What Does a Doula Do?

We don’t provide medical care, and we’re not there to replace your midwife or other healthcare professionals.

Instead, think of a doula as someone firmly in your corner.
Someone you can ask the questions you forgot to ask at your appointment. Someone who can talk through your options without judgement. Someone who gets to know you, what matters to you and how you’d like to be supported.

And sometimes, particularly after your baby arrives, someone who walks through the door, takes one look at you and says:
“Go back to bed. I’ve got this.”

Because support doesn’t always have to be complicated.

Before your baby arrives
During pregnancy, we’ll spend time getting to know each other and talking about how you’re feeling about the birth.

We might discuss your birth preferences, different pain-relief options, what could happen if things don’t go quite as planned and what is particularly important to you.

For some parents, that’s about preparing for their first birth and making the whole thing feel slightly less unknown.

For others, particularly after a difficult previous experience, it might be about feeling more informed and confident going into birth this time around.

I’m not there to tell you what choices to make.

My role is to help you understand your options, ask questions and feel confident making decisions that are right for you and your baby.

This is something partners sometimes worry about when couples first consider having a doula.

Your partner knows and loves you in a way I never could. My role isn’t to replace that relationship; it’s to support it.

Birth partners can feel enormous pressure too. They may be watching someone they love experience labour while simultaneously trying to remember everything they learnt at antenatal classes!

Having another experienced person in the room can take some of that pressure away.

I can suggest ways they can support you, reassure them about what’s happening and occasionally remind them that they need to eat, drink or go to the toilet too!

Rather than pushing partners out, doula support can help them feel more confident and involved.

Newborn babies need frequent feeding and care throughout the night, and weeks of broken sleep can be incredibly tough.

A night doula provides overnight support so parents can get more rest while knowing their baby is being cared for.
Exactly what that looks like depends on your baby and how you’re feeding.

If your baby is bottle-fed, I can take on feeds, changing, winding and settling, allowing you to get longer stretches of uninterrupted sleep.

If you’re breastfeeding, I’ll work around you and your baby. That might mean bringing baby to you when they’re ready to feed, then taking over afterwards—winding, changing, and settling baby back to sleep so you can focus on feeding and getting yourself back to sleep.

And then there are the nights when babies simply don’t want to be put down.

Having someone there to cuddle, rock, walk, and settle your baby while you sleep can feel like an absolute gift at 3am.

It’s not about forcing a newborn into a strict routine or promising they’ll magically sleep through the night.

It’s about supporting your baby’s needs while helping you get the rest you need too. There’s a reason some of my families have nicknamed me “Aunty Bed.”

Sleep is precious!

Generally, a nanny’s primary responsibility is caring for the child.
A postnatal doula’s focus is wider.

Yes, I can care for your baby, but I’m also thinking about you.

How are you recovering? Have you eaten? When did you last sleep? How is feeding going? Are you feeling confident? Does your partner need some reassurance too? Is there something practical I can do that would make today easier?

The purpose of postnatal doula support is ultimately to nurture the family while you transition into life with your new baby.

Some professionals, myself included, may work across different types of postnatal and newborn support depending on what a family needs.

During birth, continuous support has also been associated with a number of positive outcomes, including an increased likelihood of spontaneous vaginal birth, shorter labour and fewer negative feelings about the birth experience.

But I think it’s important to say something here. Having a positive birth experience does not mean having one particular type of birth. A vaginal birth isn’t a “successful” birth while a Caesarean is somehow a failure.

Having an epidural doesn’t mean you didn’t cope. Changing your mind isn’t failing to stick to your birth plan. Birth sometimes takes unexpected turns.

For me, good doula support is about helping you come away feeling that you were heard, respected, informed and supported, whatever path your birth ultimately takes.

And after birth, the benefits of support can be much simpler.
A shower. A hot meal. Two uninterrupted hours of sleep. Someone telling you that yes, what your baby is doing is completely normal. Someone listening without immediately offering an opinion. Sometimes those small things make an enormous difference.

Ask what their packages include, what happens if they’re unavailable and how they work alongside your partner and maternity team. But there’s another part of choosing a doula that is much harder to put on paper. Do you actually like them? You are potentially inviting this person into one of the most intimate, emotional and vulnerable periods of your life.

You might be labouring in front of them. You might be crying in front of them. They may see you at 7 am, three days postpartum, wearing yesterday’s pyjamas with your hair on top of your head, wondering how such a tiny human managed to keep you awake for the entire night. You need to feel comfortable around them.

So speak to a few doulas if you want to. Ask questions. And pay attention to how you feel after your conversation. Did you feel listened to? Did you feel comfortable? Did you feel judged, or did you feel able to be completely yourself? Did you finish the conversation feeling slightly more reassured than when you started? That connection matters.