Today I want to tell you about a field in which California is a leader and Davis is ahead of the pack, but first I’ll explain my personal connection.

My daughter has two children, a two-year old and a newborn. Even though she gave birth to her first child at a famous medical center, Stanford University Hospital, the hospital experience was not positive.

The reasons included disorganization in the delivery room and being forced to room with a new mother with flu. As a result, my daughter and her husband looked toward the birth of their second child with more than the normal amount of anxiety.

They would be in a different hospital, because they now live in Wisconsin, but would that matter? In an effort to secure a better experience, they did something unknown to my generation.

They hired a doula.

The word itself is unfamiliar to many people, but my daughter’s outcome was so positive that I wanted to write about it, even before I learned that our local Sutter Davis Hospital has a doula program.

Sutter’s program, involving a volunteer coordinator and 40 volunteer doulas, is advanced beyond the norm, even for California—and even for Sutter itself, which does not offer a similar program at its other hospitals.

To learn more, I attended a meeting for expectant parents and met 13 of the doulas and their coordinator, Jennifer Anderson, an experienced labor and delivery nurse, who describes her volunteer effort as a “labor of love.”

What is a doula?

A doula is a companion, advocate and support person who stays with the expectant parents throughout labor and delivery. Although the word comes from Ancient Greek (meaning “female servant or slave”), the modern version arose recently.

This is because medical personnel are harder to come by. Even in a good hospital, on a busy night doctors arrive only for delivery and the nurses (and midwives, if any) are stretched among several patients. Rarely does a patient get a nurse all to herself.

Most women do have the consistent presence of their husband or partner who can offer unparalleled support because of the couple’s long-term, intimate relationship. This represents huge progress since my mother’s era when husbands weren’t allowed in the room.

But it’s not perfect.

The partner normally has little or no experience with childbirth — what it looks like, how it progresses, just where to lay a hand for counterpressure. In addition, the partner’s reactions to the experience, especially the first time, are often tumultuous because it’s hard to watch the person you love in pain.

The laboring woman herself experiences powerful, unexpected emotions and if one of them is fear, this can worsen her pain. When a doula is there, she performs no medical interventions, but she serves as the calming, informed, continuous presence who can confirm that what is happening is normal.

Solid research indicates that doula-aided labor leads to fewer C-sections and less use of medication.

My daughter hired a private doula (also available in Davis), who came to her home when labor started. This was important in her case because one of the negative experiences with her first baby was being sent home a frustrating and embarrassing three times during early labor by Stanford Hospital staff who said she had arrived too early.

This time, my daughter labored at home with the doula rubbing her back and keeping us company. (I was there to care for the 2-year-old.) After three hours, the doula said quietly to me, “I’m going to recommend they move to the hospital now.” She had seen changes, unrecognizable to me, that told her it was time.

Four hours later, my second grandson was born.

Sutter’s all-volunteer, free doula program begins when the woman arrives at the hospital. If she and her partner want a doula, the volunteer on call is summoned. In cases of long labor there may be a shift change, but usually the mom has one doula who stays with her throughout.

Several doulas at the meeting I attended talked about the importance of creating good memories.

“How many births do we have?” one asked rhetorically. My answer, two, is typical. In each woman’s life, childbirth is rare and the experience lodges in our memory like few others. If that memory is positive, or mostly positive, it’s a wonderful thing.

If a woman has a poor first experience, an improved second experience can be healing.

My daughter’s doula was named Emily. I only knew her for three hours and I find that I can’t remember her face. This is a strange thing to me. But I remember her voice. I remember her hand moving on my daughter’s back. I remember feeling that someone with experience was with us all the way. I remember my growing hope that labor and delivery wouldn’t be so upsetting the second time around.

In Sutter’s program, the doula is not in your home, but I don’t think that changes the key ingredients: kindness, encouragement and expertise.

My son-in-law, who had a few doubts at first, told me, “Having a doula enhanced the labor experience for both of us. I was a better helper with the doula around and — most important — Beth had more support.”

About 110 mothers per month deliver at Sutter Davis Hospital. Approximately 15 percent use the services of a volunteer doula, but the program is prepared to accommodate many more.

I’m happy to help get the word out.

— Marion Franck lives in Davis with her family. Reach her at [email protected] Her column appears Sundays.

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