Let me introduce myself
My name is Eloiza Fernandes, doula and childbirth educator since 2014 and physical education professional since 2005.
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As a co-founder of Gestativa, a voluntary group that had an important mission to inform women and their families in Joinville-Brazil, where I used to live, worked hard to change the birth reality in our city, state, and country. We were the first city in Santa Catarina state to have a doula's law which permits us to work in maternity hospitals, and another law, pointing obstetric violence as gender violence to be fought.
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Besides that, the most important thing I do and what gives me the knowledge to work as a doula is being a mother of 4 incredible people. My own experiences brought me where I am today. Each one of my labors helped me to understand better what this physiological process is about and to have the necessary sensitivity to individualize every woman and every birth.
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All the information and assistance are provided based on WHO recommendations care for a positive childbirth experience.
Doula does not empower the woman. She helps her find her own strength.
What is a doula?
The doula is a companion who provides continuous support to the woman and her family during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, in whatever they need.
The doula serves the woman, she is chosen by the woman.
Each doula has a different way of working, but in general, the role is to provide physical, emotional, and informative support to the woman and her family during labor and childbirth. Usually, but not always, the doula is a woman who has already given birth, so she has experience with the process. She doesn't check anything technically, doesn't make decisions by the woman, she believes and trusts in what the woman says.
No matter what decisions a woman makes or how she wants to walk along the path, the doula is there to support her. In labor, she often offers massage and techniques to relieve the pain, protects the environment for the woman to have privacy, is an available hand, and a warm hug. After birth, helps the mother to eat, to breastfeed if necessary, is the first to arrive and the last one to go away. Can be a companion in abortion too, because the support is for the woman in every situation she is going through.
A doula does not give power to the woman, she helps her find her strength.
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