What “Tools” Do Doulas Use At Births?
Sometimes when interviewing me as their potential doula, birthing families wish to know what specific devices or tools I will use to support them in their labor experience. Sometimes seeing a tangible ‘birth bag’ of tricks helps them to understand the special trainings and qualifications I bring to their birth experience.
When I was a newer doula, I was very hung up on having a large bag of tricks. I would lug a gargantuan duffle bag to labors, along with a birth ball (fully inflated) because I was worried I wouldn’t have everything I needed to support families.
100 + attended labors later, I’ve discontinued the large birth bag. While I do carry a small bag with a few items, the true tools I use at labors are much different.
My Hands and Body
The power of using touch and support, both to hold up a laboring mother and to apply comfort, can provide relief. My training and knowledge of the physical rigors of birth and anatomical changes that happen in the body during the process aid me in helping to make the process of labor more comfortable.
Being able to physically endure the sometimes long hours of birth ensure that I am fit and and strong to remain in somewhat unique and grueling positions to allow a mother to fully focus and rely on the supply of that strength.
My Knowledge and Compassion
No two births are alike. Each one brings me new knowledge. Continuous training and the information I gather from each birth and from the amazing care providers and professionals around me help me to assist in providing comfort and information, in helping women to understand the process of their unique labor. The passion and intimate knowledge of the strength birth requires and its intensity allows me to give freely and fully to a family as they are also putting forth all of their emotional energy to bring a baby into the world.
My Time
When my clients invest their time in me, I fully invest my time in them. Unconditionally, I stand, sit, squeeze hips, and hold cool cloths to foreheads, without looking at the clock. I remain at the side of a family when they need me the most. They can rely upon this often underestimated tool, knowing they will have support at all moments of their experience.
Likewise, having the full support of an agency behind me allows me to support them with the gift of time without taking my skills and energy from them in their time of need.
A Few Convenient Tools
I do bring some physical tools to births that I find useful in appropriate settings. A heating pack approved by the birth location, rebozo (or bed sheet at the birth site), and straws for water bottles and cups are universally useful when I’m supporting a laboring family.
However, I don’t NEED them to support you. When absent, they are not missed. What you receive from you doula is something you can’t buy on Amazon; you receive incredible support and an invested member of your birth team who brings 100% of their expertise, training and is prepared to attune to your needs in all moments of your experience.