Doula Best Practices

Purpose

These Best Practices describe the practical standards we expect from every certified Community Perinatal Doula. They reflect a balanced, safety-first approach that honors God’s design while respecting families’ choices and the reality that high-risk situations may require medical interventions.

Best Practices: A Balanced Approach

As a certified Community Perinatal Doula, I recognize the need to conduct myself and my support according to evidence-informed standards that agree with Biblical principles and promote safety. Even though I embrace God’s ideal design in pregnancy, natural childbirth, and breastfeeding, I recognize and respect others’ choices and the need in high-risk situations for medical interventions. Therefore:

1. I will always recommend to women that they seek care from and have in attendance at their birth a licensed, legal primary care provider (doctor, nurse midwife, licensed midwife). Likewise, I will encourage women to seek guidance from their licensed primary care provider for specific personal medical questions.

2. I will teach balanced principles of nutrition and exercise. I will not encourage women to make drastic changes to lifestyle (for example, become vegetarian/vegan, start daily running).

3. I will encourage women to lean on Christ as their source of strength during labor by teaching Biblical labor affirmations and comfort measures that engage with the labor process. When a client prefers non-religious language, I will use physiologic, evidence-informed encouragement that supports cooperation with the labor process.

4. I will help women become aware of the many medical decisions they may need to make in labor for their care. I will encourage them to use BRAIN to explore options available to them with their primary care provider so they can be satisfied with their choices. I will not discourage families from their choice of birth site, nor will I teach that it is wrong or a lack of faith to accept medical interventions.

5. Likewise, there are many medical decisions a family must make for their newborn after birth. My job is to help parents be aware of the need to make decisions. It is not my job to share my opinion on which option they should choose. Instead, I will encourage families to use BRAIN to explore the options available to them with their baby’s primary care provider so they can be satisfied with their choices.

6. I will teach families the safest sleep practice for newborns: Put newborns to sleep on their back, in their own bed, without loose bedding, in their parents’ room.

7. Though I recommend breastfeeding as the optimal source of nutrition for newborns and teach parents how to do it, I will not express condemnation for formula-feeding.

8. I will not introduce into my support or teaching New Age or evolution-based practices, such as traditional meditation and chanting, yoga positions, placenta-eating, lotus birth, hypnosis, acupuncture, acupressure, reflexology, reiki, worldly affirmations, and superstition.

Applicability

This policy applies to all certified Community Perinatal Doulas and is a condition of certification and recertification.