What’s a full spectrum doula?

If you google the definition you get:

“A full-spectrum doula is a community care worker who provides physical, emotional, and other nonmedical support to people during a wide range of pregnancy experiences and life events: 

• Prenatal: Support before pregnancy, including helping people look at their physical and emotional health and well-being 

• Labor and delivery: Presence during labor and delivery 

• Postpartum: Support for up to 12 months after pregnancy 

• Other experiences: Support for miscarriage, stillbirth, abortion, adoption, and death 

Full-spectrum doulas also support members of the LGBTQIA+ community, including those who want to conceive or adopt. They work alongside their clients in a variety of medical and medically adjacent settings, but they are not medical professionals.”

That’s a lot of words to encompass a lot of things…

Let’s break this down more, and gain a better understanding of what care with a full-spectrum doula looks like. I think it’s really hard to look at like what do doulas do tangibly when “presence during labor and delivery” is one of the services we offer. So let’s break things down a little more. These are just a range of options, this is not an inclusive or exclusive list by any means.

Prenatal Full Spectrum Doula Care:

• Support exploring birth plan options.

• Support researching nutritious meals, and crafting those meals.

• Helping plan, and execute a nesting party.

• Helping with nesting tasks.

• Going for walks, chatting about whatever may come up.

• Networking with various support services.

• Meeting with midwife or OBGYN services to ensure an advocate is present.

Labor, and Delivery Full Spectrum Doula Care:

• Emotional support during labor, and delivery.

• Cleaning, cooking, providing snacks/small meals, and beverages during labor.

• Help providing options for natural pain relief: using a labor ball, changing positions, back rubs, breath work, and more.

• Help setting up for labor, and delivery—think about it like setting the mood, candles if desired, black out curtains, etc.

• Navigating communication with the outside world if needed.

• Reassurance, and support—that agency/autonomy building.

Post Partum Full Spectrum Doula Care:

• Help cleaning the space.

• Help preparing or providing options for snacks, meals, and beverages.

• Household tasks, and chores.

• Newborn care.

• Lactation support.

• Washing laundry or baby clothes.

• Going for walks, chatting about what might come up.

• Networking with support services that may be needed.

• Advocacy around breastfeeding with pediatrician or other providers.

Obviously these tasks encompass a wide range of knowledge and skills. The most important skill is knowing when to refer out and having a comprehensive knowledge of area services, and resources. Being able to network and resource broker is such a valuable skill—founded really on my favorite thing: curiosity.

The reality is, just like any professional in the medical or adjoining fields, we can’t know everything about anything. Having an innate sense of curiosity that allows you to ask questions, to seek answers gives a full spectrum doula such a better skillset than any book can.

In birth and perinatal care, there is so much focus on baby. Just in the transition from nothing, to expecting, to baby here on Earth, there’s a huge focus on baby in friends and family. Having a full spectrum doula allows for a birthing parent to have someone solely focused on them.

In having a support person that is solely focused on a birthing parent, that parent can have support and someone fostering agency, and autonomy. Feeling secure, confident in this process is the biggest gift any birthing parent can really feel. Birthing is full of questions, wonder, contradicting advice, advice no one asked for, and more. Being able to feel really confident in your decisions, and having an advocate there to reaffirm your decisions can make a huge difference in your journey.