60 Tips for Healthy Birth - Part 3: Bring a Loved One, Friend or Doula for Continuous Support

We've updated one of our most favorite series -- 10 tips for each of the Lamaze Healthy Birth Practices, guidelines based on years of research that help you approach birth informed and with more confidence. Be sure to read through each of the six posts -- 60 tips in all for a better, safer, healthier birth experience! 

10 Ways to Get Continuous Support During Labor and Birth

1. Learn why bringing a loved one, friend, or doula for continuous support is important for you and your baby.

2. Ask your labor support person(s) to read The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin in advance of your birth. There's also a quick-reference guide by the same author, available in paperback or Kindle. 

3. Learn more about professional labor support from a doula. Having a doula at your birth offers several evidence-based advantages. 

4. Learn about the many ways you can find comfort in labor by taking a good childbirth class.

5. Choose a care provider and place of birth that encourages having a doula at your birth.

6. Create a birth plan/preferences sheet and share it with your birth support person/team to make sure that they know your wishes.

7. Spend time connecting with your birth support person/team/doula prior to going into labor to get comfortable with each other, share feelings about the upcoming birth, and talk about what you envision as the best labor support.

8. Pack in your hospital or birth center bag items you think will be helpful for your support team to use for your during labor and birth, like snacks, scents, favorite lotion, focal point, etc.

9. Be sure that everyone on your support team is someone you truly want by your side during one of the most exciting, challenging, and vulnerable times in your life. You only get to birth this baby once!

10. Be sure that all of the members on your support team know that labor is hard work and the best way to support someone is by offering encouragement, support (physical and emotional), and presence. You can't "rescue" or "save" anyone from the challenges of labor, you can only support and bear witness.