Doctor or Doula???

I still haven't been in to see a doctor for Baby Andersen #2, still all because of my insurance and I am about to have a pregnant breakdown on these people for making me wait almost eight weeks! They had better WATCH OUT! :( Lol. Thankfully, it has also allowed me the time to debate with myself if I would rather go with the regular OBGYN doctor like I originally planned or if I should try a birth doula.

I was definitely not pleased with how my labor and delivery of Alan went. I had wanted a peaceful, med free birth and it turned out hectic, somewhat dangerous for my son, and very medicated. Now I'm not going to place all the blame on the doctors and nurses at the hospital, but I do know that there needs to be a change. The question is doctor or doula????

For those of you that don't know, a doula is a professional (different than a OBGYN) that is trained in childbirth and provides physical, informational and emotional support to the mother. Doula means women's servant in Greek.

I have had several friends who have used doulas throughout their pregnancies and even a couple of friends from around the states who are professional doulas themselves. All I have heard is positive reponses from them. There are also the studies.

Doulas reduce the chance of having a C-section by fifty percent! The length of labor is also reduced by 25 percent with a doula, which is a definite pro for me. I don't want the 48 hours of laboring I had for Alan again! That was most likely what made me turn to pain meds. The chance of using an epidural is also reduced by sixty percent with a doula.

The only con I can seem to find to having a doula is that they cannot provide any medical care. They are not fully licensed like a OBGYN is, so they can provide support but not any clinical procedures. It becomes difficult if you have a high-risk pregnancy. My pregnancy with Alan was normal, I only had anemia problems. So we might be in the clear. But I think if I do the doula route, I will either find a midwife/doula to care for me the whole pregnancy or I will start out with a OBGYN and then my last two months switch to seeing only my doula.

Yesterday, Alan and I busted out his new preschool game that he got for Christmas. Its called Polar Bear ABC and even though it is for kids three and up, Alan was a total pro at it! I took some pictures of him playing the game too, because I love my new camera phone lol! Here are a couple. :)


You play the game by "fishing" out letters from the little water pool. A fishing pole is provided for this, but we quickly found out it was much easier just using our fingers to pick the letters. After you pick out a letter, you look to see if it matches any of the letters in the word you chose. Alan was really good at this!


Alan was great at saying each letter with me, and even started remembering certain letters! Once you spell the whole word, you get to plunge the polar bear into the water! This was Alan's favorite part lol, but I couldn't get him to leave the polar bear in there for a picture lol. Here is Alan though, very proud that he just spelled Lemon for me.


I want to keep playing this game with him around once a week because it is a great learning tool! Let's hope I can keep it up! :)

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