When Should You CALL Your Doula?
Posted on:
September 3, 2019 | Doula, Doula Business, Doula Inspiration, Labor & Birth
You’re having a baby and you’ve hired a doula. Good for you!
You likely hired that doula to mitigate as much nervousness and anxiety as possible around this birth, and not knowing when to call that doula should not contribute to the nerves and anxiety. So, we here at ProDoula, are breaking it down for you!
First of all, you should call your doula whenever you want to!
I mean, we know that you’re the kind of person that knows the difference between a non-emergent question that can wait until morning and one that you need answered NOW.
If you are losing sleep because something is causing you physical or emotional unrest, call your doula!
That’s why you hired one. In this scenario, your doula will offer educational and emotional support. It might look like them conveying information to you, providing you with a resource or assessing whether or not what you are experiencing is within the scope of normal, or beyond. If it’s
You should call your doula after each of your prenatal visits!
Those 15 prenatal minute visits with your provider can feel short, sometimes rushed and a bit anticlimactic. A chat with your doula right after will keep them up-to-date on how things are going with your pregnancy and your feelings about it. It can also feel like a bit of an extension on the day’s pregnancy conversation and excitement.
You should call your doula often because the support they provide is so largely based on attunement.
The more connected you feel to your doula, the more supported you will feel during your labor and birth. Texts and emails don’t create connections, conversations do! In-person conversations and phone calls ar
Now, the most important time to call your doula is when you think you might be in labor.
I know, the tendency is to text because it feels less invasive. I get that. But this is when you need to be invasive! You see, text messages don’t wake doulas up. Phone calls do! Text messages don’t show doulas emotion. Doulas can’t see excitement, fear, anxiety, etc. through text. But they can hear it in your voice.
The sound of your voice is one of the things that can tell your doula that it’s time for them to come to you.
Without it, doulas can miss births and leave you without the support you wanted and paid for…
Sometimes, believe it or not, it is hard for you to say, “Can you come to me now?”
It can feel pushy to you even though you hired this service and are entitled to say it. It’s what doulas do. And, they eagerly anticipate it!
When a doula can HEAR a change in your voice, it can prompt them to say, “Do you think you would be more comfortable if I were there with you?” A text doesn’t prompt that… Doulas know that it can be easier for some clients to answer that question with a yes or a no, than to say, “I want you to come now.”
The role of the doula is to instill strength and reduce fear. So CALL YOUR DOULA and let them do their job!
Authored by: Randy Patterson
