This article is a reprint of an original article that recently appeared in Fosters Daily Democrat. 

When Rebecca Beaton of Portsmouth was pregnant with her first baby, friends asked her if she was going to have a doula. Beaton didn't know what they meant. "I was like ...what website do I go to get one of those?"

Susan Remillard says a lot of people still, when hearing she is a doula, say "You're a what?" Remillard is pleased that more people are recognizing doulas and their role in childbirth.

More people are. According to a first of its kind University of Michigan study published in December, 2004, the number of US pregnancies using doulas rose from 1 percent in 1998 to 5 percent in 2004.

A doula — the word is an ancient Greek term meaning woman servant — provides emotional, physical, and informational support to a woman giving birth.

There are two kinds of doulas: the birth doula, who helps with the labor and delivery, and the postpartum doula, who helps when mother and baby come home from the hospital.

For Rebecca Beaton, as she learned more about doulas, she became more excited about the idea. After speaking with a few, she decided on Carol DeStefano for her birth doula.

"I really hit it off with Carol," Beaton said. "She knew that I wanted to go natural."

For Beaton, having a doula during labor helped remove the clinical aspect, even though she gave birth in a hospital.

Once a stranger to doulas, Beaton says, "now, I'm really chatting it up."

DeStefano lives in Greenland and is certified both as a birth doula and a postpartum doula. She stresses the importance of birth.

"Research shows that women with Alzheimer's or who are in their 90's and can't remember their grandchildren's names remember their births. It's a very deep part of women's consciousness."

Typically, a birth doula meets with an expectant mother or couple 2 or 3 times before her due date. During these meetings, the two discuss a birth plan, which includes the mother's wishes for labor and delivery — pain relief options, birth environment, monitoring, delivery options and care of the newborn. During labor and delivery, the written birth plan is available to the hospital staff.

Creating a birth plan with DeStefano, Beaton said, "We spoke about how I envisioned I wanted the birth to proceed."

"We help [mothers-to-be] form a plan that suits them," DeStefano says. "It's their agenda, not ours."

From two weeks before the delivery to as much as two weeks after, the birth doula is on call 24/7, and is no more than 45 minutes to an hour away from the delivery hospital at all times.

During labor, the doula provides emotional and physical support, maintaining an atmosphere of the mother's choosing: pictures, music, aromatherapy, pain management techniques, and meditation may be used.

Most importantly, DeStefano says, "the mother is never left alone. The doula is there to make the mother feel safe. As comfortable as possible. When they feel that way, they can do it. If they feel abandoned or ... doubt their care, it stops everything. Labor can come to a halt."

Catherine Sides of Brentwood did not use a doula for the birth of her first child, but she did use one for the second.

During Sides' first labor and delivery, things did not go well. Because she progressed faster than expected, she was not able to get an epidural. Also, because another woman was giving birth at the same time at the hospital, "They said 'we'll come back and see you at 7 in the morning. I was going through all the transition all on my own ... it was pretty terrifying."

When Sides was getting ready to give birth to her second child, she was nervous. "I had a lot of anxiety. I didn't think I could do this again."

Having been left alone by hospital staff during her first labor, she was fearful. More, the Sides had their older child to consider. "We had a two year old and we didn't know what we were going to do. My parents live too far away and my husband's parents live too far away."

Sides said, "We were going to hire the doula essentially as a babysitting doula. But, oh my gosh, she ended up helping me." Sides worked with doula Maria Miles from Dover. In the 3 meetings before the due date, Sides said, "we talked about anything and everything that could possibly happen."

The result? "It couldn't have gone any better," Sides said.

Sides' birth doula Maria Miles said, "Imagine being in your most vulnerable moment and not knowing anyone in the room with you." A doula is one person there just for [the mother]."

With hospitals as busy as they are, Miles said, "the nurse is in and out. I don't leave [the mother] alone."

Liz Gaudette of York has been a doula for almost 10 years. A registered nurse, and certified childbirth educator, Gaudette feels one important benefit of the birth doula is after the birth. "Reviewing the birth is such a gift. Medical providers can't remember the little details, the cherished moments."