Doula Study
Doulas are trained birth attendants. Their role is to provide personalised care tailored to the needs of the couple during pregnancy, birth and the puerperium. Their mental health work, which provides a continuity of care throughout the perinatal period, thus complements the specialist care available in the hospital setting.
The results of our questionnaire survey, described in detail in the Doula Study, show that the doulas in Hungary who have participated in doula training are highly qualified, intellectual women, who on average have 2-3 additional skills and competences that help them in their doula profession (breastfeeding skills, massage, etc.), are regularly trained in pregnancy and childbirth, and attach great importance to supervision in order to provide a high level of quality care to the couples who come to them. Each year they attend the births of around 700 couples and come into contact with approximately 1200 families.
One of the keys to the effectiveness of doula support is that doulas are not female health workers. This allows them to focus on providing mental-emotional-physical support to families. In their research (2002), neonatologist Marshall Klaus and paediatrician John Kennell found that the impact of doula is significantly reduced if the person who is competent in doula has medical training, as someone who is medically trained can no longer approach the process as a layperson. His attention is involuntarily following the physiological side of the process, so he is unable to give his full, pure attention to the comfort or emotional reinforcement of the mother.
Numerous studies have shown that Doula support has a positive effect on the outcome and quality of childbirth. A tangible obstetric outcome is that the total caesarean section rate for doula assisted deliveries is reduced by 45%, the length of labour by 25%, the use of oxytocin by 50%, the need for analgesic drugs by 31%, the need for forceps deliveries by 34% and the number of requests for epidural anaesthesia by 10-60% (Klaus et al., 2002). In addition, the peer support provided by the doula also has a positive impact on maternal indicators and satisfaction, as well as on the physiological state of the newborn, and in the long run on the continued desire to have children, fathers’ experience of childbirth, their attachment to their children and the development of relationships (Andrek, 2019).
The beneficial effects of doula support promote the well-being of mothers, fathers and their babies, reducing the need for medical interventions during labour and delivery, which saves institutions considerable sums of money (Klaus et al., 2002).
In summary, it is concluded that the benefits of Doula care in the perinatal period are considerable for all actors involved, from a social, psychological, demographic and health policy point of view, and are in line with family-friendly initiatives.
Supporting the presence in Doula is a way to increase family satisfaction and greatly improve health indicators without public or institutional expenditure.
The writer-editor of Dúlatanulmány is Eszter Nyitrai, psychologist, doula, the authors are Emőke Békés, Réka Dézsi, Emőke Fodor, Anna Gáspár, Mirtill Kucséberné Farkas, Katalin Lőrincz, Julianna Novák, Eszter Nyitrai, Tímea Pleván and Zsuzsa Raj.
This study was prepared in cooperation with the Ministry of Human Resources.
