The Ordinary Doula Podcast

E53: Plan for the Positive

• Angie Rosier • Episode 53

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Ever wondered what truly makes a birth experience empowering and memorable? Join The Ordinary Doula Podcast as we uncover the key factors that contribute to positive childbirth experiences, backed by insights from over 200 clients. Discover why a staggering 93% of respondents highlight the indispensable role of a doula, and how partner participation and effective communication can transform the birthing journey. 

Through Angie’s lens of 20 years in a bustling doula practice, this episode sheds light on the gaps within hospital systems and the vital role doulas play in bridging those gaps. Engage with the stories of empowerment, where the synergy between doulas, partners, and communication unlocks the potential for remarkable birth experiences. Whether you're an expectant parent, a birth professional, or a birth story enthusiast, Angie's exploration offers invaluable perspectives on shaping empowering birth journeys.

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Show Credits

Host: Angie Rosier
Music: Michael Hicks
Photographer: Toni Walker
Episode Artwork: Nick Greenwood
Producer: Gillian Rosier Frampton
Voiceover: Ryan Parker

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Ordinary Doula Podcast with Angie Rozier, hosted by Birth Learning, where we help prepare folks for labor and birth with expertise coming from 20 years of experience in a busy doula practice Helping thousands of people prepare for labor, providing essential knowledge and tools for positive and empowering birth experiences.

Speaker 2:

Hello and welcome to the Ordinary Doula Podcast. My name is Angie Rozier and I am excited to be with you here today. So today I am going to I've picked a piece of my research that I've done over the years and kind of a data point that's pretty fascinating to me that I want to go over and share, and this podcast is actually going to have two parts. We're going to have this research piece asked two different questions. We're going to go over one in this episode and opposite one in the following episode, and I kind of played with which one to do first. I've chosen to do the positive side of things first and then the less positive side of things the same questions answered, but in a negative way, in the next episode. So if you want to check that out, that'd be kind of interesting too. So I did when I did a big chunk of research a few years ago and I love. I'm a kind of a data junkie, a birth nerd. I like to follow patterns and see what's going on and kind of dive into the data and see why things are happening, what people are hoping, wanting, expecting and, retrospectively, how they look at things. So I did a retrospective survey of over 200 clients, and it's so. This is, you know all. Just they were filling out questionnaires, answering questions, got a lot of interesting, a lot of interesting insight from that. This particular question that I want to explore. The question they were asked was what factors most led to positive aspects of your birth experience. So they're asking like, okay, you know, what were the your favorite things about your birth, what factors about your birth? And they were given the factors to choose from, which I'll share with you in a moment. But what led to the positive parts? So this is a retrospective survey. So people were looking back. Some of them had given birth in the last few months, some in the last few years. I think we're up to like 15 years out on some of them. So that could impact. You know, how people are viewing things is distance from that. But this helps us to inform why people seek doula support, why they recognize a need to bring in their own labor support into the hospital system. So we can clearly see, with answers to this, what is missing in hospitals and how doulas or appropriate support could fill in the gaps.

Speaker 2:

The and I'll tell you the components they could choose from in a moment. But their choices were not limited so they could choose, you know, one, two, three, four of them. There were one, two, three, four, five, six, two, three, four of them. There were one, two, three, four, five, six. There are about 10 different things that they could choose from and I'll tell you what they are. So these are the aspects of a birth experience they were choosing from Communication, partner participation, childbirth, birthplace, midwife, doctor, nurses, doula, length of labor, meeting your goals. So the perception they had met their goals, and then initial contact with your baby. So those were the components that they were choosing from and that's what 11 different things looks like. So the very top one that was interesting and this got the highest response rate. So about 93 of the respondents said sorry.

Speaker 2:

93% of the respondents said a doula was the leading positive aspect of their birth experience. So kind of interesting. That was their favorite part of all of those things of communication, partner participation, childbirth education, birthplace, midwife, doctor, nurses, doula, length of labor, meeting their goals and initial contact with the baby. 93% of them said doula. The second most commonly occurring positive aspect was partner participation. That's at 72%. So 72% of them said that partner participation led to the positive parts of their birth experience.

Speaker 2:

The next most common one was communication, and this was communication among the team. This could mean lots of different things. It could mean communication between provider and patient, patient and partner, doula and patient, like there's any direction just overall general communication. 64% of people said that that led most so that was the third most common um to positive aspects of their birth experience. So both partner participation and communication are enhanced and facilitated by the presence of a doula, which I thought was kind of cool. The next most common was just barely like 1%, less than communication or less was initial contact with baby. So 63% of people also said that the initial contact with their baby led to positive aspects of their birth experience. So tells us that's important, that initial contact with their baby is pretty important and that's the first thing where the birth is done, right, where we've arrived, kind of where the baby's born, and of course that's the pivotal moment, the moment we've all been waiting for. That's what we're trying there to achieve. A lot of time and effort, doula support, partner participation and communication happens before that event.

