Birth Doulas Are for Everyone!

Article provided by Bethany Brown, Birth Doulas of Pittsburgh

Women supporting women through labor and birth has been around, well, forever. Over the past few decades, as medical care has changed and families are finding themselves spread out all over the country, that support has gone missing.  Gone are the days of sisters and friends sitting with a laboring women as she inches closer to the birth of her child.

This is an enormous missing piece for families today, and birth doulas have found themselves graciously joining expectant families to provide not only emotional support and a presence for a mother, but also being a source of physical support and educational guidance. 

Birth Doulas of Pittsburgh has been supporting laboring women since 1994.  We will join you on your pregnancy journey whenever you like, offering an abundance of physical, emotional, and educational support along the way. 

You will spend your prenatal weeks getting to know your doula through in home visits and over phone and email. When your labor does begin, she will offer you support over the phone until you would like her to join you in person.  Your doula will stay with you until after you deliver, offering valuable continuity of care.

We have a positive working relationship with every practice here in Pittsburgh and truly love working as a team with the providers you have chosen.

During your labor we will help with hands on comfort techniques, positioning to help baby be in the best possible place for birth, and suggestions for labor progress. We also really want this experience to be powerful and meaningful for you. We work hard to slow down the room and give you the time and space you need to labor the way you need to. When it comes time for any decision making we work to make sure you know what your options are and feel good about the choices you make in labor. As your labor progresses, we help you anticipate any changes that might be on your horizon and stand with you as you brave those waves.

Doulas support ALL births. We support you if you want an unmedicated vaginal birth but we also support you if you want pain relief delivered to your door as soon as you put your bag down. We support planned cesarean births and every other birth between.  And when your plan changes, and sometimes they do, we support you through that change, too.  

Not only do we truly love what we do, the research shows that having the continuous support of a doula can greatly improve birth outcomes. Lower cesarean rates, less use of Pitocin, shorter labors, and better infant outcomes are some of the results we are seeing.

If you are ready to hire a doula, or even if you are still on the fence about it, give us a call! We have monthly open houses that we’d love for you to attend. This is a free event where we talk about what doula support looks like. You would also have the opportunity to meet our doulas and get all your questions answered. 

We can’t wait to meet you!

Bethany Brown, Director, Birth Doulas of Pittsburgh: Visit www.birthdoulasofpittsburgh.com, 412-880-2282 or call birthdoulasofpgh@gmail.com,