WEBVTT - Selects: The Deal With Doulas 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:03.320 So what's the deal with doula's everybody? 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:07.080 That's my question to you on this wonderful Saturday morning. 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:11.200 This one goes back to December twelfth, twenty seventeen. Doula's 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:15.920 do great work. They're wonderful people, and they bring babies 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:18.640 into the world. So I hope you enjoy the deal 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:22.680 with doula's. 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:30.320 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:36.640 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:39.400 there's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry over there, 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:46.200 and this is Stuff you Should Know, the podcast Childbirth Edition. Yeah, 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.800 we are trapsing into more territory. 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:51.320 What does that mean? 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:51.879 I don't know. 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:54.720 I mean we've done two on you know, feeding babies, 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:59.920 done female puberty. Yeah, this will get into childbirth, will 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:05.000 little bit. So yeah, we're not afraid. I don't care. Yeah, 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:06.559 I guess is what I'm trying to say. 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:08.760 You can be a male doula. 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:09.200 You can. 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:12.959 Although this is the only article I ran across that, 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:15.160 and did you find anything about that anywhere else? 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:20.320 I mean, it happens. It's just super rare. It happens. 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:22.960 Because I mean, we'll go ahead and spoil it. Generally, 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.480 doulas are well, let's just get into this. 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:32.000 Generally, dula's are women who have already had a baby. 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.039 Yes, not even just women, but women who have had 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:37.560 a baby so they can really know how to help 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:38.720 another lady have a baby. 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:39.080 Yeah. 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:42.080 Yeah, And this is actually so, this is an ancient 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:46.200 thing that's kind of come back around full circle. And 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:50.520 even the name doula is a Greek term used way 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:54.760 back in the classical Greek days when a woman giving 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:59.480 birth would have female servants attending to her during birth, 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:04.279 helping with it, probably feeding her some grapes, waving palm 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:07.400 fronds on her, that kind of thing. So doula means 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:11.359 female servant or female slave, depending on who you're talking about. 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:15.280 Right, and after, you. 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:18.560 Know, ancient Greece fell to Rome and the Roman Empire fell, 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:22.960 and all of civilization took this weird course. Throughout it 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:26.720 all women were helped by other women while they were 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:32.639 giving birth. Basically up until about the first third, first 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:38.919 half of the twentieth century in the West, where hospitals 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:42.040 entered and all of a sudden, it was just the 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:45.640 mom giving birth surrounded by a bunch of nurses and doctors. 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:49.720 Is that true, Yeah. 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:53.120 Because I could see scenarios where there were women in 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:54.519 the birthroom helping along. 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:00.680 I think once you started to get into hospital and 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:05.000 the physicians in the hospital starting asserting their authority more 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:10.920 and more, especially through drugs. Like I saw that when 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:13.480 hospitals kind of took over the birthing process or took 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:17.600 responsibility for it from the family and from midwives and 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:20.880 moved it into the hospital. They used to administer a 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:24.400 lot of sedatives as part of the birthing process, as 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:25.160 part of labor. 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:26.440 You know, you can. 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:28.600 Understand why they would, but then there were all sorts 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:33.040 of complications from it, problems from it, so they stopped giving. 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:35.240 Sedatives as much. 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:39.640 And about that time, women who were giving birth started 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:41.480 to like kind of come out of it and look 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:44.080 around and say, whoa, it's just me and you guys 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:46.880 in here. I need some family members in here. And 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:49.000 at the time, like if you were a dad, you 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:51.240 were not in there, You were not in the. 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:52.480 Delivery room at all. 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:54.520 You were out in what was called the stork club, 0:03:55.720 --> 0:04:00.280 handing out cigars maybe pacing. And the reason why it 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:03.680 was because to the doctors involved, it was just another 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:07.600 medical procedure, right, so you're not going to have randos 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:10.320 who have nothing to do with the actual procedure in 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:13.600 the room during a procedure. They treated childbirth the same way, 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:15.960 but women started to say, no, I need more than 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:19.080 just you, people who I've never met before, really attending 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:21.599 to the birth of my child, And so dads started 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:24.040 to come in, and then more family members and then 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:29.440 now doulas have definitely kind of come back like they 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:30.320 were originally. 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:32.120 That's my understanding of the whole thing. 