2018 was a big year for us! We doulas attended 47 births at five different hospitals, and one at home. We spent a total of 682 hours with our clients, that’s an average of 14 and a half hours per birth! The shortest was 2 ½ hours, the longest, 41 hours (oh my)!
The hospitals we visited (in order of frequency) were Princeton (just over half), Brookwood, St. Vincent’s, Grandview and Northport in Tuscaloosa.
The majority of our clients were patients of Simon Williamson OB/Gyn clinic.
We are super excited for the opportunity to attend more home births this year.
How about some birth stats? Only 15% of our clients had c-sections, which is in the range recommended by the World Health Organization. The WHO suggests 10-15% is the right number, any fewer would mean people who need them aren’t getting them.
Many of our clients have a goal of giving birth without an epidural. This year, 75% reached that goal. For those with an epidural, we know sometimes an epidural is just the thing needed right then. And we are all trained in providing special support for our clients who chose an epidural!
Besides labor support, we also hosted 24 group childbirth classes and 3 private classes, and 5 group breastfeeding classes. Our CLC (Dalia) did in home breastfeeding consults for 10 people.
We were so glad to meet lots of new expecting families at our eight, 2018, FREE Open Houses. At Open House we share about our classes and the importance of hiring a doula, followed by an hour of doula “speed dating”. Visit our Open House page for dates for 2019.