Speaker 2:

The next most common at number I think it's number five is childbirth education, so the preparation they did before labor ever started. 54% said that that was the next most common influencer of their positive birth experience. For them, 54%, kind of interesting. And then that had a lot bigger, which was surprising to me, a lot bigger impact than the place. So the place, birthplace whether that was hospital, home or birth center, and most all of them were in the hospital was at 27%. So childbirth education was a 54%, and then we jumped down almost by half to 27% was place. So they didn't love the place that they that did. The place did not contribute a whole lot to. It was far behind these other components. So then we have three other people or three other roles that I want to consider midwife, doctor and doula. So this is kind of interesting.

Speaker 2:

Doctors or, sorry, excuse me, midwives were at about 33%. They said the midwife was an impactful aspect to the positive parts of their birth experience. At 33%. Doctors were at sorry, I'm going to go to nurses next. Nurses were at 28%. So the nurses contributed at 28% versus doulas at 93%. Nurses were at 28%, contributing to a positive aspect, and doctors were at 20%. So kind of interesting. Midwives were at 32%, nurses at 28% and doctors at 20%, doulas at 93%. So of the people impacting the experience. Doulas had the most impact on the positive parts, at 93, midwives at 33, and nurses at 28, and doctors at 20%. Well, almost 21%, we'll give them 21%. And then the top one of the components outside of people's control was the length of labor did not contribute to positive experiences. So if it was a super long labor, which we'll see in the next question as well, so kind of interesting that nurses and doctors ranked so incredibly low, while midwives fared better and doulas much better. So it was just interesting to take these components and see what contributed to a positive labor.

Speaker 2:

Positive labor, positive birth experience can be different for everyone, of course. So this is looking kind of at a broad picture. But consider for yourself you might look at those components communication, partner participation, childbirth, education and preparation place, birthplace, midwife, doctor, nurses, doula, length of labor which is outside of our control, meeting your goals, which you know varies widely for people, and initial contact with your baby. What components for you, those ones and beyond would contribute to a positive labor for you. So kind of give that some thought and see how you can best set up for yourself to have what would help you have the best labor.

Speaker 2:

Maybe you want to be surrounded by awesome physical support. Maybe you want to be surrounded by education or information. Maybe you want to be more alone. Maybe you don't want to be surrounded at all. Maybe you want to be more autonomous and kind of be on your own for more of the labor part. I've seen people enjoy that type of experience as well.

Speaker 2:

Communication maybe that is verbal, maybe it's written, maybe it's physical touch, maybe it's eye contact, the place, the people involved think how all of those things and others, perhaps that's are you going to be able to eat and drink during labor? Are you going to feel nervous if you can't eat and drink? Are you going to be able to use the tools that you want to, whether that's maybe your hospital doesn't have 24-hour anesthesia available, or maybe your hospital doesn't allow for water birth, or there's limited number of rooms with tubs. Maybe you have some risk factors that are going to make more vigilant. Make things more vigilant during labor, but consider the aspects for you that are going to lead to a positive birth and set yourself up to get those in place, and so you have a complete understanding well, as complete as you can. Right.

Speaker 2:

There's always some wild cards that come along that we're not always prepared for, but by and large, we can be prepared for a lot of different scenarios and things during labor and prepare yourself to have a positive labor experience.

Speaker 2:

Whatever that is for you, I hope that you have a positive and empowering birth experience and I hope that you can find out what that is and put tools, people, um, and things into place so that you have that. That is my hope for you, for everyone who is going on this journey, which is an incredible journey. It's a cool time of life, a lot of exciting things going on at that time, and I love to be a part of it for people, so hopefully you can find out what's positive for you. Thank you so much for being with me here today on the Ordinary Dealer Podcast. Check out our next episode, which we're going to look at the aspects that led that most led to a negative parts of the birth experience. I want to do positive first, because I like to look at the bright side of things a little bit more, but our next episode will be about that. Thanks for being with us here today. Hopefully you can reach out, make a connection with some awesome human in your life, someone you know someone you don't.

Speaker 1:

But make a connection with someone else and we will see you next time thank you for listening to the ordinary doulala Podcast with Angie Rozier, hosted by Birth Learning. Episode credits will be in the show notes Tune in next time as we continue to explore the many aspects of giving birth. Thank you.