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:35.280 Yeah, so doula's, we haven't even said what that is yet, 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:36.680 and that would probably help clear it up if you 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:40.919 don't know. Dula's are people, like we said, generally women 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:44.080 but not always who are childbirth coaches. 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:45.640 They coach you through the process. 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:49.800 They will, depending on the service they offer, will come 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:54.680 on before obviously you give birth and kind of prep 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:57.400 you for what's going to happen. And this I mean 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:00.000 it kind of depends on when your doula will come 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:03.240 aboard in the process, but at the very least they 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:06.160 will help you in the delivery room and they are 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:08.680 your advocate to kind of coach you through this whole thing. 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:12.880 And that term actually started in an article in nineteen 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:16.120 sixty nine by a woman named Dana Raphael and then 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:18.400 later on in a book in nineteen seventy three called 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:22.280 The Tender Gift Breastfeeding. And that's when she brought this 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:25.760 term back and said, you know, we're going to start 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:28.720 calling these women doulas and it's going to be a 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:30.719 real job, right. 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:33.200 And I think at first, what was the name of 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:33.679 the woman. 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:35.200 Who brought it back, Dana Raphael. 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:37.560 So she had like a pretty good idea that was 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:40.680 actually ahead of its time. When doula's really started to 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.200 come into use and come into their own as a 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:46.040 profession was in the eighties. And the reason why they 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:49.760 came into wider use was because hospitals were going to 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:51.599 see sections a lot. 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:53.760 Ce sections went up. 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:57.400 From nineteen seventy four point two percent of live births 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:00.760 in the US involved C sections. Teen years later, in 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:04.120 nineteen eighty six, a quarter of live births. 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:05.440 In the US involved C sections. 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.440 And there are a lot of complications with C sections, 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:13.159 and so you could have your husband in there, you 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:15.320 could have your mom in there, you could have friends, 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.520 but they're just there for you. One of the first 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:22.800 services that doulas started offering was to say, whoa, whoa, 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:27.520 Does she really need that C section? Are you sure 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:29.440 about that or are you just doing it because you 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:33.799 can charge more money. I think that was overstating exactly 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:36.320 the interaction they had, but that was the role they had, 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:39.760 was to basically provide a barrier between a doctor who 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:42.000 wanted to just give a sea section because he wanted 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:44.800 to go home and the mom who really didn't want 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:45.440 a C section. 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:48.200 Yeah, and it's not just c sections. 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:52.360 They're your advocate, they're your birth advocate to make sure 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:55.200 or at least as best they can to try to 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.200 ensure that the birth plan that you feel best about 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.240 is the one that you end up with. Things always change, 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:03.840 of course, and ADULO would never put you in danger 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:05.080 by insisting on something. 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:06.240 In fact, they can't. 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:09.200 But they are there to speak for you on your 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:13.080 behalf because as a mother in labor, you're going through 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:15.480 a lot on your own. So it's nice to have 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:18.840 someone that is just there to do that job. 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:19.680 Yeah, and. 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:24.280 Is coming from a place of empathy and sympathy and 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:28.320 most importantly experienced. Like you said, most doulas have had 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:31.920 children of their own, but they've also, after a while, 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:34.680 attended other berths. Too, so they know what they're talking about, 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:36.840 they know what to expect, and they can tell you 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:39.800 what to expect, which can make the whole process easier, 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:41.880 I would imagine for any mother giving birth. 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:46.880 Yeah, it's definitely gained popularity in the two thousands. I 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:51.000 think I tried to find more recent statistics than twenty twelve, 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:54.320 but I couldn't. But in twenty twelve there were six percent. 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:58.400 And this is in the United States. It's very much 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:02.440 happen all over the world some but it's sort of 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:06.000 an American thing. Six percent of people in twenty twelve 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:09.160 years to doula versus three percent in two thousand and six. 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:13.400 And in that same survey, twenty seven percent of people 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:15.960 said they would they would like to use a dula. 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:20.520 So you know, at least they're they're wishing or hopeful 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:21.000 that they can. 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:23.760 Yeah, that was question eight, would you like to use 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:28.360 a doula? Yeah, twenty seven percent said And so if 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:31.280 you get the impression that, like a a doctor would 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.320 not really prefer a doula to be in the labor 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:38.719 and delivery room, you've kind of read between the lines there. 