Heather Latter
Joelle Barron always has been interested in birth and pregnancy, and recently was trained as a doula to be able to offer support services during births here.
“I almost went to school for midwifery but then I decided to go for writing instead,” noted Barron, who received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia in 2014.
She currently works as support staff at Fort Frances High School and at the Fort Frances Public Library Technology Centre on weekends.
It was after she had her own baby a year-and-a-half ago that Barron decided it was a good time to pursue becoming a labour doula.
“It was a really difficult birth and I felt really lucky I had my mom with me,” she recalled, noting her mom was a maternity nurse for 30 years.
“So she knew a lot more than the average person who would be a birth partner.
“Then I thought it must be so much harder for people who don’t have someone in the room with them that really knows a lot,” Barron added.
“Since I’ve always been interested in having a career that somehow involved pregnancy and birth, being a doula just seemed like a really good fit.”
Barron said there’s no governing body that controls what doulas do, but she received her training from the Healing Arts Learning Organization (HALO).
“It’s not an intensive training because it’s more about getting the experience than anything else,” she noted, though adding it is ongoing training and she will continue to take courses and learn more.
Barron officially began offering her services here a few months ago and has had several clients so far.
“I work full-time so [I] just try to fit it in between,” she explained, saying she recently gave a presentation about her services during a session at the “Best Start” Hub.
“It’s such a foreign concept to a lot of people, but basically doulas provide informational support, emotional support, and physical support to pregnant mothers and their families,” she noted.
“We don’t ever tell anyone what to do, and it’s not about pushing some sort of agenda that I have about your pregnancy and your birth,” Barron stressed.
“It’s about finding out what people want and giving them all the information that they need to make decisions regarding their pregnancy and their birth.
“That includes how you want your birth to go in the hospital, all the different options that you have, options for pain management,” she continued.
“If people are interested in having a natural birth without medication, that’s where the physical support comes in.”
Barron said she has different comfort techniques she can use to help women get through labour without medical intervention.
“Studies have shown that births with doulas in attendance have much lower rates of C-sections and much lower rates of inductions—the use of synthetic oxytocin to start labour,” she remarked.
“And women report, in general, having had a much more positive birth experience when a doula is present.”
Barron said women often share their birth stories and sometimes it be a very difficult experience for them, where nothing went how they wanted and it was crazy, traumatic, and awful.
“And then at the end, they’ll say at least the baby was okay,” she added. “And that’s all anyone ever says.
“Obviously, it is important that the baby is okay, but it’s also hugely important that the mom is okay because the type of experience that the mother has at her birth is going to colour her relationship with her baby now and for the future.”
And that birth experience has a huge impact on a person’s entire future life—for both mom and the baby.
“Studies have shown there is a huge connection between negative birth experience and future addiction problems, and all kinds of different things like that,” Barron said.
“There really are a lot of connections there that I don’t think get emphasized enough.”
She stressed doulas mother the mother.
“There are always plenty of people in the birthing room at the hospital to take care of the baby, but doulas are really there to focus on the mother and make sure that she has as positive experience as she possibly can,” she said.
Anyone interested in using Barron’s doula services can contact her to set up a consultation.
“We just talk about what I do, what they’re interested in,” she explained, adding the expecting parents then can make a decision about whether or not they’d like her to be present at the birth.
If they choose to use her services, there is a contract she has them sign.
“Then usually throughout the pregnancy, we probably meet twice before the actual birth,” Barron noted.
During those meetings, Barron said they can do a variety of things, such as practising different birth positions or doing some positive affirmations about birth.
“Right now my client’s baby is breech and we’re trying to get the baby to turn,” she remarked.
“So that’s something I can help with, too.”
It is when the mother is in active labour that Barron meets them at the hospital.
“Doulas also offer constant support,” she explained.
“A lot of people don’t realize you are going to see your doctor maybe twice, and the nurses are also extremely busy so they aren’t going to be there for the whole process.
“But I will be there providing that constant support.”
Barron said she also can help with breast feeding after the baby is born, but often parents don’t require the doula’s assistance after the birth.
She charges for her services on a sliding scale, the top of which is $400.
“I’m not in it for the money,” Barron stressed. “I’m interested in doing it as a service to the community because I think it is something the community could really benefit from.
“So if someone can’t afford to paid me, I’m still going to work with them,” she remarked.
“People can decide on their own how much they can afford to pay me.”
As a doula, Barron reiterated she’s not there to take away the support role of the husband or partner.
“I’m there for both,” she said. “I’m going to be able to help him help you.”
More information can be found at www.joellebarron.com/doula-services or by calling Barron at 271-3013.
