Q: I just found out I'm pregnant, and want the best delivery team possible. Can you tell me the differences between a doula and a midwife?

Doula Becca Gordon answers …

A midwife is a medical professional who acts as a primary care provider during pregnancy, works with the mother to deliver her baby, and provides postpartum medical care. A birth doula is a professional labor support person who is not medically trained and does not provide medical care or advice to her clients.

Doulas work with moms and families during pregnancy to help them develop an understanding and intuition about the birth process and then support the mother and the rest of her birth team during labor, delivery and the immediate postpartum period.

Having a doula on your birth team ensures that you will have an experienced birth professional whose focus is on your emotional well-being and physical comfort rather than the medical aspects of your birth. Studies have shown that having a doula reduces the need for pain medication in labor, decreases the likelihood of Cesarean birth or instrumental delivery, increases a mother’s satisfaction with her birth experience, assists breastfeeding, and decreases the likelihood of postpartum depression.

Doulas attend hospital births, birth center births and home births and work with moms who choose a doctor or a midwife as their care providers.

Becca Gordon is a Certified Labor Doula, Childbirth Educator, and yoga instructor and the owner of Pura Mama, which offers holistic care for fertility, pregnancy, birth and postpartum. She lives in Los Feliz with her husband, Lee.