Birth Doula Supports Iowa Women

September 25 will be the day that baby Mya will celebrate her second Moon Festival birthday, it is also the day that local certified doula, Jun-Nicole Matsushita, with Bamboo Birth Services, marks as the first birth that she attended as a doula. This September Jun-Nicole celebrates the milestone of working with twenty families in the past two years. Jun-Nicole is a Certified Birth Doula serving Iowa City, Coralville and the surrounding area specializing in hypnobirthing and Active Birth for low-intervention or natural childbirth, in addition to vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC). She lives in Iowa City with her husband and two sons, Khai, 5 and Khoi, 3.  As a doula she states, "my goal is to help women prepare for and experience their births as empowered and active participants.  I am there to support their wishes and individual needs, to help women and their partners make informed decisions, and to facilitate their journey to parenthood in an environment of security and confidence."   In addition to her role as a doula, she is the founder of the not-for-profit Tsunami relief organization, HUGS: Help Us Give Slings, a co-leader for the Iowa City Babywearers and the Iowa City Doulas.

What is a doula? Birth doulas accompany women and their partners in labor, providing emotional support and physical comfort. They facilitate communication with caregivers to help clients feel fully informed, provide reassurance, perspective and help with relaxation, positioning and other labor support techniques.

Postpartum doulas help new mothers in the early weeks with their new baby. Parents find the additional help with breastfeeding , education on newborn care, errand running, nighttime support and assistance with anything else a new family needs invaluable.

The word doula comes from the Greek word meaning *a woman who serves.* Studies have shown that a doula’s presence at births results in shorter labors with less complications, fewer requests for pain medications and/or epidurals and a reduction in labor-enhancing drugs (Pitocin), forceps, vacuum extraction and cesareans. Postpartum doulas reduce the stress involved in being a new mom. Doula care has also been shown to reduce the frequency and severity of postpartum depression. Doulas like to say that they "mother the mother." (DONA).