Wall Street Journal Article on Doulas

Did anyone see this article? It's in today's paper, front page. The
article implies that doulas are negatively interfering with the
doctor/patient relationship and that patients are, on advice of their
doulas, rejecting interventions. There were some anecdotes such as a
woman whose water had broken refusing pitocin who then delivered a
baby with an infection and the like. It was very negative about
doulas. Just wondering if anyone had any reaction...

Rachel wrote:
Did anyone see this article?

I was just thinking about it as I read through the court-ordered C-section
thread.

It was very negative about doulas.

Wasn't it, though? I really wasn't sure what to think. One of my concerns
in deciding whether to have a doula if we did a hospital birth is that I
anticipated a doula wouldn't advocate *enough* for what I wanted. And it
was impossible to tell from the article what the women in question wanted:
were they being swayed into turning down interventions because of
non-interventionist doulas, or did they hire doulas specifically because
they wanted someone to talk them out of interventions?

I guess the thing I thought most was that choosing a good doula can't make
up for choosing a bad (for you) doctor, and I suspect most of those women
(rightly or wrongly) didn't have a lot of faith in their doctors.

Phoebe
--
yahoo address is unread; substitute mailbolt

Personally, I don't get my birthing advice from the Wall Street
Journal....However there are a lot of uninformed people who may. It's just
a sad commentary that this newspaper even feels the need to wade into the
birthing process. I'm sure that there is anecdotal evidence to back up that
sometimes a doula can interfere with the doctor/patient
relationship....However, for every negative anecdote, I'm sure we could come
up with 5 positive ones. My reaction is BLECCCCCHHHHH......Shevonne





"Rachel" wrote in message
om...
Did anyone see this article? It's in today's paper, front page. The
article implies that doulas are negatively interfering with the
doctor/patient relationship and that patients are, on advice of their
doulas, rejecting interventions. There were some anecdotes such as a
woman whose water had broken refusing pitocin who then delivered a
baby with an infection and the like. It was very negative about
doulas. Just wondering if anyone had any reaction...


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Rachel wrote:
|| Did anyone see this article? It's in today's paper, front page. The
|| article implies that doulas are negatively interfering with the
|| doctor/patient relationship and that patients are, on advice of their
|| doulas, rejecting interventions. There were some anecdotes such as a
|| woman whose water had broken refusing pitocin who then delivered a
|| baby with an infection and the like. It was very negative about
|| doulas. Just wondering if anyone had any reaction...

I haven't read it yet but my first reaction is......which doc/doula does one
think caused the problem in that scenario....the doula that stood up for and
comforted the patient or the doctor that surely caused the infection due to
internal exams (sterile gloves or not checking the cervix for dilation
pushes the vaginal bacteria up into the cervix)???????

Funny how they can easily put a negative spin on doulas/Midwives and such in
the media but OBs still seem to be shown in a positive light. It infuriates
me :-\
--?

Jenn
-WAHM
-DS Feb'92
-DD Feb'97
-Jellyfish due June 25/04

I'm delurking here.

Hi all,

I was interviewed and quoted in the article (Susan from Louisville, KY)
and had no idea this was the woman's take on doulas.

She did not tell my incredibly successful story of an unmedicated VBAC.
It was highly slanted towards the patriarchal, medical line. I would
strongly advise anyone having a VBAC to get one. I truly believe that my
first c-section could have been prevented had I had one then. Anecdotal,
I know but I believe with all my heart that it's true.

Happy, safe births to all.
Susan

Rachel wrote:

Did anyone see this article? It's in today's paper, front page. The
article implies that doulas are negatively interfering with the
doctor/patient relationship and that patients are, on advice of their
doulas, rejecting interventions. There were some anecdotes such as a
woman whose water had broken refusing pitocin who then delivered a
baby with an infection and the like. It was very negative about
doulas. Just wondering if anyone had any reaction...