If you’re looking into becoming a doula, or you are pregnant and you’ve heard about doulas, you might be wondering what does a doula do?
Maybe you’ve heard that doulas improve birth outcomes, so you’re interested in hiring one, but you aren’t sure how they improve things.
Perhaps you’ve given birth and now you want to support others during their birth. But what does that mean?
One of the biggest misconceptions about doulas is that they’re only for natural births or home births and dislike interventions. That’s Fiction.
The fact, doulas support families planning home births, but also epidurals, scheduled cesarean births, inductions, VBACs, twins, and everything in between.
So, what does a doula do?
Let’s separate fact from fiction.
Fiction: Doulas “Catch” Babies
One of the most common myths is that doulas catch or “deliver” babies. (Note, we say catch because pizzas are delivered, not babies).
They don’t.
Doulas are non-medical birth support who provide continuous emotional, physical, and informational support throughout pregnancy, labor, birth, and the immediate postpartum period.
Unlike midwives or doctors, doulas do not perform medical procedures, monitor the baby’s heart rate, perform vaginal exams, diagnose medical conditions, prescribe medications, or make medical decisions.
Instead, doulas complement the care provided by your healthcare team by focusing on continuous support for the birthing family.
Fact: Doulas Provide Continuous Support
While nurses, physicians, and midwives often care for multiple patients at once, a doula’s attention is typically focused on one family.
A doula remains with you throughout labor, providing encouragement, reassurance, comfort measures, and guidance from the beginning of active labor through birth.
Continuous support can help families feel more confident, informed, and supported during one of life’s biggest transitions.
Fiction: Doulas Replace Your Partner
Another common concern is that hiring a doula means replacing your partner.
In reality, it’s quite the opposite.
A doula supports both the birthing person and their chosen support people.
Many partners appreciate having someone who can offer suggestions for comfort measures, explain what’s happening during labor, provide reassurance, and remind them to take breaks, eat, and stay hydrated.
Rather than replacing a partner, doulas help partners feel more confident and involved. Often, that looks like, “Hey, Jake, use your hands like this during a contraction. The double hip squeeze helps so much!”
A doula can help partners be more involved without stressing about how they can help.
Fact: Doulas Provide Physical Comfort Measures
Labor is physically demanding, and every family experiences it differently.
Doulas are trained in a variety of non-medical comfort measures that may help improve comfort during labor. And even if you choose or require medical intervention throughout labor, your doula’s non-medical comfort techniques can help.
These may include:
- Position changes
- Breathing techniques
- Massage and touch
- Counterpressure
- Relaxation techniques
- Movement and walking
- Peanut balls and birth balls
- Hydrotherapy when available
- Creating a calm birth environment
Every labor is unique, so doulas work with families to find what feels most helpful in the moment.
Fiction: Doulas Give Medical Advice
This is an important distinction.
Doulas do not provide medical advice or tell families what decisions they should make.
Instead, doulas help families understand their options by providing evidence-based information, encouraging open communication with healthcare providers, and helping clients ask questions so they can make informed decisions alongside their medical team.
One commonly used tool is the B.R.A.I.N. acronym. It encourages families to discuss the benefits, risks, alternatives, intuition, and whether waiting is an option before making certain decisions.
The goal is never to tell someone what to choose. The goal is to help them feel informed and confident in the decisions they make.
Fact: Doulas Support Every Type of Birth
Doulas are not just for unmedicated births.
Families choose doula support for many different birth experiences, including:
- Hospital births
- Birth center births
- Home births (with a midwife or doctor present)
- Planned cesarean births
- VBACs
- Inductions
- Epidural births
- High-risk pregnancies
A doula’s role is not to promote one type of birth over another. Instead, doulas support families regardless of how their birth unfolds. While there are some doulas who serve a specific niche in birth, the majority of doulas provide support for all birthing families.
Fiction: Doulas and Healthcare Providers Work Against Each Other
Occasionally people worry that having a doula will create conflict with doctors or nurses.
The opposite is true.
Doulas work collaboratively with healthcare providers while respecting each professional’s role.
Medical providers are responsible for clinical care.
Doulas are responsible for continuous emotional, physical, and informational support.
These roles complement one another, creating a team approach. Part of doula training includes communication skills and engaging with other professionals. Sometimes, there could be conflicting personalities but professionally trained doulas know how to manage in a positive and effective way.
Fact: Research Supports Doula Care
A growing body of research has shown that continuous labor support is associated with improved birth outcomes and experiences.
Research suggests that families who receive continuous labor support may experience:
- Greater satisfaction with their birth experience
- Increased likelihood of spontaneous vaginal birth
- Reduced use of certain medical interventions
- Shorter labors in some situations
- Increased confidence during labor
Every birth is different, and no outcome can ever be guaranteed. However, decades of research continue to demonstrate the value of continuous, supportive care during labor.
Is a Doula Right for You?
Every family has different goals, preferences, and needs.
Some families want additional emotional support. Others appreciate having someone who can provide comfort measures throughout labor. Many simply want another knowledgeable member of their birth team who can help them feel informed and supported.
Whether you’re planning a hospital birth with an epidural, a scheduled cesarean birth, a birth center delivery, or an unmedicated labor, doula support can be tailored to your individual needs.
At its core, doula care is about helping families feel heard, respected, informed, and supported.
Interested in Becoming a Doula?
If you’re passionate about supporting families during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period, becoming a doula can be an incredibly rewarding way to make a meaningful difference.
The International Doula Institute’s Birth Doula Certification Program provides comprehensive, evidence-based education designed to prepare students with the knowledge, practical skills, and confidence to support families throughout pregnancy, labor, birth, and the immediate postpartum period.
Whether you’re just beginning your journey in birth work or expanding your education, our flexible online certification program can help you develop the skills needed to provide compassionate, family-centered support.
Every family deserves to feel supported during birth—and every doula has the opportunity to help make that happen.
Author: Aliza Juliette Bancoff
Aliza Juliette Bancoff is a well-known doula and doula trainer who has been providing doula services to families for over a decade. She is the founder of Main Line Doulas, a doula group providing doula support in the great Philadelphia area for the last decade, the International Doula Institute, which provides online doula training and lactation training and certification programs and the International Breastfeeding Institute which provides lactation training and certification. She is the co-founder of United Birth, a company devoted to increasing access to doulas across the country to make the perinatal time safer both physically and emotionally. “Every birthing person deserves access to quality doula support. And we are working to make that a reality across the country. The work we are doing to get doulas to every birthing person will decrease the black infant and maternal mortality rate significantly by 2030.” Says Bancoff. Aliza is known for her compassionate and empowering approach to doula work, and she has been featured in numerous media outlets, including United Nations Maternal Health Report, Parent Magazine, CafeMom, theBump and many more. Aliza's journey into doula work began when she gave birth to her first child and felt a strong calling...