Mama Bear.
We know that the continuous emotional and practical support that a doula can provide is a cost-effective and valuable way to achieve better health outcomes for mothers and babies, and even more so for women facing socio-economic disadvantage.
The only program of its kind in Victoria — we offer women experiencing financial hardship and social disadvantage free pregnancy, birth and early parenting support through our doula support program.
How it works is that volunteer doulas are matched with women as they are referred to the program, which may be at any stage of their pregnancy, and together they develop an individualised care plan that includes a minimum of three antenatal visits, support during the birth, and at least two postnatal visits.
The outcomes in birth, health and wellbeing for women and their families have been overwhelmingly positive with women reporting that they feel less isolated, and less fearful and confused about birth and parenting, which reduces their risk of perinatal depression and anxiety.
The woman responsible for coordinating our doula support program and supervising our team of amazing volunteer doulas is Glenys Janssen Frank.
A tireless advocate for women’s health and people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds, Glenys is a midwife with more than 20 years’ experience and a doula.
She first started as a physiotherapy student in Sydney. Then after leading a tutorial on home birthing in the Netherlands as part of her study she became curious about pregnancy and birth. After completing a nursing degree, in which she did an eight-week rotation in a maternity ward, she went on to qualify as a midwife in Melbourne and worked in a variety of roles at the Royal Women’s Hospital for 15 years. She also has a Masters in Public Health and a commitment to constantly broadening her knowledge.
When it comes to supporting birthing women, there is no one more passionate than Glenys. She has attended almost 1000 births in her career, and was drawn to working for Birth for HumanKIND by the opportunity to work with women from many different cultures and nationalities.
The ultimate Mama Bear — we sat down with Glenys to ask her some questions about her experience supporting women through the life-changing journey that is pregnancy, birth and parenthood as both a doula and a midwife. Enjoy!
How many births have you supported, including those through Birth for HumanKIND?
“In my first six months of being a midwife I recorded the first one hundred births I supported and then after a while I stopped counting — it would be 1000 easily. Some shifts I saw five births! I’ve been a midwife for over 20 years. I’ve caught a lot of babies! Since I started with Birth for HumanKIND late in 2015, I have actually met every single woman we have supported in that time. Providing women with education is really important to me. It’s such a powerful thing to educate women, particularly when they’re having their first baby, and support them to advocate for themselves.”
What is it like to support a woman through labour?
“It’s the most incredible experience — people say ‘it’s different for every woman’ and it definitely is. In our work we are privileged to work with women from very diverse backgrounds and it keeps it so interesting for me. Every woman is so different.”
How would you describe the role of a doula?
“I would say that a doula provides incredible support for a woman, and her partner or her family. Whether she is alone or has support people I think it’s fabulous. Partners and families often have other agendas — being a bit removed means you can provide that support without pushing your own agenda. We are there to provide the support the woman wants for the birth that she wants — not the birth that we want. I feel it’s a very privileged role to be invited into that space and to be part of women’s lives on that very special day and I feel that the woman gets so much out of it.”
What difference can a doula make to a woman’s experience of pregnancy and birth?
“I believe we have incredible outcomes because of the support we offer — women won’t talk about their births in terms of the pain and the epidural. They will talk about it in terms of the support they had and their doula. I think it really transforms their experience. I feel like you see the woman melt from the familiar presence, it’s that feeling of safety — getting to know her enough that you know what she wants in her birth.”
Apart from the mother-to-be, what impact can a doula have on the woman’s partner, her family and the community more broadly?
“I think it’s changing the culture of fear that is dominating birth culture at the moment, which is really unhelpful for women — so many women are so frightened. For partners I think it’s good because it gives them a bit of guidance when they’re freaking out and they feel supported. I have never felt that partners are undermined by the presence of a doula. It’s not something that their fathers or their mates probably talk about much, yet they’re expected to be there these days.”
What are some of the key qualities/characteristics that you need to be a doula?
“To be able to step into the shoes of the woman and listen to what she wants, to be empathetic to her story, and not be reactive to what’s happening. To stay in that calm presence when things get a bit chaotic and to be sensitive to what she wants — some women like their hands held, back rubbed or acupressure but some don’t so it’s just about being sensitive to what she wants.”
