Doulas do advocate, we talked about that in the last episode which is linked below. But HOW? How do doulas advocate without making decisions for our clients? Or making a birth scenario about us? That’s today’s episode. How do doulas advocate for their clients during a birth? What are some phrases and strategies doulas can use to advocate for their clients?
One big prenatal step is writing a birth plan. This gives the client time to decide what their thoughts are on things and also gives you a reference to point back to. Either in the form of reminding the client of their plan and desire OR of reminding the team to read the plan/desire. Both can be incredibly helpful.
“Let's say a provider is saying ‘Okay, we really want to have continuous monitoring’, for instance, and your client says, I don't remember what I wanted. One thing you can say is, ‘oh, hey, I know that on your birth plan, you wanted intermittent monitoring? Do you remember the difference between those two? Do you want your provider to explain the difference or why they're wanting to expand continuous versus intermittent?’ Because that adds some nuance, right? Like, it's entirely possible that the provider is saying, We want you on continuous monitoring, because we're really concerned about your baby's heart rate, well, then that's a very legitimate and super important reason to be on continuous monitoring. It's also possible that the provider is just like, annoyed with intermittent monitoring and wants the person on continuous, I'm not saying these are scenarios where the provider is saying something that is always wrong, that's not necessarily the case, sometimes it's that they lack explanation, or they lack client or patient consent.”
Doula Advocacy Scripts:
“(name of client) I know you mentioned in the prenatal visits that you were concerned about X do you have any questions about that now?”
“(name of client) wrote out on their birth plan their desires around (insert issue)” especially if someone is mid-contraction
“(name of client), you let us know when you’re ready for X” (when someone has said yes to an exam after this next contraction but isn’t opening eyes, etc.
“I heard (name of client) say no. Is that right (name of client)?” when a client is being ignored
“Name of client do you want your water broken?” if you see a provider preparing for a procedure that your client has not consented to
Listen to the previous episode here:
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Kaely Daily is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services
It is sponsored by The Birth Prep Blueprint Childbirth Class
Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay
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