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Standards of Service Delivery (Doula Support)
The doula’s main role is the emotional and physical support of the laboring woman. This means the doula offers a service under the instructions of the woman that encompasses being present with her from the earliest signs of labor until some time after the birth when the woman is resting and no longer in need of the doula. The doula remains with the woman at any place that the woman labors in. This includes the home, the birth centre, the hospital and even the operating theatre if the woman is having a caesarean section under epidural or is laboring and birthing in an operating theatre. The one rule about labor is that a doula cannot support a woman birthing at home unless the woman has also employed a midwife or medical practitioner to provide for her clinical care.
Registered Doulas provide……..
The comfort measures required by the birthing woman during birthing and the post-partum period.
Unbiased information based on relevant birthing evidence (doulas share information but do not judge it as the woman must make up her own mind about what she wants for the birth of her baby)
Assistance in acquiring childbirth knowledge for the client and her partner to base their health-care decisions on.
Unbiased discussion of the client and her partner’s concerns
The emotional and physical support that she has learned during her training
Assistance for the client to develop a comprehensive birthing plan and the provision of signed copies to the admission midwife of the hospital.
Reminders for her client. The doula allows the woman and her partner to speak to health professionals for themselves and does not aim to interfere in this. However, the doula may speak appropriately and with due consideration to other health care professionals on behalf of the laboring/birthing woman in exceptional circumstances where the woman is unable to make her needs clear. The doula may only point out issues as per the client’s express instructions that were developed in the antenatal period and documented on the birth plan.
Continuity of Care
To ensure that the client is not faced with a stranger in the event of the doula’s illness or unavailability, the doula should arrange for a back-up doula who is introduced to the client several weeks before the expected date of birth.
Experience and Ability
The doula should provide her client with a comprehensive outline of her experience and ability. This is normally done by:
Providing a simple, plain text outline of the births she has attended (no clients names or other identifying details are to be recorded in this outline)
Providing the contact details of clients who are willing to speak to new clients about their experiences with the doula.
Providing copies of evaluation sheets completed by the doula’s clients or other evaluators.
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