Becoming a father part V: To Doula or Not to Doula

When my wife first brought up the idea of a doula I thought that this was a new kind of restaurant. She (somewhat) patiently explained to me that a doula was a labor attendent - someone who could help us out with our birth. I said, "Doesn't that kind of sound like my job? Isn't that what we've been going to all of these birthing classes for?" But she was determined and after talking to our Bradley teacher and some friends who were planning on using a doula I relented.

We contacted a few doulas and set up interviews. It was odd interviewing the prospective doulas. The two that we talked to had had some limited experience with unmedicated childbirth, but not enough to give us a warm fuzzy. Were we looking for the normal 7-and-a-long-needle birth, we would have been okay with either woman. As it was our search ended with Barb.

Barb was everything that we were looking for in a doula. She was an experienced doula with over 300 births under her belt. She was experienced with Bradley births and other natural births. She belonged to the St. Louis Midwives group and was a La Leche League leader. But besides her qualifications, she just had a calm, relaxed manner that put us at ease. In short, she was perfect.

After talking with her a short while I could understand while my wife wanted a doula. Here was a grizzled veteran of the delivery room while we were the green recruits just hoping to get through our first trip. Here was a voice of experience when things got rough. Our doula.