Doulas might feel uncertain about how to deal with parents who are anxious and overly self-conscious. It can be helpful to think of yourself as a neutral observer who is looking for areas where you can offer support when you enter a client’s home.

Breastfeeding/chestfeeding can be difficult and we’ve come a long way in understanding how to help newborns latch onto the breast. Here are ways doulas can help!

We want to be sure that the work of doulas is not only seen, but celebrated, and is recognized clearly as a profession that requires skills, knowledge, and expertise in areas that include mental health, health literacy, health care systems, reproductive health, newborn development, lactation, postpartum health, family systems, attachment, wellness, and so much more.

In this moment, I’d like to put out a call to #listentodoulas. This is a time when doulas are being recognized as holding the key to improving the very issues hindering the optimal care in our country that Listening to Mothers, and Battling Over Birth have called out.

There’s a reason we need a clearer understanding of what a doula actually does, and we need to address the lived experience of those of us who are there not only for that “one more push” but for all the hours and days and weeks that precede and that follow the birth itself.