Doula'ing while pregnant/nursing

megananna22 · 10-25-2007, 08:58 PM

Those of you who have btdt - how have you managed doula'ing while pregnant and/or nursing? I am ttc and just can't imagine how I would manage a 24 hour labor during the first trimester (if I get pg this month, I'd be 15 weeks by next client's due date - if I don't get pg this month I am seriously considering taking a few months off ttc! she's a first time mom with me as main support...) or while nursing a baby. How have you managed it or how would you manage it? I am thinking I will have to take an entire year off after baby is born! (Of course, I have had two kids that refused bottles, and maybe this one won't... but some labors make us away from our kids for an awfully long time...)

Thoughts? Plans? Experiences?

Megan

doulafava · 10-26-2007, 09:10 AM

Oh, I wonder this too! I am just five weeks pregnant, and have two hospital births in December. I don't know what I will do if they go long!

mothermedoula · 10-26-2007, 08:02 PM

This is so perfect. I just attended my first birth since my third child was born. I was VERY nervous about leaving him. The birth turned out to be a 39 hour ordeal! Thank goddess that I had my pump in style with extra collection bags. I was able to pump whenever I needed b/c the mom had a private room, too.
The birth worked out well and my baby did fine the whole time we were separated.
I had a great sitter who wore him in a sling and even took him to bed with her the first night. My husband then had him for the second night.

mothermedoula · 10-26-2007, 08:05 PM

I only attended two home births when I was pregnant. Drink lots of water and bring lots of food!

jc_doula · 10-28-2007, 07:08 PM

I'm 10 weeks now and my next client is due on Nov 18th. I agree, lots of water and food! I think it really depends on how you feel too, I haven't felt sick much and am a little tired but not too bad so I think I would've attended an earlier birth if I had had the opportunity. You could always just get backup in case you are feeling bad with the pregnancy!
Good luck!

PBDS · 11-02-2007, 03:12 PM

back in july i had a doula client, my baby was 9 months old. it was a loooonnggg birth i was away for 42 hours. i brought my pump with me, but ran out of storage bags!the hospital gave me some though. i think i only pumped 5times though. i drank lots of water... but did not get to eat alot. i was ok. my baby did well, except at night. she missed her night nursing. i started pumping 2 weeks before moms due date, to build a stash, and it was a good thing i did, as they went through it all!!
i missed my baby like crazy.. but it all went well!!

DoulaCBE · 11-02-2007, 05:07 PM

I may be the odd doula out, but I don't do births for at least 18 months to 2 years after baby is born. I just can't put myself in the position to choose between my nursling who needs me and a client who needs me.

I also have severe morning sickness from week 6-12 that typically results in a huge weight loss and me feeling very week for months afterwards. With my last pregnancy I did a birth at 5 weeks and another at 18 weeks and one 11 weeks before my own due date. The last two I was there for photography only so I was able to just take care of my pictures and myself.

DoulaMorgan · 11-04-2007, 10:11 PM

i just did my first birth since having Spencer (he's three months). I had a TON of milk pumped (enough for three days). I had three different child-care plans and I had my breast pump with me.

I only missed two feedings (super fast birth) and STILL ended up with mastitis. (OUCH!) Needless to say, I haven't quite figured out how to make it work.... My next client isn't due until mid-January, so I've got some time... I can't seem to think that LEAVING a client to go pump is a good idea, but I can't end up sick again. Arg. It's a tough call.

DoulaMorgan · 11-04-2007, 10:13 PM

Oh, and we found these great nipples for bottles from "The first years." They are blue and "like the breast." While I'm sure that's not true, Spencer actually accepted them. He takes them with no problem.

JerseyJess · 11-07-2007, 10:00 PM

I"m almost 37wks along now...I was gone for 36hrs attending back to back births when I was 11wks pregnant-that was really hard as I had that first trimester fatigue going on. I'm prone to headaches (only at births) and usually drink a Red Bull and take Excedrin to relieve it. Which was out of the question when pregnant. I did drink a lot of water, took 2 Tylenol the moment I noticed one coming on and made sure to eat something with protein every few hours.
Attending births during my 2nd trimester was fine. No probs.
I did a birth around 30wks and it was just too hard. I had lots of ligament pain and my back was killing me (from contorting myself to help the mom).
Just like my last baby, I had planned on not attending births for the first 6mo postpartum-well last time I had a repeat client due when he was 3mo old and this time I have my bestfriend due when baby is 6wks, a repeat at 3mo and another at 5mo-I just cannot say no to repeats! So I'll bring my breastpump and I pump every 3-4hrs during the birth. I would be hesitant to take on a first time mom when baby is very young as I really don't want to be gone for too long. All of my upcoming repeats had first labors that were less 12hrs or less so I'm hopeful that these births will be pretty straightforward.

