“If you can find one in your area, doulas are sympathetic and knowledgeable labor companions who typically provide some form of prenatal preparation and stay at your side once labor begins until your baby is born.  The doula’s job is to make you as comfortable as possible and to reassure your partner as well.

The evidence in favor of doulas comes from more than eleven carefully designed studies: Quite simply, hiring one cuts in half the odds of your having an unnecessary cesarean.  It also halves the odds of your having a forceps or vacuum-extractor delivery.  That’s not all!  Having a doula also shortens labor by greatly reducing stress, pain, and anxiety.  In the typical U.S. birthing unit, the doula you bring with you may be the only person whose sole responsibility it is to make you more comfortable and to help you labor as effectively as possible.

If your baby’s father plans to be with you throughout the labor, you may wonder if it makes sense for you to hire a doula.  The answer is yes.  Fathers often have significant fears and anxieties surrounding birth-giving.  The calming influence the doula can have on expectant fathers is often as significant as her effect on the laboring woman.”

—Ina May Gaskin, Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth