Birth doulas offer support in the delivery room

By Carol Lindsay, RN
December 30, 2002

If you work in labor and delivery, you probably have encountered a birth doula. You may have had women ask for your opinion about doulas. If you don't work in labor and delivery, you may have never heard of them.

The word doula is Greek and means "woman's servant." Doulas are usually laypeople who have received some training in childbirth. An increasing number of doulas are receiving certification.

Their role is to provide physical, emotional and informational support to women and their partners during labor and birth.

Doulas offer nonmedical skills and do not perform clinical tasks or make decisions for the women they are assisting. They offer the benefit of an experienced person in the delivery room whose purpose is to support the woman and be a resource throughout her labor.

Doulas of North America [www.dona.org] offers information about doula education, certification and consumer information.

Transplant network

Created by the American Society of Transplant Surgeons as an educational and communication tool, CenterSpan [www.centerspan.org] is a one-stop site for the latest information about organ transplantation.

The site provides access to the newest developments in clinical practice, links to transplant Internet resources and transplant centers, and features abstracts as well as full-text articles on transplantation.

Liquid ecstasy

Gamma hydroxy butyrate is the chemical name. Teenagers call it liquid ecstasy; health care workers refer to it as GHB. All told, the chemical has 80 different known names.

GHB is a central nervous system depressant with a side effect of decreasing inhibitions and can lead to date rape, hallucinations, amnesia, nausea, vomiting, paranoia and, at high doses, can cause respiratory arrest, cardiac arrest and death. The drug is cheap, readily available and, unfortunately, has no antidote available.

The goal of Project GHB [www.projectghb.org] is to save lives. This educational site provides fact sheets about GHB as well as PowerPoint presentations, press releases and answers to frequently asked questions.

AIDS and hepatitis

The National AIDS Treatment Advocacy Project [www.natap.org] is part of a nonprofit corporation working to educate individuals about HIV and hepatitis treatments.

NATAP provides monthly treatment training for case managers, as well as periodicals and brochures that can be downloaded.

In addition to in-depth information about both AIDS and hepatitis, the site offers links to newsletters, articles, forums, conferences, PowerPoint presentations and a host of related information.

Hormone therapy

A lot of information has been in the news lately about women's health and the role of replacement estrogen.

If you are trying to make sense of the sometimes conflicting information about estrogen replacement, visit the Women's Health Initiative at www.nhlbi.nih.gov/whi/index.html. The site, run by the National Institutes of Health, provides study results, links and information about estrogen/progestin hormone therapy studies, menopausal and postmenopausal hormone studies and information about osteoporosis and ovarian cancer.