What is a Doula and Childbirth Educator and how can they help people with EDS?
A Birth Doula provides physical, informational, and educational support and advocacy. A doula is not medical personnel so they fall outside the scope of the hospital controlling what information they are allowed to share. Doulas are guides that can help you navigate and meld your desires and needs for your birth, without agenda and without rules on what we are allowed to tell you or what we are not allowed to tell you, in the way all state licensure and hospital policies do. Doulas have familiarity, through extensive training and experience, with the world of birth, and have access to resources for information on decisions you may be asked to make. Often, but not always, doulas have a skill set in advocacy to help you and your partner communicate your desires and boundaries to your medical team.
According to ACOG/The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, in an article about surgical birth/c sections, “Published data indicate that one of the most effective tools to improve labor and delivery outcomes is… a doula.”
Taking a Childbirth Education Class that is comprehensive, like Evidence Based Birth®, can help you learn more about the physiological processes of birth and most up to date educational resources. By learning about the pregnancy and birth process you can apply your EDS experiences and issues to possible complications you may encounter.
Check out the EDS Guide to Pregnancy Blog Post I have also included an extensive list of resources at the end of this handout, not only to reassure that the information has some basis in fact, but also so that anyone can also have access to the information for them selves and to share with anyone on your team…so they can’t say their isn’t proof.
What is a Birth Plan/Path and why should you make one?
A birth plan is a tool for action on the birthing person’s part, coalescing their physical and mental wants and needs, their education about pregnancy/birth/postpartum, and what support and medical services they have access to so you aren’t taken unawares by a decision you are asked to make during your birth or forced into a situation you did not want. The practice of creating a birth plan is educating yourself on the many decisions you may, or may not, have access to and/or encounter when giving birth. Do not expect to just magically get your way just because you have it on a birth plan or you have a doula, the selection of your medical team and support team must align with the choices you are making with your birth. Think of it as a travel plan, if you had a requirement to get diesel fuel then you would plan your route has those stations on it; if you know you are staying over night you usually make a reservation or at least know which cities you may or may not stay in depending on how far you get that day.
The Process of Creating a Birth Plan
Take evidence based and trauma informed Childbirth Education/CBE classes so that you have a fact based idea of what the process of birth is vs what the media depicts it as.
Listen to birth story podcasts, it is hard to make a plan before knowing the wide variety of ways birth can unfold.
Have frank discussions with your obstetrician or midwife about what they do or do not provide, it may surprise you what things are commonplace, in a good or bad way, with that practice, hospital or birth center.
Keep the choices you DO WANT FOR YOUR BIRTH YOUR PRIORITY, not just what you don’t want. Communicate what you want your birth to be like. Don’t concentrate just on what you don’t want.
Understanding that all consent given FRIES- Freely Given, Reversible, Informed, Enthusiastic, and Specific
Walk through a birth plan template with a doula to create a structure.
Review your birth plan with your OB practice or midwife.
You can have three plans- Plans A. Physiologic, B. Medical Interventions, and C. Surgical birth/C-section, each path has many different decisions to make along the way. If you are going to post a birth plan in your hospital room, include a short name/label for each decision (not long text or paragraph form, it needs to be able to be looked at quickly) that is separated into stages of labor and delivery. Ask about where to post it for easy access to all staff. Have an advocate in a doula, patient advocate and/or partner that you have discussed these decisions with in detail, this will help ensure minimal disruption during labor (which can disturb the unfolding of hormones that create each stage of labor).
Under no circumstances make up a birth plan without conferring with your medical team, because either the things your put in your plan are standard practice, so there was no need to use space on the page (there are hundreds of decisions you could make so you do need to pick and choose what goes into your plan), AND if the response from the medical team is “We’ll see how it goes” OR “That is against hospital policy” OR you see multiple complaints about that obstetrician or hospital doing that exact thing you don’t want, those are RED FLAGS.
