When I tell people that I'm a doula, I tend to get 3 responses: "Huh?", or "I love doulas!", or "That's like a midwife, right?" Midwives are medically-trained professionals, just as are OBs. The difference that midwives are trained in birth as a normal event; doctors are trained in the abnormalities. Doulas differ from both midwives and doctors in that they are non-medical caregivers. Here is an FAQ-style overview of a doula's role. Though the focus here is on delineating what a doula does from that of a midwife, this also applies to births with doctors and doulas. You can also check out my corresponding post on Doulas and Homebirth.

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