I went to the Doula Training above at one of the top hospitals in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. They have a board that is beginning to incorporate Doula’s into everything they do, including guidelines, so Doctors, Nurses, Midwives, and Interns know their role and a Doula knows the policy of the hospital.  It was very exciting and powerful to hear how hospitals love a Doula to come and support, because they know the labor will many times go smoother, and somebody is always with the laboring mother and family, while they go from patient to patient.  Usually a Doctor or Midwife come at the very end to “catch the baby,” and I use this term because in a healthy pregnancy, that is their only role, they are not needed before the pushing stage.

I was honored and fortunate to support a mother through a very long labor, she was admitted to the hospital because they wanted her on the monitors just to keep an eye but nothing was wrong, the doctor was not there, but could see the monitor on her cell phone.  We went through three nurse shifts, each nurse fit the stage of labor perfectly, her water did not break until the first push, and the mother looked healthy every step of the way.  Her husband and I were a team, and she was in her zone, everybody worked together to let the mother labor and birth her way.  The nurses were grateful that I was by her side when they could not be.  The husband was grateful for my guidance and that everything was not on his shoulders.  A Doula knows that when a mother is at the end, and it is super intense, and she has doubts and is not sure that she can do it, it is the sign that we are at the end and all she needs is a reminder that she is doing it, and she is almost there.

I am also grateful that it is not my job to check dilation, interpret the monitor,  or any other medical procedure.  I want to stay on the energy side, the support side, just focusing on the mother, and let the hospital focus on all the machines.  I actually just had the experience of a woman getting a routine checkup from her doctor and being sent immediately to the hospital because blood pressure and a few other things did not look good.  Once they performed all the necessary tests, they said actually nothing was wrong, it may have been a little higher than usual, so it was good to monitor it, but Thank God a beautiful natural, healthy labor and birth was experienced, because there was actually nothing wrong with the mother or the baby.  We were grateful to be monitored to make sure nothing was wrong, but the hospital staff supported the mother’s labor timeline, did not rush her, did not offer pain management, they were all in awe of what Doula support makes possible, and congratulated the mother on her strength and inward focus.

I am on a natural high,

On call for the next,

Grateful for my purpose in this world,

Energy Support,

Headspace,

Focus On Feeling Good,

Coach Yulia