Yes, I’m a doula, and I do believe doulas are needed right now. But I dream of a world where eventually (even if it’s not in my lifetime), we no longer need doulas.
Hear me out.
Doulas provide an invaluable service to their clients. We are educators. Advocates. Teachers. Cheerleaders. Coaches. Space holders. Validators. Friends. We are the bridge in the current gap between healthcare providers and birthers.
But we weren’t always needed.
There was a time (and in some places, this is still true) when women didn’t have to hire a doula because they were already surrounded by support. Family lived nearby. The women in the community cared for one another throughout pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. People grew up seeing birth as a natural process. We trusted our bodies. We followed our instincts.
Birth wasn’t shameful or scary. It was normal, common, and celebrated.
Yes, we still celebrate birth today, but in different ways. We focus on baby showers and gender reveals, but spend little time celebrating the miracle that is birth itself. Once a baby is born, people come to visit and take pictures of/with the new baby, but don’t often take the time to love on, nurture, and celebrate the one who gave birth.
Birth knowledge used to be passed down from woman to woman. Now, that lineage of wisdom has been lost. Many people aren’t taught about birth at all, or they learn through media portrayals and horror stories. It’s rare for birth to be part of normal conversation, even among those who have or will give birth.
Another layer to this is our modern healthcare system. Midwives used to be the primary care providers for birthing families, centering the birther and the community. Birth was a communal event, a shared responsibility rooted in care and trust. Midwives provided safety and support, stepping in only when necessary.
Now, many healthcare providers overstep those boundaries and try to control the birther. (Again, this isn’t usually out of malice, but out of a need for a perceived safety that comes with active management of birth). Research in the birth world is continuing to evolve, but policies and practices don’t always keep up with the evidence. This is one of the biggest reasons doulas have become essential: advocacy.
In my ideal world, more birthers would have access to midwifery care – at home, in birth centers, or in hospitals that truly honor physiological birth. Hospital policies would be updated to reflect evidence-based care. Providers would offer options, respect autonomy, and trust birthers to lead their own process, rather than trying to “manage” or intervene.
Of course, sometimes interventions are necessary and life-saving. I’m deeply grateful for the lives modern medicine has saved. I believe in medicine and in science. But I also believe we should offer care in a way that makes advocacy unnecessary because providers are already giving equitable, respectful, high-quality care to all patients, including those who opt for low intervention AND those who need more medical intervention. Even when birth interventions DO occur, birth shouldn’t feel like it happens to you, but that you are the one making the decisions.
Because how are we still allowing so many birthers to die during childbirth or postpartum due to lack of quality and responsive care?
Advocacy becomes even more critical when supporting clients from marginalized communities. Whether biases are implicit or explicit, their impact is very real. This should not be the case. It’s one of the main reasons I’m passionate about making birthwork accessible to all populations, even as barriers to quality perinatal care continue to rise in the U.S.
We shouldn’t need doulas.
Doulas should be able to fulfill their original purpose – the meaning of the word itself – to serve women and birthers, not to fill all the roles that broken systems have forced us to take on.
Still, while we are needed, it’s the greatest honor and privilege to do this work. I’m endlessly grateful that my path led me here. To serve, advocate for, and teach families during such a sacred season of life.
My goal is to prepare birthers so well that they no longer need me. I want them to want me there to witness, to support, to celebrate. But not because I’m essential to their experience. In contrast, I want them to be so deeply in their own power that my presence simply amplifies it.
They shouldn’t need a doula. But they should always have the choice to invite one in.
We shouldn’t need doulas. But until that day comes, I will keep showing up with compassion, strength, and reverence for every birther I serve.
Because every birth I witness reminds me what’s possible when people are trusted, supported, and seen.
I hope one day, that level of care is the norm.
Until then, I’ll keep holding space for it to exist, one birth at a time.