There is so much solid and overwhelming evidence showing the benefits that a doula can bring to a family during pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period. Study after study confirms that having doula support during the birth reduces the risks of many obstetric interventions, as well as reducing the need for pain relief & increasing parental satisfaction, and postnatally doula support enables women to breastfeed for longer and avoid postnatal illnesses.
However, it is the flexible practical and emotional support that doulas provide to women and their partners during the childbearing year that is the fundamental value of doulaing and it is this that it can be hardest to get across. We would like this campaign to help people understand what a difference doulas make to real people’s lives.
Get involved!
So, what can you do to get involved with this campaign?
- If you have had a doula yourself, put a short explanation of what having a doula meant to you on Twitter (or Facebook). You could take a photo of yourself or your baby holding a written explanation. Make sure you include the hashtag #WeHadADoula in the post
- If you’re a doula, email your clients and past clients asking if they will get involved. If they don’t have a Twitter account, they could send their photo to you or to Doula UK
- For everyone: Share this campaign as far and wide as you can. We would love to see global participation!
Please NOTE: #wehadadoula is not necessarily about a nuclear family as we always count the baby as being part of the ‘we’.