Why you should hire a postpartum Doula
The opinions on this post are mine alone and from my experience working as a postpartum support. It is an opinion piece and not to be counted as medical advice.
At my most recent job, I noticed how much the system is not woman centred. It is not focused on your recovery, your postpartum body or your mental wellbeing at the forefront. Otherwise why would the system insist on dragging you into a clinic the day after you give birth, instead of doing a home visit? The trend these days is that home visits are becoming a thing of the past, depending on what postcode you fall under.
What this means is that you may give birth on Monday, be discharged on Tues if there are no major issues. You may be leaving the hospital with stitches ranging from 1st degree all the way up to an emergency c section. Wound care according to the NHS website recommends daily bathing for stitches / episiotomy. However, this advise which is displayed on their website, isn’t followed by all staff and depending on who looks after you, you can hear anything from don’t touch it, to no bathing at all, to no bathing for 6 weeks or even 3 months. The inconsistency in advice is something I experienced personally, and it can really make or break your recovery and even breastfeeding journey.
When you finally get home, the baby in the first week is likely to quite sleepy / content being in the cot in the day and quite happy being held by others. Around day 5, they wake up and eyes open. From week 2 to 3, the baby starts to become more aware of their surrounding and needing mum more to be close, all of this is completely normal.
But what if in that first week, instead of resting and making the most of your sleepy baby so you can recoup from birth, you are being made to go into a cold clinic to sit through a tick box exercise. If these appointments were to check wounds, check stitches, to check your body post birth then that would be such an asset. Bodywork, massage, or even emotional support. But this isn’t what we get immediately after birth. So why do we even go? You can ask for home visits, and explain that you cannot get to the clinic due to the stitches or that you are in genuine pain from labour. You can even say its culturally important to stay home the first month as it is in many traditions. It is still important to be seen, so would prefer a home visit instead. Depending on if any issues were identified, you may be asked to go to the clinic every day or every other day. Having stitches on your vulva is extremely painful, and having carried a baby for 9 months, your pelvic floor has also gone through the biggest expansion it ever would. By not having the optimum time to rest, it opens us up to a whole heap of issues later on.
My job as a postpartum doula, with all this chaos going around, is to bring the calm. I may not be able to stop the appointments from being in the clinic, but I can bring you the food for your recovery so that your body gets a chance to build itself back up. I bring the rebozos so that you have that support on your womb before you go to the appointments so that you atleast have something holding you in if you feel like you are about to break. That first week after birth, our bodies are so sensitive, and our emotions are susceptible to be influenced and overridden by outside opinions which may not fit with what you need in that moment. My job is to bring you the warm, the wrapping, the gentle bodywork and bring you back to you. I ask about your post birth bleed and the flow, whether it is slowing down (an indication that you are doing too much). I’m there as a shoulder to lean on, to vent, when things feel so hard. I bring over snacks and make sure your water is always topped up so you don’t have to think about it. I take care of your house too so that you don’t have to worry about nappies being all over the floor. I bring the herbs for your wound to heal and make sure its accessible so that you don’t have another job to do.
I try my best to make the home easy for you so that when you are home, your only job is to stay in bed and feed your baby. I cant prevent the chaos of how the system treats you in the postpartum, but I can help you alongside it and give the optimal care so that you aren’t left alone. Because its be honest, once you get discharged around 4 weeks, the baby may not let you put them down, and there is no real time to just ..sleep.
