There are several options for childbirth education in Williamsburg, VA.
As a birth doula, I provide physical, emotional, and informational support to women and their partners during pregnancy, labor and birth. I offer help and advice on comfort measures such as breathing, relaxation, massage and positioning. During labor and delivery I provide continuous emotional support and comfort and can help explain medical procedures. Nursing staff must often attend to more than one mother in labor at a time, and therefore cannot be present throughout the entire labor. I stay with and support the mother (and birth partner) through the entire labor and delivery.
Studies have shown that the use of a doula decreases:
Use of a doula has shown:
No. Doulas do not replace nurses or other medical staff. Doulas do not perform clinical or medical tasks such as taking blood pressure or temperature, monitoring fetal heart rate, doing vaginal examinations or providing postpartum clinical care. Doulas are there to comfort and support the mother and to enhance communication between the mother and medical professionals.
As a doula, I understand the physiology of birth, and the emotional needs of a woman in labor. Instead of taking the partner’s place, I offer guidance and make suggestions to help the partner take a more active role in the birth. With a partner and a doula, the mother can have the best of both worlds; the love and attention of her partner and the doula’s experience and guidance in childbirth.
A doula does not make decisions for clients or intervene in their clinical care. She provides informational and emotional support, while respecting a woman’s decisions.
For more information on Lamaze Childbirth Education:
For more information on birth and postpartum doula services:
For more evidence based information on pregnancy, labor, birth and postpartum:
Prenatal Yoga provides valuable knowledge and practice in breathing and centering which can benefit women during labor. For more information on Williamsburg Prenatal Yoga classes