The Doula Book: How A Trained Labor Companion Can Help You Have A Shorter, Easier, And Healthier Birth

Front Cover
More and more parents-to-be all over the world are choosing the comfort and reassuring support of birth with a trained labor companion called a "doula." This warm, authoritative, and irreplaceable guide completely updates the authors' earlier book, Mothering the Mother, and adds much new and important research. In addition to basic advice on finding and working with a doula, the authors show how a doula reduces the need for cesarean section, shortens the length of labor, decreases the pain medication required, and enhances bonding and breast feeding. The authors, world-renowned authorities on childbirth with combined experience of over 100 years working with laboring women, have made their book indispensable to every woman who wants the healthiest, safest, and most joyful possible birth experience.A Merloyd Lawrence Book
 

Contents

Acknowledgments
The Need for Support in Labor
1
The Special Role of the Doula
13
Enhancing the Birth Experience
31
Reducing Discomfort Pain and Anxiety in Childbirth
51
Obstetric Benefits of Doula Support
73
LongerTerm Benefits of Doula Support
99
Birth with a Doula
113
Postpartum Care
167
The Training of a Doula
191
Relaxation Visualization and SelfHypnosis Exercises for Pregnancy Labor Birth and Breastfeeding
211
Characteristics of Randomized Clinical Trials of Labor Support
227
Resources
229
Notes
233
Index
237
About the Authors
243

A Fathers True Role
131
The Dublin Experience
149

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