If Only Everyone Had a Postpartum Doula

Copyright

2018

Published By

The New York Times

When a baby comes, friends and families don't always know how to help.

Unlike birth doulas, who assist mothers during pregnancy and childbirth, postpartum doulas step in when the baby is already born, and throughout the first six weeks after birth. They teach the supposedly natural but actually quite difficult to master skills of soothing, bathing and breast-feeding infants, without any personal baggage.