Mummies Birth Buddy · 11-25-2007, 06:39 AM

I had clients at approx 4-5 months and 8 months whilst expecting our second. The first was fine as I had plenty of energy, and the second as I had just started my maternity leave was fine. I ate lots of energy rich food, drank plenty of water and just focused on the mums. I wouldn't recommend offering to hold the torch for the midwives to stitch a second degree tear at a homebirth when you are 34-35 weeks and the heating is belting out. They nearly had another baby to deliver or to try and pick me up off the floor!!!! Having had a client that close to my due date I was really positive about what I was about to embark on and had a successful VBAC after 7 days in labour (on & off) and 9.5 hours established. Baby was 10 days early and it was lovely to labour quietly at home.

helpinghands · 11-26-2007, 09:59 PM

It is encouraging to read the variety of responses on this topic. Being 34 weeks now.. I KNOW that attending births would be out of the question for me right now. I am sore, tired, etc. and I don't think I could do an "all nighter".. but I recently was contacted by a woman who just found out she was pregnant..seeking VBAC in July/August.. I told dh..I will be nursing my own infant.. but a 7 month-ish old infant is doable for me to attend a birth..it seems so FAR off.. but it is encouraging to me that there are ways to stay involved professionally while still being quite invested with my family on a personal level...while staying within my limits of what is comfortable for me and my family. I LOVE being a Doula.

raeben · 12-18-2007, 02:15 AM

with my first pregnancy, i did a couple of births during my 2nd trimester and that was no problem at all. after my son was born i attended my best friend's birth at 2 months pp but it was a home birth and it was fine to have my son with me - he slept and nursed through most of it and daddy took him during the last couple of hours of the birth. besides that, however, i did not do anymore births till he was a little over a year old.

with this pregnancy i already had a bunch of clients/friends lined up before i got pregnant so even though i had morning sickness & tiredness, i still attended 3 births in my first 10 weeks. i was pretty nervous about my stamina but everything worked out really well. i brought plenty of crackers to snack on and red raspberry tea for the nausea. i love the all consuming, single minded nature of birthwork because those days were some of the very few that i didn't have morning sickness and fatigue. after that, though, i took a bit of a break for two months.

i'm 26 weeks now and i have my last client due in 2 weeks. they are really excited to have a pregnant doula but it was quite a bit harder finding clients to work with during this pregnancy - it seemed like a lot of the moms were fine with it but the dad's kept voting me off the island because they thought i wouldn't be fully fit to serve them or something. i even had one client drop me half way through. she was pretty high needs and we were meeting monthly starting when she was 20 weeks. after 3 prenatals and a lot of email and phone contact, she called the office (i work within a doula group) and asked if she could switch doulas. she said she felt like i would be spending too much energy on my own pregnancy when she needed me to be focused on hers. i was hurt by this and thought it was weird since i only ever talked about my pregnancy when she asked me directly about it but oh well. i don't know if other pregnant doulas have experienced this phenomenon in interviews or client interactions but it was definitely something i hadn't considered before so you might want to be aware of it.

mamadoula · 12-19-2007, 02:25 PM

I am about to do a Doula Course and the theory part is only once a week for 5 hours... but I am glad I got to read all of the responses to this thread! It has really been informative!
My daughter will be 5 months when I do the course, and I am already stressing about her being ok!! I know now, that even though I have to do 4 births as part of my training, I will wait until she is over a year before I take on any clients.

Doula Mary · 12-28-2007, 08:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by megananna22

Those of you who have btdt - how have you managed doula'ing while pregnant and/or nursing? I am ttc and just can't imagine how I would manage a 24 hour labor during the first trimester (if I get pg this month, I'd be 15 weeks by next client's due date - if I don't get pg this month I am seriously considering taking a few months off ttc! she's a first time mom with me as main support...) or while nursing a baby. How have you managed it or how would you manage it? I am thinking I will have to take an entire year off after baby is born! (Of course, I have had two kids that refused bottles, and maybe this one won't... but some labors make us away from our kids for an awfully long time...)

Thoughts? Plans? Experiences?

Megan

I was a active doula when PG with # 3.......I doula'd until my 8th month..and then took a full year off. It was important to me..to nurse my wee one. I know how fast they grow..and knew I could jump back into my doula work which I did.
Mary