What is a postpartum doula?
Thanks in part to incredible trainings like Julia Jones’ Newborn Mother’s Collective Training, doulas have increased in recognition over the past few years. More people are googling the term. More celebrities are posting about the role on social media. And these positions are no longer reserved for only major cities like New York or Los Angeles. In short, doulas are growing in popularity across the country.
Postpartum doulas step in and support families after a baby is born and usually through the few several weeks or months after birth. In most countries around the world, postpartum women are usually cared for by other women in their family or tribe after birth. Most cultures encourage women to spend the first 30-42 days recovering from birth. During this period of rest, mothers, sisters, aunts, and other women in the community tend to the new mother and her family’s needs. For example, in Germany, they have the concept of the first 10 days in bed, 10 days around the bed, 10 days around the home, and 10 days around the neighborhood. This is vastly different than in America, where one in four women return to work 2 weeks after childbirth. In today’s world, in the US, many women simply do not have the family or community support we traditionally once had.
While there is growing evidence of the importance of the postpartum period for mothers and babies, women continue to struggle to find help. This is where a postpartum doula can step in and fill a void in our healthcare system and culture. Postpartum doulas are trained professionals whose primary focus is on supporting the parents, especially the newborn mother. Doulas work to create a stress-free environment, being physically and emotionally available to the mother, caring for the newborn and providing parents with information, educational and emotional support in the weeks after the baby is born. Tasks are personalized and vary from mother to mother focusing on what brings her peace and joy.
The postpartum doula’s main purpose is to help mothers in the overwhelming, stressful, exhausting early days of parenthood. They present evidence-based information on things like emotional and physical recovery from birth, mother-baby bonding, infant soothing and feeding, and basic newborn care. Doulas are there to answer endless streams of questions, navigate delicate and unsaid hopes, expectations, nerves, relationships, and help process birth experience, joys, frustrations, and concerns.
Support can look like this:
Food and drink preparation
Practical tools for parents
Birth processing
Baby care, feeding, and sleep tips
Suggestions on how partner and family can help
Listen to how mother and partner are feeling
Answering questions
Extra set of hands for parents to nap, bathe, spend time with other children
Light household tasks like tidying, dishes, vacuuming
Sharing professional referrals
Set up a meal train
Help with young children
Belly binding
Caring for mother
Whether the first baby or fifth baby, pregnancy and birth take a toll on the mother’s body and she needs time to rest and recover. A postpartum doula is there to mother the mother, focus on her peace and joy, and help her transition into her new role with confidence. Parents can rest easy knowing their postpartum doula is the support system in the house, there to nurture and care for the family in the overwhelming newborn days. Postpartum doula’s goal is to work themselves out of a job by caring for the mother, helping her heal, and encouraging families to find their new rhythm by caring for and integrating the newborn into their lives. Families want to be prepared for anything that might come up after birth and hiring a postpartum doula is an excellent way to ensure that support surrounds the family during such an exciting and important transition in life, allowing them to focus on love and joy.
Interested in serving this space as a postpartum doula? I can’t recommend Julia Jones’ Newborn Mother’s Collective Training enough. It’s a comprehensive online training with a beautiful global view of the postpartum experience. Follow this link to sign up for the training,
