Just yesterday, our partner Eva told us that the General Nursing Council had made public the so-called "Doulas Report", which you can read here, whose objective is to defend the profession of the midwife from what they consider an intrusion by women who, they say, are playing with the health of women and babies without having an official degree.
The vision of the midwives, with the aforementioned report, we already know, that of the doulas not yet, although the logic says that they will simply defend themselves to continue the war started a few days ago. Will we remain the rest to the expectation, to see how the war is triggered, or can we go further?
Jesusa Ricoy She is the mother of three children, works for the National Childbirth Trust as Antenatal Teacher and a few years ago He worked as a doula in London, Where he lives. From his position, he invites us to ignore the aforementioned war and to try to go a little further, because the problem at the end seems to be much greater than everything they are telling us.
To position readers a bit, what is a doula? That is, what are its functions?
A doula, in principle and by definition according to the main associations, is a companion of the woman and her family during childbirth offering emotional support and never sanitary.
Never sanitary, that is, that it is a supportive figure, but not the woman who assists you in childbirth, right?
In fact, this is not specified because it is not even contemplated. In other words, the doula from its approach does not identify itself as a substitute for anything or anyone but as complementary. Another very different thing is the women called self-midwives in our country (which I think are very few) who work as midwives outside the legal and health system. To this is added linguistic confusion since in Latin America the meaning for midwife is a midwife.
What do you think that the General Nursing Council has made this report and that it will take the issue to the State Attorney General?
As a doula, I have worked as an ally of midwives in hospitals.
It seems to me a bad symptom, a symptom of economic and labor precariousness, of lack of renovation and updating, but especially a symptom of the treatment that women receive in their birth, a treatment in most of the paternalistic and interventionist occasions. The language and intentions of this report indicate this, since they completely ignore the decision-making capacity of women by infantilizing them and using linguistic manipulation and very little contrasted information to scare the population and especially women.
Scaring them? Do you mean by explaining that without the help of professionals the risks seem very high?
I want to say that talking about cults to talk about doulas, rotting to talk about the birth of lotus (that is, letting the placenta dry naturally), using candles to cut the cord, leaders and workshops you are intentionally creating social alarm. If you also use "health risks" without attaching bibliography, statistics and proven studies you are manipulating the recipient of the information for your purposes, something completely contrary to the informed decision.
Are there really women who hire doulas to help them give birth, exercising them as birth attendants?
Let's not forget that the witches persecuted in the Middle Ages were the midwives.
Well look, I have never met them and it seems to me something serious because of obvious and legal issues. I would not do it as a woman or as a doula, and although it seems to me an unnecessary risk in my fight for women's freedom, I have to include these as I include those who want to have a C-section without medical indication, something that on a personal level I don't share either. Because it is that same freedom that gives me options. As Voltaire said: "I do not agree with what you say but I will defend with my life your right to express it." There are very interesting debates around the world around human rights in childbirth and what they imply, issues that are often dichotomies for me difficult to accept.
But in any case if it were true that they exist, the intelligent and civilized thing would be to offer more information and options, ally with related professions and, above all, improve childbirth care, to reduce the number of women who put themselves at risk of misinformation. and lack of alternatives.
And let's not forget that the witches persecuted in the Middle Ages were the midwives, a little historical empathy would not hurt!
The fact that this figure of doula has appeared, could not respond to a need of women that midwives are not covering?
I do not feel comfortable generalizing in either group. In the United Kingdom, as a doula, I have worked as an ally of midwives in hospitals and I have felt that there was plenty of home births, which has always shown to me that protocols and paperwork and the lack of midwives in the United Kingdom take them away from his true vocational role of emotional support for women. That is why there are many midwives both in Spain and in the United Kingdom who are leaving hospitals thus recovering certain aspects intrinsic to their profession.
What you say is very interesting. The doula, as a worker in a hospital, may be supporting the woman and her partner while the midwife is engaged in other things, waiting for the delivery to be triggered. Of course, in Spain the doula does not "put" the hospital, but the mother. Where then is the traditional accompaniment and support role of the father?
There is everything everywhere, obsolete and uninformed midwives, charlatan doulas and who misunderstand their profession ...
Well, in the United Kingdom, hospitals don't put us, except for exceptions. I always say that I never know who I will accompany because although my goal is to accompany the woman and her birth, that sometimes means accompanying the one who plays. Sometimes the woman wants me to focus on her mother so she doesn't have to take care of her, other times the father has had to turn to his wife in a real emergency and my role as a doula has been to take care of the baby very close to them, which that the father has deeply thanked. Other times it is making tea for midwives while the mother is resting happily ... On some occasion I have been hired because the father has a real phobia at hospitals and wants to make sure his wife is accompanied. I simply take care of an environment that facilitates a better experience of women and their birth.
You worked as a doula in the United Kingdom, but not in Spain. According to the General Nursing Council, the role of authentic doulas, those that work in other countries, is different from what is being carried out in Spain. It is true?
I believe that there is everything everywhere, obsolete and uninformed midwives, charlatan doulas and who misunderstand their profession ... I believe that what is lost in this vision from Spain is that this supposed "authenticity" is nothing more than the result of a dialogue, cooperation, openness of mind and clarification of terms, which accusing a group of cannibalism becomes quite difficult to achieve.
Of course, instead of approaching positions and trying to unite to help women, the tackle is thrown to the head and in the end it seems that those who lose out are the mothers. Perhaps they would have to dedicate themselves, first, to improving the protocols to obtain adequate attention, instead of accusing other groups of "taking away their clientele" that probably runs away from hospitals?
Yes, I really believe that we should all come together as in other countries, where in the conferences I attend I see that there is a common spirit of women working from different angles for a recovery of our fundamental rights.
If on the one hand there are the midwives and on the other the doulas, where are the ones that should be the true protagonists of the births and care of the baby, the mothers?
Silenced from the approach of this report and treated how sick who give themselves to healers for fools, who eat their placenta because they wash their brains. As a woman I am deeply outraged.
We thank Jesusa Ricoy who has offered us her experience and her vision to be able to understand a little better the role of a doula, the purpose of the report and what it could be and is not the delivery care in our country.
