Education for Birth Doulas & Medical Professionals

 

Redefining Perinatal Loss Support: For Medical Professionals

 
 

Pregnancy and infant loss care is SO specific to each individual and can be complex, no matter the gestational age. That is why as professionals, it’s important for us to understand different levels of care within our community and know who is experienced and educated in this specialized field.

Join Rachel Ebert, LCSW, P-MHC and Teresa Robertson, CD(DONA), BFA in this prerecorded webinar as we discuss how to elevate the strengths of the medical care you already provide.

Our professions are not meant to care for individuals and families alone. That’s why it is important for us to be aware of one another, know how to communicate with one another, and be a part of a bigger, more positive experience.  

 

Navigating Our Role in Perinatal Loss Support: For Birth Doulas & Birth Professionals

It goes without saying that the topic of perinatal loss is extremely difficult - but that does not mean it should be avoided as we learn our role as Birth Doulas and Birth Professionals.

Join me as we take a look at

  • How to offer support without being in the birth room

  • Initial expectations on potential differences during the birth process

  • Validating the birth persons experience

  • The importance of self care as a support person

This course can be presented as a webinar, a live training, or combination and worksheets are also available. Please email teresa@HawaiiBirthDoula.com for more information.

Resources

Co-created by Rachel Ebert, LCSW, PMH-C and Teresa Robertson, BFA, CD(DONA), this thoughtful and thorough postpartum plan covers a wide range of anticipated needs after experiencing perinatal loss.

Donations are encouraged. We respectfully ask when recommending this document, to direct individuals to this page. Thank you!

Events

 
 

Where to Begin? A Roundtable Discussion on Pregnancy & Infant Loss Support

 
 

Whether you are a birth worker, medical professional, friend, or family member, join me on the first Tuesday of each month to have a casual discussion on how to better support individuals before, during, and after experiencing perinatal loss.

Meetings are held twice on the first Tuesday of each month. One at 8pm EST and a second at 8pm Hawaiian Time.

Please register for whichever time zone works best for you by clicking the button below.

About

Discussions around pregnancy and infant loss are often intimidating and hard to talk about. Unfortunately, this makes it even more complicated for grieving families to receive the level of care they need from family, friends, and professionals.

For this reason, I often find individuals have common hesitations when it comes to supporting a friend, family member, or client, fearing they are going to 'get it wrong'. That's why I'm setting up a safe place to ask hard questions when it comes to PAIL support.

Everything from:

  • I don't know what to say.

  • How do I know if I'm doing the right thing?

  • I think I want to help more in this field - but what if I can't handle it?

  • Can you help me understand some of the technical terms?

It’s important for you to know:

  • Any and all questions are welcomed here; however, I will give you very honest, personal answers that come from the work I do. Some of this information may be difficult to hear.

  • All births are honored in the space, which includes termination. This will not be a place to debate opinions on this matter.

  • You do not need to be a birth worker to join. This is truly meant to be a ‘beginning’ conversation on the topic of caring for others.

  • If you would like to share how you WERE or WERE NOT cared for during your loss, we would love to have you.

I am proud to say our past meetings have been very positive, powerful gatherings. For this reason, we are beginning to meet each month.

Register in advance for this meeting.

 
 

Articles

Evidence suggests that, in addition to regular nursing care, continuous one-to-one emotional support provided by support personnel, such as a doula, is associated with improved outcomes for women in labor. Benefits found in randomized trials include shortened labor, decreased need for analgesia, fewer operative deliveries, and fewer reports of dissatisfaction with the experience of labor (1, 17). As summarized in a Cochrane evidence review, a woman who received continuous support was less likely to have a cesarean delivery (RR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.67–0.91) or a newborn with a low 5-minute Apgar score (fixed-effect, RR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.50–0.95) (1). Continuous support for a laboring woman that is provided by a nonmedical person also has a modest positive effect on shortening the duration of labor (mean difference –0.58 hours; 95% CI, –0.85 to –0.31) and improving the rate of spontaneous vaginal birth (RR, 1.08; 95% CI, 1.04–1.12) (1).

 
 

The childbirth experience is an intensely dynamic, physical, and emotional event with lifelong implications. Women who receive continuous support during labor from hospital staff, nonhospital professionals such as doulas (Kozhimannil et al., 2013), and family or friends may have improved outcomes compared with women who do not have such support. Improved maternal and newborn outcomes include the following:

 
 

Birth outcomes of two groups of socially disadvantaged mothers at risk for adverse birth outcomes, one receiving prebirth assistance from a certified doula and the other representing a sample of birthing mothers who elected to not work with a doula, were compared. All of the mothers were participants in a prenatal health and childbirth education program. Expectant mothers matched with a doula had better birth outcomes. Doula-assisted mothers were four times less likely to have a low birth weight (LBW) baby, two times less likely to experience a birth complication involving themselves or their baby, and significantly more likely to initiate breastfeeding. Communication with and encouragement from a doula throughout the pregnancy may have increased the mother’s self-efficacy regarding her ability to impact her own pregnancy outcomes.

 
 
 

 Coming Soon…

  • Why incorporating a Perinatal Loss Specialist to your resource list is beneficial

  • What including a Perinatal Loss Specialist with your care can look like

  • How working with a Perinatal Loss Specialist enhances patient care