby’s eyes look around so much more quickly and the baby is generally more lively when the mother has not had medication,” Cottrell noted.
Schatzel pointed out that Caesarean deliveries also can benefit from the knowledge imparted by the doula. Those who have a C-section take 5 times longer to recover than an unmedicated completely natural vaginal birth. Contrary to feeling that they have been pressured into an unwanted procedure, “We are trying to give the birth experience back to women.” Cottrell added that first time mothers don’t always understand how important it is to have a positive birth experience, for both themselves and their child. “There are no do-overs,” she said. If she isn’t given sufficient information, “Only afterwards does the mother realize she should have read more.” |
The defining of the labor partner’s role is a key factor. Whether it is the baby’s father, a relative, or a friend, the labor partner is fully included in the process. Because doulas are skilled in how best to touch the mother to alleviate labor pains, the doula can help the father or partner help the mother. Part of his role is to be there to enjoy the experience with the mother. And with a doula present, the partner does not have to feel that all the responsibility is on him. Sharing the burden is part of what a doula does - such little things as getting some juice or a snack for the birthing couple so the partner doesn’t have to leave the room.
The doula understands that many fathers/partners are nervous themselves, and she can make suggestions to the partner ahead of time that will relax both parties in the labor room. Simply telling the mother she is beautiful or rubbing her shoulders makes both of them feel better.
The possibility of a water birth appeals to some parents. Both Northern Dutchess and Benedictine Hospitals offer this choice. As the baby is coming from a warm, damp environment inside the mother’s womb, it is actually reasonable for birth to take place with the mother in a warm tub. The baby does not need to breathe underwater, as the uninitiated might fear. Rather, he or she is still receiving oxygen through the umbilical cord until it is cut, so there is no danger of drowning with a water birth. Of course, the doctor is in attendance in any case.
Another gentle transitional birth technique is called HypnoBirthing, wherein the mother’s stress - and therefore, the baby’s, as well - is reduced by hypnosis. “The power of the mind is so strong,” Schatzel declared. “You can convince your body that it can do this.” “It’s all about breaking the fear/tension cycle,” Irizarry attested. “Hypnosis lessens tension so the body can do what it needs to do.” Cottrell has had training in HynoBirthing and witnessed the difference it can make. With one mother who tried it for her second birth, she was so relaxed, “The baby practically fell out,” Cottrell laughed. “We really like to share these good birth stories.”
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(L to R front row) Jency Elliot HypnoBirthing Practitioner: Dana Scarano Doula (CD) D.O.N.A . Licensed Massage Therapist, (L to R back row) Fiona Cottrell: Birth and Postpartum Doula, OB Tech: Tara Shatzel, Doua (CD) D.O.N.A.; Johanna Haglethorn, RN, Bradley Childbirth Educator and Sakinah Irizarry, Birth Doula.
All are members of the Hudson Valley Birth Professionals |
With so many choices, it is essential that all families have a birth plan worked out well in advance of delivery day. It must be kept in mind, however, that things may not go as planned. Even so, when there is a plan in place, and you’ve expressed it clearly to your care practitioners, that process forces you to think of what you want and don’t want. For example, if you want dim lighting, you want be allowed to eat or drink during labor, to be in a bed or in a chair: these things can be discussed with your doctor ahead of time for maximum comfort later on. Some of the things we’ve been told automatically over the years, such as no moving around during labor, are now recognized as perfectly acceptable.
Happily, most doctors and hospitals are aware of the benefits of doulas and alternative birthing methods these days. Hudson Valley Birth Professionals have found good cooperation in area birthing centers and they regularly partner with traditionally trained nurses, some of whom are members of HV Childbirth Educators.
Other birth-related issues that HV Birth Professionals have been helping new mothers with are breast feeding and circumcision. For years women were led away from the practice of breast feeding, only to be brought back to it as research proved the many benefits of mother’s milk. Even a relatively short period of breast feeding can provide babies with not only essential nutrients, but many disease prevention and reduction factors, such as a strengthened immune system. And for the mother, breast feeding helps her uterus to contract more quickly, post partum. Doulas show inexperienced mothers the best way to feed their child in this natural way.
