Blog / For Families
Our doulas are dedicated to you! Doulas have a very special role in the lives of the families we support. We’ve collected these articles to help families better understand the role and impact doulas have during labor, birth and the postpartum period.
Over 25 years ago, DONA International put doulas on the map and has long been the world leader in defining, training and certifying professional doulas. Our doulas balance professionalism with passion. We practice with deep respect for the families we support and the doctors, midwives and nurses who care for you.
Meet Ginger Breedlove, Editor of “Nobody Told Me about That: The First Six Weeks”
It’s been often said that we don’t know what we don’t know. That statement rings true during the postpartum period and most especially during those first six weeks if you are a new parent. There’s a new book on the scene which seeks to bring to light many of the...
Postpartum Preeclampsia: Risk after Delivery Remains
By Eleni Tsigas, Chief Executive Officer, Preeclampsia Foundation May is Preeclampsia Awareness Month. Preeclampsia is one of the three largest causes of maternal mortality in the USA and around the world. Postpartum doulas are in a unique position to encourage...
Six Reasons Why You May Want a Postpartum Doula after Your Cesarean Birth
Cesarean Awareness Month April is Cesarean Awareness Month (CAM) and this month, many perinatal organizations are focusing on the impact cesarean birth has on parents and babies. In the USA, the current cesarean rate is just under 32%. While this rate has been slowly...
Five Reasons You May Want a Birth Doula During Your Cesarean Birth
Cesarean Awareness Month April is Cesarean Awareness Month (CAM) and this month, many perinatal organizations are focusing on the impact cesarean birth has on parents and babies. In the USA, the current cesarean rate is just under 32%. While this rate has been slowly...
The Duchess and the Doula
By Ann Grauer, AdvCD/BDT(DONA), AdvPCD/PDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, IBCLC Meghan Markle hired a doula for her upcoming birth (and, hopefully, postpartum). We are delighted that she is making DOULA the word heard round the world. The Duchess is just the latest expectant...
Five Ways Doulas Help Their Laboring Clients Increase Oxytocin – The Love Hormone
By Sharon Muza, BS, CD(DONA), BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE Doulas know the importance of oxytocin in labor. Oxytocin is often called the "love hormone" but in labor and during feeding, it is also the "squeeze hormone" helping the uterus to contract in order to change...
What Is Natural Birth Anyway?
By Sharon Muza, BS, CD(DONA), BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE It has become clear to me in the past few years that there has been a shift in the meaning of some birth terminology that consumers use to talk about their births. Personally, I cannot pinpoint when the shift...
Lights, Camera, Action – Doulas Doulaing!
By Sharon Muza, BS, CD(DONA), BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE Where have I been the past two years? Under a rock? How did I just discover Romper's The Doula Diaries video series? Somehow, these short (typically less than ten minutes) vignettes profiling a doula as they...
There’s an App for That! – Creative Solutions for Running Your Doula Business: Full Term Contraction Timer
By Sharon Muza, BS, CD(DONA), BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE It is time for another post in the occasional series called "There's an App for That!" This series allows me to share an app that helps us run our birth and postpartum businesses and make our lives easier....
A Pregnant Belly Makes the Best Halloween Costume!
By Sharon Muza, BS, CD(DONA), BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE Halloween is observed in the United States and other places around the world today. Now that my children are young adults, we seem to have lost the Halloween spirit and all the rituals and fun associated with...
The Black Infant Remembrance Memorial – A Valuable Resource for Your Families
By Sharon Muza, BS, CD(DONA), BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE You cannot live in the United States and be unaware of the health inequities that face Black families here in this country. Every single major news outlet has been covering this tragic situation with increasing...
Book Review – Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy by Angela Garbes
By Susan Young, CD/PCD(DONA), LMT, ICCE I love reading new books on pregnancy, labor, postpartum and parenting from authors with a unique perspective. Like a Mother (Harper Wave, 2018) is a great book that adds a valuable voice to those on the doula’s bookshelf. This...
A Book Review for Father’s Day: Man Vs. Baby by Matt Coyne
By Sharon Muza, BS, CD(DONA), BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE With Father's Day right around the corner in the United States (this Sunday, June 17th) I thought I would share a book review of a recent nonfiction book I just finished reading. Man Vs. Baby by Matt...
Happy 80th Birthday to DONA Founder Penny Simkin
By Sharon Muza, BS, CD(DONA), BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE Today, May 31st is Penny Simkin's 80th birthday. I am confident that you join me in being so glad that she was born on this day in 1938. Penny is one of the five founders of DONA International and an icon in...
Doulas’ Children Share What They Think Doulas Do
By Sharon Muza, BS, CD(DONA), BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE In honor of Mother's Day, which is being celebrated today in the United States, I asked doulas to ask their children "what does a doula do?" The kids' answers are very funny, but also, often remarkably...
Book Review: Battling Over Birth: Black Women and the Maternal Health Care Crisis
By Sharon Muza, BS, CD(DONA), BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE Today in the United States is the last day of Black History Month 2018. The end of this annual reflective month does not mean that the issue of Black parents dying four times more frequently than their white...
1 in 10 Babies Are Born too Early – Stand with DONA in Honoring Prematurity Awareness Month & Day
By Sharon Muza, BS, CD(DONA), BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE November is Prematurity Awareness Month and November 17, 2017 is World Prematurity Awareness Day. Babies born before 37 weeks of gestation are considered premature. In the USA, 380,000 (1 in 10) babies are born...
Call the Doula! Let’s Help Kate Middleton with Baby #3!
Sharon Muza, BS, CD(DONA), BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE Ever since Kensington Palace announced earlier this week that Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, are expecting their third child sometime in 2018, I have been secretly...