You wanted to know the difference between a doula and a midwife and what the benefits would be to having each present during labor and delivery in a hospital setting. Let's talk about midwives first. There's 2 different kinds. There's lay midwives, and they deliver women outside of the hospital setting. And there's certified nurse midwives that deliver women in a hospital setting, and most of them have a background in Labor and Delivery as registered nurses and then went on to receive additional training that allows them to be the provider during pregnancy as well as deliver the baby. Because they're the OB provider and actually delivering the baby, they're not able to be at the woman's bedside during the entire labor and delivery experience, and this applies to any OB provider, whether it be a certified nurse midwife, or a family practice physician, or an obstetrician. They have other patients to care for and so they can't be the patient's main support at the bedside during the labor and delivery experience, whether she wants to go unmedicated or whether she chooses to get IV medication or an epidural, and so additional support is necessary. And this can come in the form of your Labor and Delivery nurse, it can also be (and should be) your partner, or family, or a friend that can be there 100% of the time with you.
And some women choose to employ a doula who can actually be there as emotional support and as support through a labor and delivery experience from beginning to end at her bedside the entire time. And so if you feel like this is necessary, you can look into doulas in your area and talk with them about the support that they offer. Basically, they come with tools that help a woman and her partner to breathe, and relax, and to stay focused during the experience. And Labor and Delivery nurses can do this too, but they may also have other patients and aren't able to be in the room 100% of the time, whereas a doula can.
The biggest difference between the two is that, again, doulas offer emotional support and help the woman to breathe and relax and also help her partner, whereas Labor and Delivery nurses and certified nurse midwives are actually giving the mother and her baby the medical attention that they need during the experience as well as emotional support. Hopefully this helps you in making a decision about what support people you're going to have present during your labor and delivery experience, and if you have more questions in the future for me, feel free to ask them on our Facebook page at [ Ссылка ], and recommend us to your friends and family too.
