Why we need Radical Doulas
If you didn’t know already, The Original Birth Connection trains Doulas. That’s what we do, to date we have trained over 100 new Doulas to go out and serve their communities as birth professionals, so we believe we do it well!
You may have noticed, especially if you subscribe to our mailing list that we have started talking about a Radical Doula Revolution. In recent months we have started to see the conversation around birth change. There has been a lot of media around the terrible state of maternity services in the UK, there have been drastic actions taken by the Quality Care Commission, there have been multiple investigations and there has been a lot of news. Most recently, the inquiry into instances of Birth Trauma in the UK published their report, citing key themes and providing 12 recommendations to the government.
After all this, and after all this time, we’re saying enough is enough. This is why we’ve launched The Radical Doula Revolution.
We know that the politics of birth is complicated - most birthing people do not need to know it, nor should they be concerned about it. The reality is that it is everywhere. All of this attention and media can seriously disrupt pregnancy and birth. We know that fear is often the greatest threat to a person achieving their ideal birth. So while it’s important to be informed, there is a risk that listening into the zeitgeist can take a pregnant person out of their ideal state for labour. The flipside of this, an uninformed birther is at risk of being negatively coerced by a medical system that prioritises funding, scheduling and fear of litigation over a birthing persons right to choose. So where is the ideal balance? A birthworker needs to be aware of all this, know what’s going on, and know how to support a birthing person through it. Earn their trust, work intelligently with the health care practitioners where required so as not to make a birthing persons experience even worse, and know how to speak up and advocate for a clients wants and needs.
Advocacy is increasingly becoming an indispensible skill for all birthworkers. It used to be that Doulas were there solely for physical and emotional support. Able to simply and gently hold space. Now, we know that it is becoming increasingly difficult for midwives to support physiological birth, in particular in a hospital setting. Midwives these days are beholden to the NHS first, their patient second. Fear of litigation, a heirarchy which puts obstetricians above them, burnout and lack of staffing means that midwives are being dealt a pretty shitty card. There are not enough of them, they don’t have enough time, and so the compassion fatigue is setting in and they are leaving the profession. Training new midwives will take time, and is like trying to fill up a leaky bucket. All this means that it is often a lottery (not just postcode, or trust - but shift to shift) whether a birthing person will get the care they deserve.
Doulas now provide the only instance of continuity of a care a pregnant person is likely to receive. Doulas will build the trusting relationship, they will get to know the birthing person, they will end up holding the space they need to birth in the way their client wishes, not the midwives.
Just an FYI - we’re not anti-midwife! Many of the Doulas we trained are trained midwives, and many Doulas we’ve trained have gone on to do midwifery training. The fact is that midwives are not free to practice their role without fear of reprimand, burnout or vicarious trauma. There are AMAZING midwives still practicing within the NHS. However, more and more are leaving because of the way the maternity system operates today.
Finally, Doulas now must also practice radical responsibility. This is not just in what they promise their clients (remembering they cannot act clinically), but must also be radically responsible for their own wellbeing. With the added pressures and vicarious trauma affecting birth professionals, we have a duty of care to ourselves as well as our clients, to ensure that we can continue to practice.
To this end, as an OBC Doula you receive radical support. Ongoing mentoring means you’re deeply supported as you start your journey as a birthworker. Peer-to-peer support, a “doula village” is included for life! We also include continued learning into your investment, regularly holding extra courses which not only help you build your business, but also encourage self-care, and areas of expansion. We’ll soon be launching extra courses on supporting Freebirth and intelligent advocacy. We also regularly enable doulas to access the best available further training opportunities out their in the UK such as an up coming Traveller and Gypsy birth workshop.
We need GREAT Doulas working in the UKs maternity system right now. Each OBC Doula supported birth is an opportunity to better birth for everyone in the UK. Each OBC Doula supported birth is an opportunity for advocacy and education. Each OBC Doula supported birth is a chance for a positive birth experience. Each OBC Doula supported birth is one less birth trauma suffered in the UK.
Our next training starts on June 10th.