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:42.440 Especially at first, the medical community saw doulas as they 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:44.480 were starting to really kind of come into use in 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:48.960 the eighties as basically meddling busy bodies who could potentially 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:51.400 put their patient's life in jeopardy. 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:52.360 Right. 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:55.840 But then in nineteen ninety two, DULAS of North America 0:08:56.000 --> 0:09:01.120 was found at DONA. It's like the first DULA license body, 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:05.720 certification and training and licensing body, and they were founded. 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:09.800 It was founded by medical professionals, which kind of created 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:13.240 a bridge. It bridged the gap or kind of got 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:16.760 smoothed over the rough feelings between the medical community and 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:20.040 the doula community. And it also added a real air 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:23.000 of legitimacy to the profession of being a doula. 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:26.920 Yeah, and the impression I get now is that if 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:28.760 you have a good doula who is good with people, 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:33.439 which is ideally what your doula is, if your deal 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:35.400 is not a people person, that's probably not going to 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:37.520 be a good thing. But the idea I get is 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:40.640 that doctors and nurses like having dulas there now because 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:43.920 they can just concentrate on They don't have to be 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:48.920 the ones providing emotional empathetic support, although they can still 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:51.680 do death they want, they can just concentrate on the 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:54.000 medical aspects of it. And they know that they have 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:58.120 a trained, hopefully licensed dula, and we'll get into that 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:01.600 later on hand to sort of say, you know what, 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:03.880 I don't have to deal with that part of things. 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:06.319 You're in good hands with this doula and I can 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:08.040 just concentrate on the medical parts. 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:14.800 Yeah, now, all love doula, that's right. One of the 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:18.439 other reasons or functions that doulas provide you kind of 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:22.800 hit on, is that they they provide a service that 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:26.360 hospitals used to provide through nurses, right where if you 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:29.320 had a nurse in a labor and delivery room, they 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:32.880 wouldn't spend as much time or give you as much 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:35.720 attention as, say, like your mom would or a friend 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:38.240 or your husband even but they gave you a lot 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:43.559 more early on than they did. As surveillance of patients 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:47.480 moved to electronics right to where somebody could just kind 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:49.880 of sit at the nurses station and check on everybody 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:50.920 and they didn't have to. 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:51.760 Go into the rooms. 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:55.800 And now you nurses were charged with watching even more 0:10:55.920 --> 0:11:00.000 people at once, right, So the personal attention dropped dramatic 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:07.000 as electronic surveillance of patients increased, and the dula's kind 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:09.040 of came in to fill that role as well. 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:11.400 Yeah, Like they're sitting in the room with you and 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:16.080 hanging out. They don't get called in like twenty minutes 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:19.280 before you give birth. They're with you, you know, sometimes 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:21.880 days and weeks before hand, coaching you and what to 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:23.920 expect and how you're going to go about this and 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.680 what your plan is. And then on the day, like 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:30.040 even if dad is in there and the husband is 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:34.560 in there providing support, that's great, But the dula is 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:37.480 just that extra step and that extra measure of support 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:42.760 that is super knowledgeable about what it's going to be like, 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:46.560 where the husband might not exactly you know, be able 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:49.280 to lend the most insightful ear there, you know what 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.440 I mean. Yeah, so you want to take a break. 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:54.160 Yeah, let's take a break and then we'll come back 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:57.040 and talk about what to expect when you're expecting to 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:12.360 work with a doula. 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:20.040 Saish all right, So. 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:25.520 Here's a misconception some people get. Some people think that 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:29.320 doulas are authorized or trained to give birth. 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:30.920 That is not true. 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:34.560 They don't deliver babies, they don't perform any sort of 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:37.800 medical procedures. They don't put an IV in your arm, 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:41.640 They don't work the heart rate monitor. Most times, they 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:44.199 don't even work for the hospital. You have hired them independently, 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:47.200 and again they're just there to coach you. They're not 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:51.000 even midwives. Midwives can deliver a baby. 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.640 Right, Yeah, they're not allowed anywhere near the medical stuff, 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:57.040 but they need to know what the medical stuff is 0:12:57.760 --> 0:12:59.719 so that they can say, well, this is what they're 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:02.840 about to do, or this is what they're suggesting right now, 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:06.800 and here are your options. And then also when they're 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:11.040 administering the medical stuff, which can be pretty uncomfortable pretty frequently, 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:14.320 I would imagine the duela is there to kind of 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:17.040 tell the mom what to expect and the comforter her 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:18.320 in all sorts of ways. 