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Chipola Healthy Start

Doula Program

What's A Doula?

Chipola Healthy Start Coalition has a Doula Program. WHAT’S A DOULA? It is support for a Healthy Pregnancy and Birth. Chipola Healthy Start Coalition has two Doula’s, Trina Johnson, Program Manager at Jackson Healthy Start and Valery Lawton, CHSC Community Liaison. A Doula is a non-medical professional trained to support birthing mothers and families with physical, emotional, and evidence-based information before, during and after birth. A Doula helps to assure that a mother, baby and family achieve the healthiest birth experience possible, and they will have pleasant memories about the day they give birth. Benefits of a Doula is they provide comfort measures such as changing labor positions,

 

massage, and pain management; they empower advocacy by sharing the tools for you to know and communicate your own needs, they provide ongoing labor support by providing the extra attention needed with round the clock support, they provide postpartum support by helping to establish breastfeeding, newborn care, postpartum planning and care beyond birth, as well as support to the birth partner by offering valuable guidance, education and support to birthing partners.

A testimonial from a former client that had a Chipola Healthy Start Coalition Doula support person before, during and after her birth says of her doula:

“I just wanted to take a moment to tell you how grateful I am for you. You helped bring my baby into the world, and that’s something I’ll never forget. Your support, care, and calm energy meant everything to me during such an important moment in my life.”

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine – “Published data indicating that one of the most effective tools to improve labor and delivery outcomes is the continuous presence of support personnel, such as a doula. Given that there are no associated measurable harms, this resource is probably underutilized.