MIDWIFERY PRACTICE AND DOULA SERVICE, University Medical Center, Stony Brook, New York

Doula comes from a Greek work meaning, "to be in the service of another person." An innovative doula service at the University Medical Center and Hospital in Stony Brook, New York, trains women volunteers who give support and care to women during pregnancy, childbirth, and in their early postpartum time at home. Doula assistance is made available to women in this Long Island community, regardless of their ability to pay. The practice recalls age-old traditions of women supporting each other through pregnancy and birth, especially by older women in an extended family.

Sunshin Gordon in labor, being attended by doula Jacqueline Shepard and midwife Jane Arnold Gelatin silver print © Sylvia Plachy 1999	Robert and Sunshin Gordon's first look at their new daughter Gelatin silver print © Sylvia Plachy 1999

Doulas' roles change as their clients' pregnancies progress. Working in collaboration with doctors, nurses, and midwives, they offer one-on-one encouragement, support, coaching, handholding, and reassurance. In the delivery room, the calming influence of doulas has resulted in lowered rates of Cesarean sections and anesthesia. After delivery, the doula helps the new mother adjust through companionship, household help, newborn care, and babysitting for older siblings. In a society where many women find themselves isolated, lonely, and overwhelmed after the birth of a new baby, this community service provides welcome support.

Photographer Sylvia Plachy a longtime staff photographer at The Village Voice, produces strong narrative images and brings an emotional involvement to her projects. Her images provide vivid details about the doula program through its clients and the people who work there. They introduce Sunshin, an expectant mother, awaiting the birth of her daughter. A doula and a midwife are shown helping Sunshin before the baby is born. We also see Robert, the baby's father, Sunshin, and newborn Olivia.

Interviewer Karen Michel is an award-winning contributor to National Public Radio who works in New York. Her interviews present the voices of midwives, doulas, doctors, and clients as they discuss the doula program in which they participate. We can hear a doula at work as she gives prenatal counsel to an expectant teenage mother as well as to a woman during labor. We can also hear a father talking to his newborn daughter. quotation from an interview

http://www.creativephotography.org    This page last updated September 24, 2000.   oncenter@ccp.arizona.edu