Any doulas willing to share prenatal questionnaires?

[Grass Pants]

Hello! I am just getting my own doula practice up and running after working as a homebirth midwifery apprentice. We moved out of the area, leaving my apprenticeship behind. I also have a two-year-old and am expecting again in May, so I was ready to step back a bit. I realized that I love birth and want to remain connected and have decided to continue by providing doula care.

Anyway, I was wondering if any other doulas would be willing to share their prenatal questionnaires, or any other things they have found useful.

And if there are any doula clients out there that found something their doula has done particularly helpful, I would love to hear about it!

I'm new to the message boards, so I don't know - can we trade email to communicate one on one?

Thanks for any info!!
Jennifer

[candiland]

I have recently started giving clients an "early labor plan", an idea I got from the last issue of the DONA newsletter. Basically, it explains the benefits of staying home for as long as possible to avoid unnecessary/uncomfortable routines and interventions that can drastically affect whether or not they'll birth naturally. I give a small anecdote of a lady (true story) who was in early labor for two days and got sick of it, so she went to the hospital, at which point she was admitted, given an iv., put on an EFM, and told she could have nothing to eat or drink but ice chips. The next day, she was tired, starving, and extremely dejected, and gave in to the doc's offers of Pitocin, then an epidural. Not her idea of a positive natural birth experience! So I really pound home the idea that you don't want to get the hospital until the baby's practically ready to be born. Then I give a blank sheet numbered from 1 to 10 and ask them to fill in various activities that will keep them busy during early labor. Running specific errands, taking a walk, baking cookies, cooking dinner, whatever they do when they're "not" in labor. They use this as a checklist to help them ignore early labor, as it can go on for days!! I tell them to sleep at night and to make new checklists if they have to, to help them avoid those unnecessary interventions many hospitals insist on using

[madison]

I'm trying to do the same thing, and I *also* saw the list of things to do in the DONA newsletter.

I hope more people answer this topic, lol.

I just attended my first birth two weeks ago today We'd just met, though (the mom & I) so we didnt' do any prenatal meetings; we have done one post partum meeting (but kept it very informal cause we're internet buddies not only with a doula-client relationship).