The Greek word, doula, which means servant, has in recent years come to describe a professional birth companion or postpartum companion who is experienced in providing nonmedical physical and emotional support to the childbearing woman and her partner.
Women comforting women during childbirth and postpartum is a skill as old as birth itself.
Yet the professional childbirth companion or doula is the newest member to the maternal health field as an organized, certified profession. A doula can provide continuity of care from meeting with a woman and her partner prenatally to accompanying them throughout the labor and birth process and remaining in contact during the postpartum period. Her level of support may include providing educational information on pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and parenting topics as well as her continuous physical presence during labor. She is also experienced with assisting the mother s first breastfeeding of her baby. She is also present for the time-honored tasks of holding the mother's hands, rubbing her back, wiping her face with a cool cloth, and encouraging and affirming her experience of childbirth as it unfolds.