Your experienced
Twin Cities
birth doula team

A doula is a professionally trained support person who assists mothers and birth partners through the prenatal, birth, and postpartum periods. The Nest offers birth doula care to support you through pregnancy, birth, and early postpartum, and we plan to offer more extensive postpartum doula care in the near future.

While doulas and midwives often have similar objectives, their roles during the pregnancy, birth, and postpartum periods differ–and complement each other well!

A doula offers non-medical support to growing families. This support can be physical, emotional, and informational, depending on your needs and desires.

A midwife provides medical support to women and babies. Their focus is on the physical health and safety of your and your baby before, during, and immediately after birth.

While doulas and midwives do similar things during a birth, the doula’s focus will be on encouraging and supporting you through the birthing process, while the midwife will be focused on making sure mother and baby are safe, administering necessary medication, catching the baby when he or she arrives, and providing medical attention to mother and baby after birth.

According to a 2017 review of several studies on the effectiveness of continuous birth support, doula care can:

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• decrease the risk of Cesarean by 39%
• increase the likelihood of a spontaneous vaginal birth by 15%
• decrease the use of any medications for pain relief by 10%
• decrease the length of labors by 41 minutes on average
• decrease the baby’s risk of a low five-minute Apgar score by 38%
• decrease the risk of being dissatisfied with the birth experience by 31%

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For more information, see Evidence Based Birth.

In this initial 20 minute Zoom call, you will meet with the owners of The Nest. The goal is to ensure you come away with a clear sense of who we are and what we offer. Once we understand what you are looking for in a doula, we will match you with one of The Nest’s professional doulas, who will then connect with you to introduce herself. You can share more about your pregnancy journey and wishes with the doula to determine if she is a good fit for you. We love to meet new couples and would thoroughly enjoy talking with you!