Doulas mother the mother.

A woman's needs during childbirth and the days that follow can vary from mother to mother. In addition to medical care and the love and companionship provided by their partners, women need consistent, continuous reassurance, comfort, encouragement and respect.  

Doulas are educated and experienced in childbirth, providing physical (non-medical), emotional and informational support to expectant mothers and their partners during labor and birth. Offer a loving touch, positioning and comfort measures, doulas make childbearing women and families feel nurtured and cared for.

Numerous clinical studies have found that a doula's presence at birth:

• tends to result in shorter labors with fewer complications
• reduces negative feelings about one's childbirth experience
• reduces the need for Pitocin (a labor-inducing drug), forceps or vacuum extraction and cesareans
• reduces the mother's request for pain medication and/or epidurals
• women report greater satisfaction with their birth experience, make more positive assessments of their babies and experience less postpartum depression
• babies born with doulas present tend to have shorter hospital stays with fewer admissions to special care nurseries, breastfeed more easily and have more affectionate mothers in the postpartum period.