Tara Schatzel, herself a mother of three, has been a certified doula since 2003.  She had always been interested in helping her friends who were having babies.  Having had her own first child already, she assisted one friend and her husband who were having their first.  Then, when an older woman who was nervous about a coming birth needed advice, Schatzel decided to educate herself, using both the internet and some nurse friends who told her about doulas.  She found a lot to appreciate. 
 
“We want every woman to feel happy at the end of her birthing experience,” Schatzel said.   
 
To achieve this, it is necessary that the prospective mothers know all their options.  “Our goal is to educate women early in their pregnancy as to their choices,” Schatzel explained.  Letting women know all their options helps them make birthing plans best suited to their individual lives and preferences.  “If you’re not educated to the options you may not have the birthing experience you want.”     
 
Women making informed choices is important to the doulas.  No longer restricted to one birthing method most health care professionals and childbirth educators today have embraced the plethora of techniques that have been developed by enlightened practitioners in recent decades, or, in some cases, re-discovered from ancient times.  Among the many possibilities for mothers-to-be are the Bradley method (husband coached), Lamaze (breathing exercises), LeBoyer (dim, quiet room), water births, massage, and hypno-birthing.
 
However, “It’s not all about doing it one way.  It’s important to learn many techniques,” stated Fiona Cottrell. 
 
Cottrell is both a Birth Doula and a Post-Partum Doula, which means she also helps the parents adjust to their new lives with a baby, e.g., diet, feeding, and nap times.  In addition, this mom works as an Obstetrical Technician in the Birthing Center at Northern Dutchess Hospital.  Like Schatzel, Cottrell also had a friend who was concerned about an impending birth, and had asked Cottrell to be her doula.  She looked up information about the service, and then, by a happy coincidence, Cottrell was visiting Florida when DONA training was taking place.  Certified in 1999, she organized Hudson Valley Birth Professionals in 2006, and they held a free program about pregnancy and birth services at Babies R Us in Wappingers Falls.  This was followed up by “Reel Event,” a film and discussion night in Fall of last year.
 
Sakinah Irizarry is another local member of Hudson Valley Doulas who is very keen on the many advantages of this age-old system of caring.  Irizarry was inspired to get training when a younger sister was going through the pregnancy and birth process in 2005.     
 
“I realized there is little support for young mothers in the hospital,” Irizarry said.  “The great thing about doulas is they are with the mother and her partner every step of the way.” 
 
Irizarry’s first birthing assistance was with her own nephew.  The better to help her sister, she talked to a friend, lactation consultant, Leanne O’Connor, who led her to the doula training program.  Irizarry then made contact with Cottrell and joined Hudson Valley Birth Professionals.   She is also training as a massage therapist and plans to do both pre-natal and post-natal massage therapy.

This sort of whole care of the expectant mother may once have seemed like an auxiliary to mainstream ob/gyn medical attention, but more and more people are realizing how valuable such services as massage can be for any mother and child.  The relief of stress is much more than a nicety; it can eliminate considerable pain and trauma for both parties.
 
One of the stress-relieving options that Hudson Valley Birth Professionals offer to women and families is learning ways to avoid medication when in labor.  As Irizarry pointed out, it is absurd that women are told to avoid putting any unnecessary substances into their bodies while pregnant, and then as soon as they are in the labor room many of them are given pain relieving drugs that are not good for the baby.  There are alternative techniques to medication that are just as effective in most cases.  Such tactics as moving around rather than lying on one’s back during a painful labor, breathing exercises, visualization and deep relaxation techniques, massage by the birth partner and/or doula, and hypnosis are among the natural methods of pain relief that doulas tell women about.  The recovery of the mother has been shown to be much quicker without drugs.  For babies, too, it is a clear plus.  They are far more alert and calm. 
 
“The baby’s eyes look around so much more quickly and the baby is generally more lively when the mother has not had medication,” Cottrell noted.   
 
Schatzel pointed out that Caesarean deliveries also can benefit from the knowledge imparted by the doula.  Those who have a C-section take 5 times longer to recover than an unmedicated completely natural vaginal birth. Contrary to feeling that they have been pressured into an unwanted procedure, “We are trying to give the birth experience back to women.”  Cottrell added that first time mothers don’t always understand how important it is to have a positive birth experience, for both themselves and their child.  “There are no do-overs,” she said.  If she isn’t given sufficient information, “Only afterwards does the mother realize she should have read more.”