What is the difference between a doula and midwife? Is it beneficial to have one in the hospital?

You wanted to know the difference between a doula and a midwife and what the benefits would be to having each present during labor and delivery in a hospital setting. Let's talk about midwives first. There's 2 different kinds. There's lay midwives, and they deliver women outside of the hospital setting. And there's certified nurse midwives that deliver women in a hospital setting, and most of them have a background in Labor and Delivery as registered nurses and then went on to receive additional training that allows them to be the provider during pregnancy as well as deliver the baby. Because they're the OB provider and actually delivering the baby, they're not able to be at the woman's bedside during the entire labor and delivery experience, and this applies to any OB provider, whether it be a certified nurse midwife, or a family practice physician, or an obstetrician. They have other patients to care for and so they can't be the patient's main support at the bedside during the labor and delivery experience, whether she wants to go unmedicated or whether she chooses to get IV medication or an epidural, and so additional support is necessary. And this can come in the form of your Labor and Delivery nurse, it can also be (and should be) your partner, or family, or a friend that can be there 100% of the time with you.

And some women choose to employ a doula who can actually be there as emotional support and as support through a labor and delivery experience from beginning to end at her bedside the entire time. And so if you feel like this is necessary, you can look into doulas in your area and talk with them about the support that they offer. Basically, they come with tools that help a woman and her partner to breathe, and relax, and to stay focused during the experience. And Labor and Delivery nurses can do this too, but they may also have other patients and aren't able to be in the room 100% of the time, whereas a doula can.

[fotostudiomadam]

Well.. the information you shared with your audience is quite close, but I would emphasize, that the midwife and nurse are mainly there for the medical support, to make sure, that the baby and mom are safe and will be ok throughout the process of labor, but doula is truly there for the physical (massage, touch, holding hands) and mental support at all time of the labor, which neither midwife or nurse can provide. Because the way you said it, it almost seems, that doula is some kind of luxury that is possible, but not really necessary.. Which, I am not saying, that doulas have to be at every birth, but if they would, moms and their partners would definitely have way better experience of the labor and birth...

[pclark]

Can a doula and midwife be paid using health insurance? If a parent chooses a doula or midwife for a home birth is anesthetic unavailable to mother or are their in home anesthetic doctors? Are pain reliever meds available to mother for a home birth? If mother choose home birth can she keep her babies Placenta attached and fall off by its self instead of being cut right after birth so all the blood in the placenta can retract back into the baby so the baby does not have low iron at birth Thank you for answering my questions?