An interesting conversation

Today I had the long awaited meeting with the midwives practise in the neighbourhood. It had been postponed a few times but was worth the wait. I met with one of the midwives and had an hour long conversation about the work of a doula and how they run their practise. She was very open and interested in seeing how we could work together. I am happy with her positive reception and am really hopeful as to what this may bring.

She mentioned a few interesting things that caught my attention.

• Women these days have little understanding about how their bodies work.

• Woman think giving birth is like in the movies.. a few pushes and the baby is out. They call the midwife at any little pain they have thinking its active labour. They have little education about birth.
  

• New Mums will call the midwives emergency line, post-partum, with a problem they are having like they can't sleep or the baby has been crying for an hour.

• 98% of the births at this practise are hospital births.

• They advise first time Mums to give birth in the hospital to avoid dangerous situations. "The one birth that ends with a complication weighs more heavily than the fifty that don't."
  

My thoughts in response:
It would seem that from this conversation a doula can be a big help in the pre-birth educational information. Therefore indirectly helping the midwives.

I had thought that the post-partum doula was not needed in Holland because of the kraamverzorgsters (trained post-partum nurses that help in your home daily for the first week to care for Mum and baby) But it seems that the relationship and trust built with a doula could also be useful when there are mothering questions after the first week. We are taught in the course that its important to close the relationship after the post-partum visit. I am wondering if there IS a place for the doula to be available for mothering advice for new the Mums in the first period after the baby is born. The midwives don't have time to be woken up in the middle of the night to be asked what to do when the baby has been crying for an hour and its not their job to do so.

I am sad that the home birth which was so normal and natural in Holland is seemingly dying out, at least in the city areas. Will this turn around or are we moving away from natural birth and more toward medicalized birth and midwives that air on the safe side just in case. Its amazing to see how quickly the shift is happening and how fast people accept it as normal.

I think there is also a need for 'real authentic' birthing and parenting information on the internet in Holland/dutch. I am not a great communicator so I wonder if I can do this well. Wish I could.

My job as a doula is still morphing.

These are a few of the thoughts I will continue to ponder. I left 2 flyers with the midwife so she could show her colleagues and discuss if they want to promote me or not. We shall see :-)