Doula. Midwife. Childbirth Educator. What’s the difference?
Why do I need a doula if I have a midwife? Why do I need childbirth education if I have a doula? Why do I need all three? Great questions! Atlanta is blessed with many types experienced birth professionals. Let’s clarify these specialties and learn how in combination they can help you have a satisfying, empowering birth and breastfeeding experience and a supportive postpartum return.
Midwives
A midwife is a licensed, trained healthcare professional whose skills and expertise involve helping birthing people stay healthy before, during and after pregnancy. Midwifery care focuses on promoting uninterrupted birth, detecting risks and complications, and using emergency measures when needed. Midwives can prescribe medications, order tests and provide well-person lifecycle care (contraceptive planning, STD/STI panels, preconception consults, etc.). Credentialed midwives are authorized to work in any metro Atlanta birth setting, including clinics, birth centers, hospitals or at home. They are not trained to perform surgical birth or instrument-assisted birth--which is why they have working relationships with an on-call OB, in case surgery or instrument-assisted birth is needed.
Over the past century, as medicine has advanced and healthcare has become commoditized, birth has morphed into a medical event, with liability at the forefront. The traditional midwifery model of care supports birth as a normal physiological lifecycle event. Midwives by definition tend to take a more holistic, less medicalized and more compassionate approach to birth, contrasted with a lack of personalized care and shared decision-making that most OBs simply don’t prioritize.
Over the years, our culture has shifted too: We are no longer raised in small communal settings where elders teach by example and support others physically and emotionally. Doulas and childbirth educators fill this lack with trained guidance and knowledge sharing during pregnancy, birthing time and the postpartum period.
Doulas
A birth doula is a trained and/or certified companion who supports birthing people during pregnancy, labor, birth and the immediate postnatal period. Labor doulas provide three kinds of support to birthing people and their partners:
Emotional support to help the laboring person stay centered and motivated
Physical support to help ease pain and avoid suffering
Educational support to help clients understand their options when a decision must be made during the course of pregnancy and birth
Read more about our labor & birth support.
A postpartum doula is a trained and/or certified companion who provides nonjudgmental logistical, emotional and informational support to birthing people and their family at home after baby is born. Besides guiding parents on infant care and soothing, they help the birthing person recover from birth and give culturally appropriate emotional support. Read more about our postpartum service.
Childbirth Educators
A childbirth educator offers evidence-based, unbiased information about the physiology of birth to expectant parents. Their primary goal is to equip families with the knowledge and skills to evaluate all their options as pregnancy and labor progress, as well as how to find their voice in the decision-making process. Read more about our classes.
The combined support of these roles gives expectant and new parents a full-spectrum “village” of continuous, compassionate, nonjudgmental support to help them navigate this amazing, exhausting, life-changing event, from pregnancy to postpartum--and hopefully find joy and empowerment along the way.
For more information on how we can be your Atlanta village for pregnancy, birth and postpartum, contact us.
