Congratulations on your pregnancy! There are ways to put your best foot forward during this important time, and for many women this includes hiring a birth doula.
A doula is a birth coach. She acts as your right hand woman, works with you to navigate uncharted waters, supports your partner and helps to enable a birth you'll carry forward with pride and love.
Your definition of success will be unique from your friend's, your neighbor's or your sister's. I will help identify your personal goals and make use of time-tested tools and strategies... including preparation, advocacy and encouragement. Contact me to learn more.
Kate Thomson, CD(DONA)
I received a BA in Psychology from Bates College in 2000. I spent fifteen years working in advertising and marketing for clients such as Fidelity Investments, American Express, truth and Nationwide Insurance. My two baby girls were born in 2010 and 2014, both with the assistance of skilled midwife and doula teams.
My personal experience, ongoing research and observations of friends' pregnancy and childbirth experiences drew me toward the work of supporting women during this critical time in their lives. I believe in the role of preparation, continuous labor support and advocacy in helping women achieve their best possible birth. Through Birth Strategies I support families as a full service birth doula, as a virtual doula and as a career doula (specializing in supporting and coaching working mothers). I have supported women and families through at-home labor, unmedicated births, births with epidurals and Caesarean births and have provided immediate and delayed postpartum support to answer my clients' individual needs.
Along with being a DONA certified birth doula I am also a peer lactation counselor. I live in Glenside, PA with my two girls, my husband and my rambunctious Golden Retriever.
Why are doulas important?
“Birth is not only about making babies. Birth is about making mothers. Strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and know their inner strength.”
“If a doula were a drug, it would be unethical NOT to use it.”
"The most recent systematic review looked closely at how effects of labor support varied by type of person providing labor support, and offers new knowledge.
Effects were strongest when the person was neither a member of the hospital staff nor a person in the woman's social network, and was present solely to provide one-to-one supportive care. Compared with women who have no continuous support, women with companions (such as a doula) who were neither on the hospital staff nor in the woman's social network were:
- 28% less likely to have a Cesarean section
- 31% less likely to use synthetic oxytocin (Pitocin) to speed up labor
- 9% less likely to use any pain medication
- 34% less likely to rate their childbirth experience negatively"
(source: Hodnett ED. Pain and women's satisfaction with the experience of childbirth: a systemic review. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2002; 186(5) S160-72.)