When it involves childbirth, having one-on-one help could make all of the distinction on the planet for a mother-to-be — particularly with the present pressure on B.C.’s hospital system.

Morag Hastings is aware of how arduous it may be for overworked health-care professionals to supply bodily and emotional help to ladies in labour. That’s the place she is available in.

Hastings is a doula and the proprietor of Dancing Star Birth, which supplies prenatal lessons, doula providers and beginning photographers for households throughout Metro Vancouver. She’s internet hosting an occasion subsequent week to introduce Lower Mainland residents to doulas: Speed Dating with Doulas.

Anyone from Metro Vancouver, at any stage of being pregnant, is invited to register to attend the net session on Thursday, June 29.

Families will get 15-minute periods with completely different doulas over the course of the night; Hastings will pre-screen those that register so she will be able to attempt to slender the “dates” right down to the very best matches, relying on an individual’s explicit wants and desires.

“The clients don’t have to go and research a bunch of doulas and see if they fit and then contact everyone,” Hastings mentioned. “They can show up to the event. It’s free. They don’t have to leave their home, and they can meet somewhere between four and six doulas. If they want to hire one, they can; if they don’t feel like they’ve found a good fit or a good match, they don’t have to. But at least they have the experience of meeting a bunch of doulas, and they’ll have a better sense of what they’re looking for when they go to look for a doula who would be suitable for them.”

So what, precisely, does a doula do?

Essentially, Hastings explains, a doula is an additional one that’s there to be of service to the household.

“So if you need backrubs for 10 hours, you get backrubs for 10 hours. If your partner needs to go out and get some fresh air, they can leave and you’re still getting your backrubs,” she says. “It takes a lot of pressure off the nursing staff.”

Doulas, not like midwives and different health-care professionals, don’t must have hospital privileges, to allow them to accompany purchasers to any hospital within the Lower Mainland. Hastings’ workforce works in Vancouver and surrounding areas of Metro Vancouver, all the best way out to Surrey and Langley and as much as Squamish.

At some hospitals, resembling B.C. Women’s, doulas are nicely built-in into the common work of labour and supply wards and are thought of a part of the medical workforce, she famous.

“Doulas at B.C. Women’s are pretty incorporated into the system. We go into the OR, we’re allowed into the rooms. They almost expect people to have doulas, and they rely on us,” she mentioned.

Hastings mentioned doulas might be notably useful at giant, busy hospitals resembling Royal Columbian in New Westminster.

“Royal Columbian is a very, very busy hospital. It’s very valuable to show up when you’re in true, active labour, so having a doula on board and somebody to support you through what that process looks like can be very valuable,” she mentioned.

At smaller hospitals, resembling Burnaby, a doula could also be necessary for ache administration, since these hospitals typically don’t have an anesthesiologist on website.

“Maybe you just need somebody there to give you extra hip squeezes or extra support while you’re waiting to get your medication, or maybe you choose not to have medication and you want to have someone specifically there to give you that added support,” she defined.

Hastings pointed on the market’s not a regulatory company for doulas as there’s for midwives, so there’s no prescribed coaching. That means potential purchasers must do their very own analysis to seek out out what their doula’s coaching is and what providers they provide. Some, as an illustration, might also be therapeutic massage therapists or beginning photographers.

“The benefit to using the speed dating is that I’ve already vetted a lot of people,” defined Hastings, noting she sends purchasers an info sheet that covers details about the doulas, their background, their coaching and expertise, and their charges.

Generally, she mentioned, doulas in Metro Vancouver will cost anyplace from $800 to greater than $2,000 for a beginning, relying on their expertise and what they embrace of their doula package deal.

From Hastings’ perspective, it’s cash nicely spent.

Those who use doulas have a tendency to remain at dwelling till later phases of labour, making it much less seemingly they’ll be despatched away from the hospital or diverted to a different facility after they arrive. Doula-assisted births are additionally much less prone to see using remedy, much less prone to find yourself in Cesarean sections and extra prone to see shorter hospital stays, she famous. (She provided up a hyperlink to the Evidence Based Birth site for many who need to learn extra concerning the proof for the good thing about doulas.)

All of these elements are a profit to the health-care system and to the purchasers they serve, Hastings famous.

Anyone who needs to seek out out extra about doulas is invited to participate within the June 29 pace relationship session. If June 29 is just too early, potential purchasers can join future periods in August and past, because the occasions run each six weeks to 2 months.

More info and registration is on the market on the Dancing Star Birth website.

Follow Julie MacLellan on Twitter @juliemaclellan.

Email Julie, jmaclellan@newwestrecord.ca