anyone use or consider using a doula?

I am hoping to have a successful VBAC this time around and am considering using a doula and was wondering what other's experiences were.... and whether they found it to be a positive experience?

Was it helpful in avoiding another c-section
Was it helpful to go unmedicated?

things like that

Thanks for any and all opionions/experiences

 

Yes, I used one for my twins. I had a vaginal birth. It was a very positive experience! It doesn't hurt to interview a couple and see if you click with one.

Let me know if you have any specific questions. She herself had a homebirth unmedicated, but when i had painful contractions during my 40 week induction with the twins, I did opt for an epidural. She reminded me that we could *try* to work through it, but she also supported me when I decided to do it anyway.

Thanks,
Stacy

 

QUOTE(Erica92 @ Feb 1 2009, 02:53 AM) [snapback]1170990[/snapback]
I am hoping to have a successful VBAC this time around and am considering using a doula and was wondering what other's experiences were.... and whether they found it to be a positive experience?

Was it helpful in avoiding another c-section
Was it helpful to go unmedicated?

things like that

Thanks for any and all opionions/experiences


I had a successful VBAC with my latest, and I did use a doula. It's a little tricky for me to answer your questions. I do believe hiring the doula 'helped' me to stick to an unmedicated birth...but not in the way you might think. She really wasn't vocal enough during the labor, and I felt that she did very little, if anything, substantial to help. However, just the knowledge that I shelled out money to have her there sort of gave me a weird motivation to make it all the way through 'naturally.' Until the very last moment, I truly thought that maybe toward the end she would miraculously kick it into high gear and offer me some real support. Unfortunately she didn't. She also broke her contract by not coming for a post-partum visit. Overall I would not pay for her as my doula again, and I've gone out of my way to recommend that others not hire her specifically. I did get a recommendation from another friend for her... but I later heard other people with similar things to report about her.

So did the doula help?...well...yes, in a way... guilted me into sticking with the natural approach.

Did it help to be unmedicated, as far as a successful VBAC goes?... well, that's hard to answer too. Towards the very end I thought I made a very bad choice to go unmedicated, not because the pain was bad, it was, but because I felt like I wasn't 'doing it right' and was therefore going to wind up with a c/s. My doctor and nurse were very agitated and seemingly annoyed with me for not being able to prevent pushing contractions. I thought I was doing something wrong, but later when I went over everything that happened, I realized that there was no way or no amount of breathing that was going to stop my uterus from pushing. I really wasn't proactively pushing on my own, my uterus was doing it for me. So the panic I experienced and the fear I had that I had made the wrong choice to go natural, really came from the things the medical professionals told me...like, "your cervix is at a nine, and if you continue pushing it will swell and you'll wind up with a c/s." Somehow they linked a swollen cervix to vbac.... very bizarre... and ultimately the doctor left the room and my body continued pushing the way it wanted to, past the nine, and she was born just fine. I did nothing different as a result of their yelling, and things turned out fine. But for a few moments I thought that I was going to be knocked out for a c/s and that it was my fault for going unmedicated and 'not doing it right.' But hindsight leads me to believe that it really wasn't about me, but about how my doctor and the nurse communicated with me that lead to those feelings.

That's probably clear as mud for you, but if it's any help, I was in labor for 3 days... I did the whole thing unmedicated, and I really was surprised at how it was mostly manageable. If I had received any kind of encouragement from anyone toward the end it would've been a very positive experience. The fact that I not only did not receive encouragement, but received discouragement made it a negative experience.

I still feel strongly about not being medicated for a vbac. I did, and still do, have a fear over the epidural slowing things down, or somehow giving the doctor an excuse to claim things are going wrong, like a baby's heart rate decelerating, and thus landing me in the OR. So I'm pretty set on trying to do it natural should I have a 5th child. This time though, I think I'll be going to a midwife, so long as I have no complications with bleeding like I did last time. I'm done with clinical, arrogant, chauvanistic male doctors! LOL.

