If you are a new mother, or about to become one, has anyone told you that much of parenting is learned behavior?! Not as we have been led to believe, all instinct and mother wit. That mothers of new infants need nurturing themselves.

Does your list of needed and essential things also include someone to guarantee you sleep breaks, someone to sit with you and teach you every day as you learn to nurse your baby and your baby learns to nurse, someone to listen wisely and nonjudgmentally to all your questions and feelings after baby comes?

~Having a baby or bringing a baby home is a wonderful life changing experience and can also be very challenging for many families. Whether you birthed your baby surgically or vaginally, mom is physically recovering and might need extra special care during these tender moments. Learning how to feed your baby can come with many questions and challenges as your body is changing to start producing milk or you’re getting ready to bottle feed. Learning to feed your baby can also come with many questions like, am I doing this right? Is baby eating enough? The list of questions with feeding and in general newborn baby questions can be endless. Sleep deprivation is real and can be daunting. As this new huge life adjustment is happening you are expected to know what to do about everything without knowing anything. Partners are expected to help with everything but without any clear instructions of exactly what to do and what can be most helpful.

~Doulas have been around since the beginning of women having babies. They were the mothers, sisters, aunts and other friends and family members sharing their wisdom and expertise from their own births and postpartum with the new mother. They were there to mother the new mother and make sure she knew how to nurse, hold and care for her baby and herself. Today, in our culture mothers are more or less alone and expected to do it all with little or no help. Family members can be too distant to rely on and many friends simply don’t know how they can be of service!

Mothers benefit from receiving mothering care during their postpartum time. They need support, questions answered, an extra set of hands, non judgmental ears and minds to help and support them as they integrate this new little being into the family. Having this support is paramount, so they can more easily adjust to their new role and bond with their new babies.

Whether this is the first or fifth baby, all moms and families can benefit from a postpartum doula. Much of mothering behavior is learned, not instinctive; and without educational and emotional support of teachers and nurturers, it is much more difficult and stressful to master.

If we don’t have enough time and compassionate support, enough instruction and information, rest and nourishment, it is likely that we will be less well able to care for our newborns and over time, our growing children and ourselves.

WHAT THE POSTPARTUM DOULA DOES

The doula’s basic role is to provide nonintrusive, nonjudgmental support according to the family’s needs and wishes. She is there to facilitate your time to settle in, relax and heal, while assuring that the familiar daily underpinnings of your life and household remain anchored as much as possible. She is there to free you up to do nothing but be with your baby and other family members, or to take the baby so that you can sleep, rest or chill, if that’s what's needed!

The doula may provide help with any or all of the following services: shopping, cooking, emotional and moral support, breastfeeding or bottle feeding support, laundry, answering the phone and taking messages, fielding visitors. teaching or giving help with older siblings, light housekeeping, help with baby so Mom and Dad can have time together to settle into their new roles, and referrals to other sources the mom may need to contact or know about. Although she is not there in a medical capacity, she will also be able to keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary in the mother or the baby, and suggest when medical referrals might be in order.

Have questions about Postpartum support?

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