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Business News/ News / Business Of Life/  A helping hand for expectant mothers
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A helping hand for expectant mothers

Some parents-to-be are now engaging the services of birth professionals to help answer their questions and liaise with the hospital staff

Doulas can help ease the processPremium
Doulas can help ease the process

NEW DELHI :

For first-time expectant parents, going into labour can be an intense experience. From opting to use analgesia to whether to have a natural birth or a Caesarean, there are many choices to be made. Some couples are now opting to have an old hand in the hospital room with them—a doula—to get inputs from someone with experience.

“First-time parents especially don’t know what’s happening," says Anika Puri, a birth professional and doula with Fortis Mamma Mia—A Mom’s World, Gurgaon. Puri says her job as a doula is to “provide continuous physical and emotional support (to the to-be-parents), from the first contraction to the first breastfeed". Part of what she does is also to liaise between the doctors and parents-to-be. So she decodes doctor-speak for the expecting parents, explains their choices to them, gives advice on “active birthing positions" and helps massage away some of the pain.

“Scientific papers indicate that having a birthing companion reduces the chances of a Caesarean birth and the need for epidurals; they could be a family member, husband or even a doula," says Kaushiki Dwivedee, lead consultant, minimal access surgery and obstetrics, Max Hospital, Gurgaon. “Certainly there’s no harm, provided you can afford it," adds Dr Dwivedee.

At Fortis Mamma Mia, which has outlets in Gurgaon, and Greater Kailash-II and Shalimar Bagh in Delhi, the seven trained doulas between them take a maximum of 15 patients a month.

A 2002 article in the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing—“Beyond Holding Hands: The Modern Role of the Professional Doula", by Amy L. Gilliland—identifies five areas where a doula can help expectant parents: “Providing specific labor support skills, techniques, and strategies; offering guidance and encouragement to laboring mothers and their families; building a team relationship with nursing staff; encouraging communication between patient and medical caregivers; and assisting mothers to cover gaps in their care."

Of course, traditionally in India the family’s older members have played this role. But more couples are now living away from the joint family system. Puri says even people who live with their in-laws and extended families sometimes find it easier to talk to her than field all the diverse, sometimes contradictory, advice that well-meaning relatives shower on the couple.

Roshni Nadar Malhotra, whom Puri helped in the last trimester of her pregnancy around two years ago, said in an email interview: “It may not have appeared that way, but she helped me stay ‘calm’."

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Published: 21 Oct 2013, 07:57 PM IST
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