Prenatal Education: What Your Doula Covers

When you hire a birth doula, you’re expecting support through labor and delivery. Care often begins during pregnancy though, long before you’re calling your doula in the middle of the night to meet you at the hospital! The majority of birth doulas include around 2-4 prenatal visits before birth in order to establish trust, give tips and tricks to make pregnancy more comfortable, and ways to prepare your body and mind for labor and postpartum. Here are the things our doulas discuss with you at prenatal visits:

• Labor & Birth Options

  • We recommend you take a childbirth education class for more in-depth information on all of your options before your first prenatal. We still go over your options and make sure you feel comfortable and confident in choosing what’s best for you and that nothing was missed in your class!

• The Process of Labor & Birth

  • Childbirth education classes are great for understanding the physiological aspects of labor; we also love recommending books and podcasts in order to get evidence-based information from multiple different sources. 

• Birth Preferences List

  • Once we’ve gone through what you learned in your childbirth education classes and what questions you have, we can then begin to draft your birth preferences, or birth “plan”. We write down your ideal birth outcomes, and we discuss what plan b and plan c may look like as well so you and your birth team are well prepared for every outcome.

• Movement in Pregnancy and Labor

  • Daily movement throughout pregnancy helps prep your body for labor and ensure that you’re remaining healthy while growing a baby inside you! We go over safe movement options and specific techniques later in pregnancy to help get baby in the optimal position for birth.

• Nutrition

  • Along with movement, well-balanced eating habits are helpful in ensuring a healthy pregnancy and smooth labor. We approach perinatal nutrition with the understanding that food access, affordability, and health issues like hyperemesis gravidarum can impact your ability to eat nutrient-dense, whole foods regularly. We can help you come up with good snack and meal options that fit your lifestyle!

• Addressing Fears & Concerns

  • Prepping mentally is just as important as prepping physically - your emotional health can impact how you feel about your labor and delivery over all. We’re there to be a listening ear and reassure you that no matter the outcome of your labor, you are strong and capable of making informed decisions for you and your baby. 

• Relationships and Connecting with Baby

  • We talk about how your relationships will change once baby is here - your relationship to your partner, your friends and family, and to yourself. We also share ways you and the loved ones in your life can connect with baby before they are even here!

• Stress Management and Relaxation Techniques

  • Prenatal massages, listening to your cravings, therapy, spending time with friends, journaling, a nature walk - just a few ideas of how to manage your stress and relax throughout pregnancy. Practicing your labor relaxation techniques are great as well, as labor progresses best when the body is relaxed.

• Purposeful Pain & Coping

  • Aside from practicing relaxation techniques, we try to prepare you for the uncomfortable reality that is childbirth. Understanding that difficult and challenging experiences like labor can be meaningful and valuable can transform your labor and delivery. Reframing contractions as “surges”, learning your love language so we can affirm and guide you through the tough moments in the ways you need, helping you and your partner connect throughout labor are all examples of how we try to help you have a positive birth experience overall.

• Review ‘Go-Time’ Plan

  • Typically at your last prenatal visit, we’re almost to the finish line. At this visit we’ll go over your birth preferences, make sure you have your bags packed or know what to pack, and discuss when it’s time to contact your doula after labor starts. We’ll talk about early labor signs and how to tell if your contractions are real or just practice ones. We’ll check in on how you’re feeling and if there's anything else we can do to help you feel prepared.

For a lot of doulas, the prenatal visits are the best part of the work we do. It’s where we get to make sure our clients are well educated, confident, and prepared for a positive labor and delivery experience. We get to build relationships with you, your partner, and friends and family. We get to remind you that YOU can speak up for yourself and your baby. Prenatal visits are a vital part of the birth doula experience!