Happy World Doula Week! Now, there is no reason why you would necessarily know that it is World Doula Week, unless you are an avid fan of all things doula, but WDW is drawing to a close and I wanted to reference it! The exciting thing for me about WDW is it gave me the opportunity to revisit all my doula client information in order to complete a comprehensive survey by Doula UK to look into the effectiveness of doula support.
Members of Doula UK were asked to provide as much information about the clients they had supported, both birth and postnatal, in order to see just what a difference can be made by having emotional and practical support during that time. In over 1100 clients the results showed that the necessity for instrumental intervention or caesarean was only 12% as opposed to 37.3% (national figures from the Department of Health). And, breastfeeding results were stunning, with 93% initiating breastfeeding (as opposed to 74.1%), with 70% still exclusively breastfeeding at 6 weeks, agains t a 47% national rate. I felt incredibly proud to have contributed (or rather that my clients contributed) to those figures.
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