“It’s been interesting, this mental shift from midwife to monitrice/doula. I’ve wrestled with not seeing what I’m doing as a step backward, but a step sideways. A wise woman pointed out that I surely felt as if I was going backwards because so many of us in birth see being a monitrice and doula as a stepping stone to midwifery. But, perhaps the phrase, when asked if she’s a midwife, a woman says “I’m just a doula” needs to be abolished. What if we were able to say, “I’m a doula,” “I’m a monitrice” or “I’m a midwife” with equal pride and delight in our voices.”
—
- Navelgazing Midwife Blog – Midwife to Monitrice
see honestly, i know a lot of midwives who think that doulas are ‘just student midwives’ and that being a doula is like being a midwife, but with less skills.
wrong.
being a midwife is a completely different set of skills than being a doula. and the fact that midwives dont recognize this means that they say things like, if you have to be transferred, i will act as your doula, but they arent equipped to handle hospital birth, they dont really understand how to negotiate with the hospital personnel in a way that is in solidarity with the birthing person. they dont know the kind of emotional and psychological support that is necessary for a doula to provide. good midwives can make horrible doulas.
i was preparing to be a midwife, when i became a doula. but i didnt see being a doula as being a stepping stone to being a midwife, i saw a doula in a completely different role. more like doing human rights accompaniment work in violent situations. that is what i was doing.
it was powerful work.
I absolutely agree. I also strongly believe that while I am meant to be a midwife, I was never meant to be a doula. When I tried my hand at doula work I wasn’t very good at it. I mean, I did all right. But it IS a whole different skillset – one at which I could succeed but never thought I would really excel at. I have nothing but the utmost respect for doula and the work they do.