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:22.120 Yeah, and maybe not even offer advice, like I think 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:25.080 the idea is that adula will lay it all out 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:27.600 there so you can make an informed decision and not 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:30.000 necessarily say well, if I were you, this is what 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:30.480 I would do. 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:33.480 Well, yeah, that's a slippery slope right there, because then 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:35.800 all of a sudden, if things go wrong, you can say, well, 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:37.839 the DULA told me to do that, and the dula 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:40.000 is like, I'm toast. 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:45.720 Duelas have to be great listeners. We already talked about 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.679 the empathy piece. They have to be very empathetic and 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:51.400 they will, like I said, start meeting before birth to 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.839 answer any kind of questions, come up with that birth plan, 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:59.280 and really listen a lot to the wife and the 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:03.160 husband so everybody is on the same page. And like 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:06.600 I said, on the day, things can change. But going 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:09.360 in you generally want to have a pretty good idea 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:14.240 of everything from medications you might want to use, if any. 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:17.000 To where you want to have the baby. 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:19.720 The dula can come on board and kind of explain 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:23.000 if they're knowledgeable, which hopefully they are, about the hospitals 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:25.960 around you, and maybe even help you pick out where 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:27.640 you're going to give birth. 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:31.480 Yeah, and I mean, if you already have an idea 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:33.840 of what you want, the doula can, you know, kind 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:35.680 of tell you how to make that happen. Or if 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:37.320 you have no idea what you want, the doula can 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:40.280 also tell you some other alternatives that you might not 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:43.840 have thought of. And I saw a Parent's magazine article 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:47.200 about doula's They laid out what basically what you can 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:51.600 expect from the average doula for the doula's fees one 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:56.440 to two in person pre natal visits and then access 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.800 to the doula for follow up questions through email or 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:05.240 or phone calls. They're full attention and presence during your 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:10.960 labor and then sometimes frequently I get the idea a 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:15.000 follow up visit in at your house after the baby 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:17.920 comes home. That typically if you hire a doula, this 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:20.880 is this is about the average you can expect to them. 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:25.800 There's definitely a lot of differences. There's some will give 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:27.840 you a little more, some will give you a little less, 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.160 some will charge more, some will do it for free. 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:33.400 It's just all over the place as far as you 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:35.400 know what you're actually going to shell out and what 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:37.920 you're going to get from a doula. But for the 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:41.880 most part, you the dula is going to have met 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:46.080 you before you give birth, and then the doula will 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:49.160 be there throughout the whole labor and delivery process. 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:51.640 Yeah, and it says in this article that there are 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:58.040 specialist dulas like antipartum doulas and postpartum doulas and labor doulas. 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:02.320 That if you want an antipartum doula to be if 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:04.880 you want more than those two meetings, you might want 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:06.880 to hire someone who will be with you for several 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:10.120 weeks beforehand, or if you want someone postpartum to be 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:14.080 with you to coach you through breastfeeding or you know, 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.240 changing diapers or just any of that kind of coaching, 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:18.640 you can hire someone to do that. But I get 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:23.840 the sense that doula's generally will sort of work with 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:25.800 you on whatever kind of plan you want. 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:26.680 Right. 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.160 It may may cost a little extra, but I get 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:32.240 the sense of adula wouldn't say like, Nope, you get 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.160 two meetings and that's it. They might be like, no, 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:37.160 I'll come in for a third and fourth meeting. It'll 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:40.360 be an extra of this much money, and I can 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:41.920 hang with you for a week or two afterward. 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:44.240 Here and there I found I think it was through 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.840 a BuzzFeed article. I stumbled upon a there's a huge 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:55.200 rift in the doula community actually between the typical traditional approach. 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:56.680 To being a doula, which is. 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:00.960 I'll work with you on a sliding scale for how 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:03.760 much you can afford, or this is my fee, but 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:05.879 I'll throw in an extra visit just to you know, 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:07.640 make you feel like you're getting your money's worth. 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:10.000 Or I'll do it for free. 