Likewise, the once nearly-automatic practice of circumcision has been rethought in recent years, and is now strictly a matter of choice, not health. Religious reasons for it are still very much a factor, but the myth that it was somehow dangerous to leave the foreskin on has been debunked.
Some of the amazing statistics on the beneficial effects of using a doula during labor and delivery are a 50% reduction in the caesarian rate, 25% shorter labor time, 50% decrease in epidural requests, 40% reduction in oxytocin use, 30% reduction in analgesia use, and a 40% reduction in forceps delivery.
Long-term benefits include improved breast-feeding, increased time spent with baby, increased maternal satisfaction with the birth experience, and decreased post-partum depression.
(This last has been a much underestimated problem that causes untold misery to millions of women, and it was not well understood how devastating it can be until fairly recently.)
Whether they are helping with the labor and birth or the post-partum period, doulas are all
about bringing comfort and practical knowledge to the mother and her family. Perhaps most important of all, they bring a positive attitude toward the birthing process.
“We celebrate your pregnancy with you,” Schatzel enthused. She is studying pre- and post-natal exercise now, to help women maintain a strong body before and after. Schatzel even offers pregnancy photography and belly casting services to bring an added measure of fun and happy memories to the whole experience. This can be another way to encompass older siblings and make them feel included.
As for the method of birthing, Irizarry affirms that doulas, “find what resonates with you, individually.” She reassures that although she and her colleagues advocate natural birth, they will fully support whatever the mother wants. There are sometimes medical problems that make natural birth inadvisable. Cottrell concurred that they do not impose their own ideas. They are not judgemental about pain relief, for example, but make sure that the mother has all the relevant information so she can make her best personal choice.
For the future, Irizarry expressed the wish that funding would be available for lower-income women to have access to this wonderful service.
“I would like to see some type of sponsoring for doulas for poor communities,” she said. “So many don’t have the facilities.” Although service wives often have volunteer doulas available, Irizarry noted that a great deal of government money is spent on pushing baby formula onto poor women, whereas government sponsorship of in-hospital doula programs would be more beneficial.
Schatzel would like to see full “Pregnancy Education,” in which the entire nine months, and even the time before conception, are taken into account. If women take care of their bodies before they make a new life, their children will be better off. Simple measures such as including folic acid in their diet are of great value.
For her part, Cottrell hopes that more women will consider using doulas’ services. That all women know the expanding choices they can access is of paramount importance to her.
The better to share the good word about positive birthing, Hudson Valley Birth Professionals are holding a Free Workshop, called “Healthy Pregnancy and Birth,” this Saturday, March 24th, at the Women’s View Health Annex of the Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck. The Free Workshop is from 10 am to 12 noon, and will feature a wide variety of topics concerning the choices available to the mother and her labor partner. More details are available at the website, www.BirthandBabies.org. Or call the hospital at 845-871-4380.
The Kingston Hospital Family Maternity Center is offering a series of classes called “Great Expectations.” Among the The 2007 schedule, which just began in February, continues with meetings on April 26th, June 28th, August 23rd, and October 25th, all 6:30-9 pm. Partners are welcome and light refreshments are included. Call 845-331-3131, ext. 2241 to register for these programs.
Cottrell, Schatzel, Irizarry, and other HV Doulas, including Dana Scarano Jill Kiernan, and Nadine Hoffstatter, travel around the region to perform their work. Thanks to enthusiastic referrals from childbirth educators and client word-of-mouth, they have been called in from Hudson to Poughkeepsie, from Albany to New Jersey. They are gearing up now for the Kingston Baby Fair, coming this May under the auspices of Maternal Infant Services Network. Irizarry’s contact info is at the Birth and babies website (above). Schatzel’s info is at www.thedoula.org. And Cottrell is available at www.babymoon.org.
By explaining options, dispelling myths, and giving comfort to expectant mothers and their families, doulas are continuing an enduring and life-affirming tradition. |
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