Oh, and recovery was absolutely awesome!! I had a 2nd degree tear, but it felt like nothing at all... I had a 3rd degree tear with my first child for perspective though! And not having the epidural meant I could get up and about much faster. Again though, for both my previous birth experiences the epidural and spinal both took more than 8 hours to wear off... literally couldn't feel the lower half of my body for that long. My body doesn't handle the anesthesia very well, a little goes a very long way for me.

 

I haven't used a doula, but the difference between having a doctor and a midwife (even in the hospital) was night and day for me. I had loved the doctor I used w/ my oldest 2, but w/ pretty much any doctor, they're only there the last few minutes. With Adam, I had a midwife and it did actually end up that a Dr. had to come deliver him w/ a vacuum, because the cord was around his neck and every time I pushed his heartrate drastically decelled. But I'd had a 3rd degree tear w/ my 2nd, and that was a huge stress for me. The midwife knew that, so even w/ the bit of emergency, she was there to support and stretch and help things and I didn't tear at all... or at least not enough to need any stitches. She was there pretty much the entire time and I loved that. I did have to have an OB for my twins, but am using a midwife again for this baby. I know people who use a doula and midwife, and it might be nice to have that extra support. But especially with a Dr, I would think that it would be a great thing to have a doula there, as long as she's more use than the one Susanna had!

 

we had a doula & she was phenomenal! she helped keep me super positive & i really enjoyed having her company. also, having her quiet support in triage & then in the L&D room gave me the courage to ask questions & to stick up for myself when i didn't want a procedure. it's amazing how many no-exception-policies are, well, not! :lol: it also helped me knowing there was someone there with a lot of knowledge about the "system" - someone i could question if i wasn't sure about something. doulas are not allowed to offer medical advice because they are not medical professionals, but they can guide you in asking more pointed & specific questions to get the info you need from your doctors and nurses to make an informed choice. even in the little things she was great - as my DH said, he never would have thought to get me water & ice chips while i was pushing but that made a huge difference for me. it also freed DH up to just experience the birth & be there for me, without having to worry about if he was coaching me "right" - also, having never seen a birth before, how was DH supposed to know what a "normal" amount of pain is & what maybe meant something wasn't going well? we had such a great experience with our doula that we've actually since become very good friends with her & her DH.

the only blip for us was when i had her come to an OB appointment with me - i thought it would be good for her to meet my OB & vice versa. it didn't go so well - my OB was AWFUL to her! i don't know what kind of experiences my OB had had with doulas before but they had obviously been very negative. she was quite rude to my doula & then at my next appointment said some very disparaging things to ME about doulas (ex she had had to have a doula removed from a birth once by hospital security). my doula behaved very professionally through the whole thing - it was just my OB that was weird. i didn't really like my OB anyway though so it didn't really surprise me. thankfully, she wasn't the OB on call when i went into labour, so it wasn't an issue on delivery day.

one word of caution - it's worth it to look for a DONA certified doula. then you know you're getting a certain level of expertise & experience & respectability. GL with your decision!

 

I had doulas for my two VBACs and they were very helpful. Our hospital has a doula program where there is a big group of them that are on call and they switch out every 12 hours. So, I went through 4 during Dax's birth and 2 for Ewan's. Some were more helpful than others but I do think having them available really helped with my labor and to have a successful VBAC. They were all good about supporting me, making suggestions, getting anything DH or I needed, helping make me comfortable, and staying out of DH's way. DH was actually the one to remind me to reserve a doula for our 2nd birth because they were so helpful during our first. I highly suggest one if it is not too expensive.

 

QUOTE(miss_bossy18 @ Feb 3 2009, 12:03 AM) [snapback]1173439[/snapback]
it also freed DH up to just experience the birth & be there for me, without having to worry about if he was coaching me "right"

Fred said the same thing about having a midwife. We'd had a couple children previously, and from his perspective (as well as mine, as I said earlier), it was a lot better for him, w/ the midwife. That's saying a lot, because he's a very traditional kind of guy and wasn't totally sold on the whole midwife thing before then. He's always really great about being right there with me through it all, but he was less stressed because he didn't feel so "hung out to dry" as he had w/ nurses and Drs, with the previous births.