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Home › Articles › Breastfeeding Basics › Do You Doula?

Do You Doula?

Postpartum Doulas Support Breastfeeding Moms

By Kim Seidel

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As a postpartum doula, Dawn Thompson offers support for breastfeeding mothers at their homes. It's an important part of her work, which also includes baby care instruction, from umbilical cord care to bathing and sleeping issues.

Postpartum doulas are taught breastfeeding basics. They can help Mom find different positions to feed Baby, and give her suggestions to increase milk supply. They also help prevent possible side effects of incorrect breastfeeding, such as cracked, bleeding nipples or more serious conditions such as mastitis. "Most of all, doulas will cook healthy meals for Mom, which is an essential item to healthy breastfeeding," says Thompson, a certified labor and postpartum doula in Encinitas, Calif.

More families across the country are hiring postpartum doulas, knowledgeable, experienced companions who support women and their families through the transformation that a new baby brings. "The number of postpartum doulas has increased because of a recognition among both families and doulas that the need for support does not end as soon as the delivery is over," says Paula Lantz, lead author of the first known national study of doulas at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and associate professor and chair of the department of Health Management and Policy.

"We know from a great deal of research that breastfeeding does not just come naturally for many new mothers and their infants," she says. "Some women need extra support and guidance to make breastfeeding work. Postpartum doulas are quite well situated to provide the support, encouragement and information many new mothers need to be successful at breastfeeding."

Basics and Beyond
Postpartum doulas work with clients in their homes, which brings many advantages to breastfeeding mothers. "Most people can relate with taking a class and thinking they've got it down, only to get home and find they don't have a clue," says Thompson, a doula for two years. "Parents learn to do things in real time with their real babies, unlike classes with a doll that doesn't wiggle, squirm or cry."

Doulas supply parents with tips on breastfeeding that may have taken weeks, if not months, to figure out. "Most often I find the main challenge that new moms have is too much information," Thompson says. "Breastfeeding moms are drowned in information from everyone, including well-meaning family members whose information is often outdated." Even when they're still in the hospital, new moms listen to different nurses with varying opinions about how she should breastfeed.

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