What Does Birth look like Before & After becoming a Doula? Keisha's Birth Story

If you look at birth over time, it used to be the case that women were always attended at their births by other women, and sometimes midwives, and these births happened at home. In the 1930s american women moved those births into hospitals, in part to pursue effective pain relief and the allure of more safety--but for a good decade it was not actually safer to have births in hospitals. And over the next 50 years the process of childbearing became more heavily medicalized--with benefits: lower maternal mortality rates and less pain in delivery. But by the 1980s, in part to push back on the increasing rate of C sections, doula's started to attend women in the hospital--they were trained attendants who had been to other births and could advocate for a laboring women who was too involved in the process of birthing to also be involved in all the decision making...

Studies suggest that doula's can have a very positive effect on a woman's experience and today I'm excited to talk to a doula, both to hear about her birth experiences and her work.  And in fact, in this case, my guest became a doula in large part in reaction to her first birth experience...

for more extensive show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com

This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.