Why is the support of a doula so important for our clients in particular?
“Many of the women we work with don’t have support people — so they would be there on their own. Some of them say that in the country they’re from that’s the norm but it doesn’t have to be. For many of them, culturally, their partner is not the person to support them [during labour]. And often their lives are fairly complicated by other things. Not to be judged and to be treated with respect is rare and I’m so glad to be part of an organisation that can provide that.”
Why did you become a doula when you were already a midwife?
“What I’ve observed is that [as a doula] you have a lot more freedom to support the woman because you’re not having to do clinical observations — you can just provide the support she wants. Some of our doulas are also midwives, who would love to have the time to support women in a more holistic way, but are constrained by their workload demands. Volunteering with Birth for HumanKIND allows them to practise in a way that they know supports the birthing woman properly.”
What do your clients teach you?
“It does make me think ‘what am I complaining about?’ My problems are very small when I listen to their issues and what they deal with and what they rise above. Pretty inspiring really. A woman I met this morning from West Africa is having her fourth child and her husband is still there waiting for a visa to come to Australia. She was so relaxed, she said, ‘no one is going to have this baby for me, I know it’s tough but I’ll get through it’. Many Australian-born women don’t have the problems she is facing. I felt very inspired and privileged to meet her.”
What are some of the gaps in our maternal health system that doulas can help fill?
“The way the maternal health system works there is no time to properly support the birthing woman and a doula gives that time. The midwife, even though she would love to provide that, has got all these other requirements in her role and perhaps she’s looking after another birthing woman or she’s in charge of the shift. Even post-natally the doula can assist — there’s a strong role for that. Midwives in the post-natal ward might be looking after five to eight women.”
Is there a particular story of a woman/birth you supported through Birth for HumanKIND that you would like to share with us?
“There are so many but I would love to share the story of two remarkable young women: Selam* and Zainab*.
Selam was an Ethiopian-born refugee who grew up in a camp in Kenya before being granted a visa to come to Australia in 2009. I met her in 2012 through the Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Program, where I worked prior to joining Birth for HumanKIND. At the time, she was 22 and pregnant with her first child. Sadly, she’d become estranged from her sisters, and her husband was living in Malaysia because he could not get a visa to join her in Australia.
One night, alone, and with her husband thousands of kilometres away, she went into labour. After labouring for a short time at The Royal Women’s Hospital her baby became distressed and she ended up having an emergency caesarean. She was scared by the thought of having a brand new baby at home on her own while she was recovering from birth.
Luckily, a friend living nearby offered for Selam to stay with her because she knew she didn’t have anyone to support her and her tiny bedsitter apartment was too small to even fit a cot!
When her baby boy was a few weeks old, she felt confident and well enough to move back to her own home with him. However, because of the small confines of where she was living, every time Dawit* cried, her neighbours would yell and scream and bang on the walls. This made her feel so unsafe and upset, not to mention made him cry even more. She started spending as much time as possible in the local shopping centre where it was air-conditioned and noisy enough that it didn’t matter so much if he cried. It was heartbreaking.
Four years later, I was visiting a client for Birth for HumanKIND in one of Melbourne’s high-rise estates. Zainab’s situation reminded me so much of Selam from a couple of years back. She too was born in Ethiopia, came to Australia as a refugee, was pregnant with her first child at 22 and a woman from her community had given her a place to stay during her pregnancy because she didn’t have any family here or a partner to support her. This other woman was also pregnant, and they were both due in the same week.
Well, who should have opened the door when I visited Zainab that day but Selam. I couldn’t believe it!
Obviously knowing how valuable it was to have had the support of a friend when she had a new baby, Selam had taken Zainab into her home. It makes me tear up even thinking of it again.
Not only that but we were able to connect Selam with one of our wonderful volunteer doulas, who ended up supporting her through the birth of her second baby.
It’s heartwarming to see women supporting other women to bring new life into the world. It’s stories like this that get to the heart of why we do what we do at Birth for HumanKIND: for healthier mums, babies and communities.
This is the ninth in a 12-part series to celebrate World Doula Week. Donate here to Birth for HumanKIND’s fundraising campaign and put the kindness back into birth culture. For more information on the services we provide and who we support, please visit: www.birthforhumankind.org
