By Hilary Lewin and Nicola Wilson
25 years ago, we met for the first time at Dr Michel Odent’s and have since shared many important milestones and a friendship that continues to grow. Catching up recently, we reminisced, laughed and then paused as we named those who are no longer alive today but whose memories live on within us all.
Like any good marriage or relationship there have been highs and lows in the life of DUK but one thing we know, without a doubt, is that lasting friendships have been created, careers have been founded and thousands of families have benefitted from the presence of a Doula.
We started by asking ourselves a series of questions and thought we would share some of our answers with you.
Why was Doula UK founded?
There is an old saying ‘when the time is right, the teacher appears’ and that is exactly why Doula UK was born - the time was right.
Hilary met Michel Odent at an event and, whilst chatting to him afterwards, she was told quite directly that the UK needed an organisation and he had a mailing list that would get the ball rolling.
This was clearly before data protection existed and so Hilary systematically cold called about 80 women and invited them for tea and cake in Michel Odent’s front room. Amazingly around 40 women showed up!
It was immediately clear we had a room full of immense talent and passion - and a plan was made at that very first meeting to create an organisation inspired by nothing more than naive optimism and a lot of very good will!
We soon turned Nicola’s barn into our informal HQ, where around 30 or more women would regularly arrive bearing cakes and snacks which to share whilst we worked out our ‘whys and how’s’. The food was always delicious, the conversation animated with one memorable day where we all got stuck in the mud in the field resulting in a fair amount of sweating and swearing…!
Doula UK was founded because we knew birth and the early postnatal period could be better when a family is supported. We also knew women who wanted to work with their passion could become Doulas and then go on to create their own businesses with which to earn a living.
Doula UK was created for Doulas who were looking for training, mentoring and a way of reaching out to the wider world to raise the profile of doulas, always rooted, of course, in providing families a way of finding the support they deserved. We knew then and now that women and parents needed a voice and choice in their own birth and postnatal experience. We wanted to support them, whatever their decisions might be.
So, in a nutshell, we wanted to provide a means for parents to find us as doulas and to create a support network for this joined up concept that was only taking seed in 2001.
How we moved forward
Many of us had never sent an email and, for some of us still, the words ‘mail merge’ will continue to make us shudder but a wonderful tech savvy, birth literate woman called Vida came into the group, created our first website and got us all up to speed.
There was no video calling and everything was, of course, done either face to face, on the phone or sent to each other with actual snail mail, which meant Lisa Chalmers, our post mistress, went to the PO box on a weekly basis.
Bridget Baker, with her background in adult education, helped to create a formal education programme with Nurturing Birth formed as one of Doula UK’s first course providers. From then on, new courses were launched by other birth and postnatal educators, who additionally added a variety of follow-on workshops and sessions.
We moved forward with more women joining, adding their strength to the existing members from a truly wide variety of backgrounds: from the inner cities to rural villages up and down the UK. We had women with varied careers in tech, marketing, education to name a few; women who were mothers and those who were not; midwives, nurses and those already deeply embedded in charity work supporting birth in prisons and other under-served communities.
We moved forward slowly but surely, having moments of brilliance, making mistakes and somehow always coming back to our core purpose of supporting each other and those that sought our help.
What was birth like then?
We would have hoped that birth may have changed for the better over 25 years but statistics speak for themselves. There is still so much work to be done.
In 2001, homebirth was the place of birth for around 2.2% of the birthing population, today it is between 1.5 and 2.2%.
Caesarean birth in 2001 was around 21%, today it is closer to 50%, overtaking unassisted vaginal births for the first time.
What did we learn in those early years?
We learnt in the words of Margaret Mead:
“A small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world; in fact, its the only thing that ever has.”
We learnt that community is not always easy but it is always worthwhile.
We learnt having mentors and supporters such as Sheila Kitzinger, Penny Simpkin and Chloe Fisher were and are key to being taken seriously - and to deepen our learning.
We learnt that there was room for all the multi-faceted approaches to Doula work and the variety of clients we each attract.
We learnt that respecting each other’s views was not always easy.
We learnt that humility is everything and that thoughtful pauses and communication were and are the only way to grow.
What do we think today?
There have been many different iterations of DUK over the last 25 years. Things have changed sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse both within the organisation and the world at large.
Today we have a much better understanding of how systemic injustice across the board can affect birth and postnatal outcomes and frame the working environment for Doulas.
There have been fractures within Doula UK, from which lessons can be learnt. There is enormous scope for growth and development - and the work of Doulas continues to be of the utmost importance.
If we want to see the world become its best self, then we need to give new families the best start possible with a curiosity to embrace all their many different needs and backgrounds.
Doulas have an important role to play and it is vital that we stay true to our original founding principles of mutual support for each other and those we hope to serve.
What are our hopes for the future?
As two of the original founders, we hope that Doula UK continues to grow and evolve and that members are able to support themselves and their families from money hard-earned in the birth and postnatal fields.
That families continue to find the love and support they deserve - and that the world can become better one birth at a time.
Hilary Lewin
