Doula Workshop

I just had the BEST two days ever! I had my doula workshop/training on 1/29 and 1/30 and I wish it would have been longer. I learned so much more about the birth process and natural birth than I could even imagine. The fact that only 8% of women want a natural birth blows my mind. Found out how lucky I am to live in MN as 1:35 births are attended by a doula vs. the US average of 1:650 and that MN is rated #2 for births. It's also illegal in MN for a hospital to tell a mother that she cannot have a doula while other states it's perfectly legal for that to occur. Okay, just some random birth facts now that I figured some of you might find interesting:

1:3 birthing women end up with a c-section, your chance of having a c-section is over 60% lower by having a doula.

Before birth it's normally the mother who is very gun-ho about having the doula present while the Dad might be feeling a little hesitant as he fears he might be "replaced" during the labor and birth. After birth the Dads are quite often the doula's biggest fans and can't stop recommending a doula to other expectant couples.

By just NOT peeing every hour in labor you increase your chance of a c-section because of "failure to progress". Emptying your bladder allows several things to happen. 1: you are getting up and gravity is helping move that baby down, and 2: the bladder could be too full and not allowing the baby to move past a certain point, emptying it gives that baby more room.

A mother's emotion's are about 20 minutes ahead of where the cervix is. If a mother is acting like she's in transition and were to get checked right then she might be told she's only 4 cm. Immediately her thoughts would be, "if this is what 4cm feels like how am I going to handle 7 or 8?" Wait 20 minutes to get her checked and her body is further along and her emotions could be calming down as her body is starting to move out of transition stage.

When endorphins are released it's 100X more powerful than any drug they can give you. You can tell when they are released because that's when the mom suddenly gets really tired and just wants to stop. That tiredness is your body putting you into a more relaxed state.

Right before the baby is born Oxytocin is released, that hormone is not only important for the mother for bonding but it also goes into the baby and helps that baby fall in love with their parents. With drugs your body won't release as much oxytocin.

The greater the interventions during birth, the greater the postpartum depression.

All the serial killers have had something in common: mothers with severe postpartum depression, so postpartum support is VERY important!

Did you know that the flight vs. flight study that was done only on men? Women actually don't get that same response in reaction to high stress. Women's body automatically go into a "Tend and Befriend" mode. They immediately gather their loved ones and support people (tend) and after the event they want to talk about it a lot. How this relates to labor: Women want other women at their births, whether thats a doula, a nurse, a female midwife or a female doctor, sister, friend, mother is dependent on her individual needs. Just having another woman present in the room reduces the chance of a c-section as something in our brain makes us feel safer. After labor and delivery that mother will want to talk about her birth for days and day after to anyone who will listen, other women will share back their stories.

Women with Alzheimer's might not be able to tell you what they had for breakfast but the majority of them will be able to tell you about their labors and births. It imprints our lives that much.

If you ask an articulate child before the age of 3 what their birth was like they will be able to describe it to you. There have been children who have gone into the delivery room to visit their mother in labor with a younger sibling and they will rearrange everything in the room to be exactly how it was when they were born, including telling daddy and the nurses where to stand. That just blows my mind.

Accord to an OB in one of the videos we watched, 95% of births would be better off and safer to do in a home vs. at a hospital because of the interventions that can happen in a hospital and lead to bigger risks. A labor and delivery nurse in the same video said that often a home is a cleaner and more safe environment to birth in than the hospital.

Countries where midwife attended home births is higher than hospital births have a LOWER infant and maternal mortality rate than we do here in the United States where over 98% of our births are done in the hospitals.

Oh I have so much more but I don't want to bore you all with them. This workshop really re-enforced my decision to have a natural birth. Do you know that some of the drugs they give during birth to "take the edge off" can remain in the baby's system for up to 6 weeks and can have MAJOR effects on breast feeding and their development? We all focus so much during pregnancy about what to avoid putting in our bodies for fear of how it will effect our babies but then during labor we all throw that out the windows...what's the point?

I think I've really found my passion in life now. Even if their choices for their labor isn't what I would choose. I'll be basing my business philosphy around the quote: "Freedom of choice based on knowledge of alternatives." Eventually I would like to get certified as a childbirth educator and a postpartum doula and possibly even a lactation consultant. I'm so excited about becoming a birth doula!