Doulas make childbirth the normal healthy process it is

by Hilary Salk, guest editorial

Providence, and Rhode Island, will support Doula services. I testified before the House Finance Committee at the State House on 3/10/20 to add my voice in support of the state providing medicaid coverage for doulas.

My mother told me of her harrowing experience giving birth to me at Providence Lying-in Hospital in 1942. She labored by and large without any familiar or consistent caregivers for days, eventually delivered by a needed C-Section. That she was unable to get help to go to the bathroom which meant she defecated in her bed is a story that stays with me.

How different was my experience in 1966. I was lucky enough to have learned from two women that there was something called natural childbirth. In the last weeks of pregnancy I learned about the Boston Association for Childbirth Education.  Too late to take childbirth classes,  I was referred to a Lamaze monetrice, who gave me two private classes and came into labor and delivery with me. My husband was able to be with me through the labor and breathed with me, but could not be in the delivery room. This shared experience prepared us for many other dramatic, even painful, moments in our lives together.

As a result of this transformative experience, I became active in working for change in childbirth practices in the Boston area, even working as a childbirth educator and labor coach. In 1973 when I moved back to Rhode Island, I had volunteered to be a labor coach for a pregnant teenage girl from the Sophia Little Home, then a home for unwed mothers. I was not allowed to attend her labor at Providence Lying-in. The experience led me to begin organizing The Rhode Island Women’s Health Collective.

In 1990 I became the grandmother of Bianca, whose mother is African-American. In May of 2019, Bianca gave birth to my great-grandson at Women and Infants Hospital. Given her heritage, I was all too aware of the maternal mortality and morbidity rates for black women and babies. I knew how important a support person was for all women, but for a woman of color even more significant. Hiring a doula was an obvious decision.

Below is Bianca’s written testimony of her experience: 

“When I found out I was pregnant, pure joy was followed quickly with crippling anxiety.

Something I had wanted almost my whole life was finally happening and I had no idea what I was doing. I called my gynecologist immediately and went in for an appointment. They confirmed the pregnancy and let me leave the office with absolutely no information, claiming “it was too early” to talk about anything. Enter: my superhero doula, Lisa. She guided me through my pregnancy from the very beginning all the way through my 20 hour labor and delivery, through breastfeeding trials and beyond. She taught me, she calmed me, and gave me the confidence I needed to trust my body and mind. She would normalize my anxiety and let me know that I was already being the mother I always wanted to be.

I was so calm during my labor that we even got to catch up on an episode of Game of Thrones while I was waiting for a bed to open up for me. She let me know that whatever birth experience I wanted was what I should get and there was no judgement on any decision I made. 

I can’t imagine going through this without her and I can only hope that all women get to experience having a doula by their side too. “

I asked Micheal Fine, MD, for a quote re this legislation: He is a former Director of the Rhode Island Department of Health and author of Health Care Revolt: How to organize, Build a Health Care system, and Resuscitate Democracy—All at the Same Time.

From him:

“Doulas make childbirth the normal healthy process – it is.”