What Is The Difference Between a Doula and a Midwife?
A doula and a midwife are both professionals who provide support and care during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, but they have different roles and responsibilities.
Doula:
A doula is a non-medical professional who offers emotional, physical, and informational support to a pregnant person and their partner(s) before, during, and after childbirth.
The primary role of a doula is to support the pregnant person's preferences and provide continuous support throughout the birthing process. They do not perform medical tasks or provide clinical care.
Key responsibilities of a doula include:
Emotional support: Providing encouragement, reassurance, and comfort to the expectant parent(s).
Physical support: Offering various comfort measures during labor, such as massage, positioning guidance, and other supportive techniques.
Informational support: Sharing evidence-based information about childbirth options, procedures, and interventions to help the parents make informed decisions.
Continuous labor support: being a continuous presence and ongoing support throughout labor and birth that can help reduce unnecessary intervention and improve satisfying birthing experiences.
Postpartum support: Assisting with early parenting and offering guidance in the immediate postpartum period.
Research evidence proves that merely having a doula present reduces interventions, reduces cesarean birth rates, and improves birth outcomes. Doulas are a powerful support, we absolutely love to have them around, and we recommend them to all of our families!
Midwife:
A midwife is a trained medical professional specializing in reproductive health, including pregnancy, childbirth, and postnatal care.
Midwives are qualified to provide comprehensive prenatal care, attend childbirth, and offer complete postpartum and newborn care for healthy parents and babies through the first 6 weeks of life.
They work in hospitals, freestanding birthing centers, and offer home birth services.
There are different types of midwives, each with differing areas of specialty. In Minnesota you will find:
Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) are independent midwives who specialize in providing holistic and comprehensive midwifery care in the community (out-of-hospital in freestanding birth centers and home birth). CPMs are direct-entry midwives, meaning they have chosen to enter the midwifery profession directly, rather than through nursing. CPMs may or may not carry a license as Licensed Traditional Midwives (LTM or LM) which are facilitated by the MN Board of Medical Practice.
CPMs are specialists in providing personalized prenatal, birth and postpartum care and supporting natural, unmedicated vaginal births. They are waterbirth experts. They are also skilled emergency responders and are able to manage and stabilize childbirth complications, administer medications, place IVs, and suture 1st and 2nd degree perineal lacerations.
Traditional Midwives (TMs) are independent midwives who have decided to forego credentialing and licensure. Traditional midwives practice legally in Minnesota, where licensure is optional. Their training and scope of practice matches the CPM.
Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs) are advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) with specialized additional training in midwifery. CNMs are frequently also cross-specialized and licensed as Women’s Health Nurse Practitioners (WHNPs) or Family Nurse Practitioners (FNPs).
CNMs primarily work in hospitals and can facilitate medical birthing options like epidurals and/or induction in addition to natural, unmedicated birth. You’ll find CNMs in freestanding birth centers and in home birth as well. They also operate as primary care providers in our healthcare system, and are prescribers.
Key responsibilities of a midwife include:
Prenatal care: Monitoring the health of the pregnant person and the developing fetus, ordering necessary tests, and providing appropriate care throughout pregnancy.
Childbirth attendance: Assisting with labor and delivery, monitoring the progress of labor, and providing medical interventions when necessary.
Postpartum care: Offering postnatal check-ups for both the mother and the baby, addressing any concerns, and providing guidance on breastfeeding and newborn care.
Midwives work with healthy clients who are experiencing normal and uncomplicated pregnancies, planning low-risk births, and continue to be low-risk in the postpartum period.
This bears mentioning, while we’re at it: While obstetricians (OBs) can and do work with healthy, low-risk patients (especially in the US), they are really high-risk specialists and surgeons. The primary specialty of an OB is managing childbearing for people who have a higher degree of medical need or complication due to conditions which predate pregnancy (such as diabetes or kidney disease) and/or significant complications which arise during the childbearing time.
In summary, doulas focus on providing emotional and physical support to expectant parents without performing medical tasks, while midwives are trained medical professionals who offer comprehensive prenatal, childbirth, and postnatal care, including medical interventions if required.
Some families choose to work with both a doula and a midwife to receive the benefits of emotional and physical support alongside medical expertise during childbirth. We believe the benefits of having both a doula and a midwife are considerable, when it’s accessible.
Photo credit: Mayhoua Xiong of Birth & Baby St Paul, @birth_thiab_baby, https://www.facebook.com/mayhouaBirthServices/
Featured Doulas: Nisse Body and Birth, Shea and Ellyn, @nissebodyandbirth, https://nissebodyandbirth.com
