Essential Birth Support: Doulas vs. Midwives
One of the most common questions we get asked from birthing families is... Do we need a midwife? A doula? Or Both?
We thought it might be of value to our community, to first define the roles of a Midwife vs a Doula to help aid families in choosing the right type of birth support for your individual needs.
A midwife is a health care provider, trained to provide prenatal, birth, and postpartum care to low risk birthing mothers. Many moms prefer a midwife as their birth provider of choice due to the emotional support, personal relationship, and comprehensive whole person care that many midwives are able to provide their clients. There are varying degrees of training and education levels for midwives, and therefore depending on the type of midwife serving your family, they may be able to provide support and care for your birth in a variety of birth settings. As Mississippi is an unregulated midwifery state, we strongly encourage families considering hiring a midwife as their primary care provider for birth to ask for transparency during the interviewing process including experience levels, trainings, and birth outcomes from each midwife that you interview. Midwives monitor both the laboring woman and the baby during the labor and delivery process. Midwives use their expertise and skills in determining labor progression, monitoring risks, and may encourage hospital transfers if adverse signs occur during labor or after delivery.
Doulas aid in helping navigate the birthing experiencing for parents through prenatal education and planning, labor and delivery support in many types of birth settings (at home, a birth center, or a hospital), and postpartum care. They provide physical and emotional support in the form of comfort measures during birth through relaxation methods, assisted breathing, massage, position changes, as well as supporting the birth partner’s needs during labor and delivery. Doulas also support families during the postpartum transition by offering support for breastfeeding, mom’s self care, and infant care techniques. Doulas, however, do not receive medical training, nor are they allowed to provide prenatal medical care or deliver babies. If your doula is claiming to do so, she may be acting outside of her scope of practice and therefore might be a safety liability to you and your birth experience.