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:15.639 I just want to help you, because Donah's mission is 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:19.360 that a doula for every every mother who wants one, 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:22.040 Like every mother should have a doula basically, right. And 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:25.240 then there's this other group called pro doula and there 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:31.359 they can't stand doulas who who charge less than like 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:35.120 a decent amount for their services or do it for free. 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:40.400 They actually call dulas who do this for free oxytocin vampires, 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:43.080 like they're just there to to bask in the reflective 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:46.280 glow of this this amazing experience that the mother just 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:47.960 went through, the parents just went through. 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:50.880 And they're really kind of. 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:56.600 Kicking other doulas around and they're kind of bullies. It's 0:17:56.640 --> 0:18:00.520 in a really weird way. But there's like the big 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:06.680 debate over whether doulas are undervalued or underselling themselves. 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:09.520 But I mean, I definitely get. 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:13.320 The idea that every woman who wants to have a 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.159 doula should be able to have a dula regardless of 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:16.760 her income. 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:19.040 You know. Yeah, that makes sense to me. 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:23.320 Like a pro bono for people that don't have as 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:23.879 much money. 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:24.560 Yeah. 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:26.600 On the other hand, I also get that if you 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:28.880 are a doula and you're doing your job really well, then. 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:31.680 Yeah, you should expect to be paid. I think there's 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:32.399 a happy medium. 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:34.919 I don't think has to be like, Nope, this is 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:37.399 the price, and anybody who goes underneath it should be 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:39.119 ostracized from the doula community. 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:39.960 Yeah. 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:43.080 The other thing about doula's another misconception a lot of 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:46.000 people think is that it's just some hippie dippy thing 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.720 that if you don't want to if you only want 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:51.679 to have like a natural childbirth, then you get the 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:54.160 doula in there, and that they're not there for anything 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:54.800 other than that. 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:55.920 And that's not the case. 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:58.879 They are there to support you in whatever kind of 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:01.360 birth you want to have, whether it's a home birth 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:03.919 or water birth, or whether or not you want to 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.800 get an epidural or be loaded up on every pharmaceutical 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:11.600 they offer mothers in labor. Uh, they're there just to 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:14.480 have knowledge of all that stuff, so you know what 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:15.240 you're getting into. 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:15.800 Yeah. 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:18.440 And then so during labor, this is where this is 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:19.600 where the doodless shines. 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:19.920 Right. 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:25.720 They're there to help with alternatives to pain treatment. 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:26.120 Right. 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:28.720 So again, they can't administer any kind of drugs or anything. 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:30.480 I would guess that they could even get in trouble 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:34.880 for giving you an advil, but they can do other things, 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:38.720 like they can massage you in ways that you had 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:41.920 not ever heard of before that helps with labor pains. 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:44.879 I came across this one technique where they pull on 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:50.640 a couple of toes, specific toes, and it helps actually 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:53.879 move the labor along if you're if you have a 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:59.000 slow labor. There's kneading techniques, there's stroking techniques, pressure on 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:01.040 the bottom of your feet, There's all sorts of stuff 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:04.280 they can do at various times throughout the labor and 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:07.600 delivery process. They can help alleviate the pain that you're 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:10.399 going through, and that's one of the big roles that 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:11.840 they played during labor. 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:16.560 Yeah, when my kid was born, I was shocked at 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:17.840 how many people were in the room. 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:22.159 First of all, how many oh Man Baker's dozen, I 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:24.040 mean twenty. 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:27.119 Emily and I birth mom. 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:31.960 Obviously our adoption counselor who was a licensed dulist, so 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:35.560 she really served that function for the birth mom, which. 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:42.040 Was really a great great plus. The doctor, I guess. 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:45.160 I'm not even sure what the roles are, what their 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:50.199 technical titles are, but the doctor came in when it 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:54.160 was go time and basically just checked things out and said, well, 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:56.160 I think it's go time. And then he stepped out 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:58.560 of the way and these two nurses came in there, 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:02.960 and ninety seconds later there was a baby, so it 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:06.040 was and those were so it was two nurses that 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:09.040 that was probably like, there's probably at least twelve people 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:09.560 in that room. 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:11.359 Wow, that's a lot of people. 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:15.360 It was crowded and fast and surreal and weird and amazing. 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:18.760 Even weirder, they brought in. 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:21.760