I was thinking about some of the things that I found very helpful with my doula:

I have fast labours and also have Group B Strep, so I knew that I'd need my antibiotics as soon as I got to the hospital. I've never travelled to the hospital in labour, in an orderly way (2 inductions and one blue light ambulance as left it too late - should have learned from that!), so was worried about having to explain all about needing abs asap, and get out of my "zone" by going into firm adult mode. I talked to the doula about this and was confident that she'd be able to have that conversation for me.

I hated in previous labours all the cheery chit-chat, and particularly being told to "push, puuuuush"! I didn't want to have to psyche myself up to ask midwives to shut up, and was much happier knowing that the doula would be very tactful and say v quietly "she'd like things quiet please". I'd put a lot of effort into learning hypnosis techniques and was very keen to be able to apply them, which meant focusing on my breathing, not on engaging with people.

I'm getting very excited on your behalf now, pregnantpeppa. I hope you have a lovely labour too

I had a trainee doula and she was wonderful. We had her because I was worried about beeing left alone giving birth if I needed DH to go out and get something. I think I was her 2nd birth. She was wonderful, she came to ante natal classes with us, she visited about 4 times before the birth, including going through my birth plan and meeting my midwwives, she came as soon as I started labour, looked after me while DH got some sleep, cleaned up after I vomited , shared giving me back massages, let DH go and get some food, and at the end when they had to have a team of doctors in in a rush, she was right there with me explaining what was happening whilee they got on with it. After DS was born she stayed with DH and DS while I went into theatre. Then she visited fairly regularly for about 3 months. Worth every penny and although would be much more expensive for no 2 because she will be fully trained by then, we will seriously consider saving very hard to have her again.

Some lovely stories on here... I'm just marking my place for future reference (not that far in the future actually... only 7 weeks to go!)

How late is it possible to book a Doula? I'm waiting on a scan to determine the position of this baby, she's currently transverse and a we'll decide at 36 weeks what's happening, I'm happy to go through with a cs without a doula if that's what's required, but if I get the go ahead for a vbac I'd quite like to hire one. Do you think it'll be ok to wit until 36 weeks before finding one?

blimey, sorry, my typing's abominable, for the same reason that i'm on the '6 months and still not sleeping through' thread...

totalmisfit we had fully trained doula but were considering a trainee as we're a bit skint. We did speak to a couple of women who were working in partnership as trainees when we were looking around, and although it might just have been a personality thing I'm so glad we went for our doula in the end, even though she was actually on holiday for part of the time she would otherwise have been on call for me.
Her previous experience was so valuable, and I know she was able to provide a level of support that we just wouldn't have got from the trainees we spoke to.

I would recommend that you should contact a few, have a good chat with whoever you're considering hiring before you go ahead (most should be happy to meet with you for this without charge), and then go on your gut instinct. A trainee doula might have lots of experience that would really in supporting you useful without her having doula-ed (?) officially before, and could be just the right kind of person for you. Or you might feel as though you're not totally comfortable with the idea of relying on them as much as you'd like. I found that we could tell pretty quickly once we'd met ours that we wanted to go with her.

I also found it important to know that our doula understood us well and that we liked each other - she's going to be present for some pretty intimate goings on, so being comfortable with each other rather useful!

some great stories here, watching with great interest as i'm also in the process of hiring a doula (probably a trainee) for my second birth.

If i could just hijack for a second, of those of you who had a trainee, how many births had she attended prior to yours?

I ask because there's a possibility that i might end up with a doula for whom this is her first birth, and while everyone has to start somewhere, i want to make sure my £200 is money well spent, and that i don't end up with someone more nervy than i am!

I asked a friend (who happens to be a community midwife) to be my doula. She loved the idea, my hospital midwife totally accepted her and it was a very special experience to be cared for by two women during my labour. I had hoped for VBAC but had another EMCS after a fast and furious labour due to DD2's crappy positioning. The fact she was there allowed me to debrief a lot about what happened and also means that I know that what happened was not down to poor midwifery - in fact they were both gutted about how things went. She also supported my midwife - eg in opposing doctors doing FBS to confirm fetal distress - they could see this would not change the clinical course of action and put me through unnecessary distress.

I booked a doula when expecting my 4th child. She missed the birth - I had a very fast labour and the baby was born on the bathroom floor - and arrived at the same time as the ambulance crew. She travelled to hospital with me though.

It was still worth every penny. She came to the house quite a few times when I was pregnant. We discussed my birth plan at length and when I was looking at being induced and very worried about it, she helped to calm me down and feel that it wouldn't be awful if it did happen.

I didn't book her as a post natal doula although I think it's a great idea. It was lovely to have her to talk to about the birth, and go through it all with her.

If I was having any more children I'd definitely book her again. I wish I'd had her for all my births.

I had a doula for the birth of DS earlier this year (first baby), and it was the best money I've ever spent. She wasn't a trainee, but was really reasonably priced nonetheless. She was the most amazing support for both me and DH - I don't think he have coped without her, let alone whether I would! I had a long and difficult labour in the end, and it was so brilliant having someone wise and experienced to talk to and ask the opinion of when we had to make some tricky decisions, and to suggest thing to help labour along.

She was especially brilliant when I rather quickly (I was induced) got to the 'I don't think I can do this' stage, reminding me to take one contraction at a time, etc. DH even popped home at one point to get some food as I hadn't slept or eaten for two days and was almost hallucinating with exhaustion, & I was fine with that as our doula was there to keep giving me the support that I needed. Though I did come to regret that not long later as he spent the next 6 hours trying to get me to eat vegetables that I really, really didn't have the stomach for...

I told my doula that I didn't want a homebirth because my house was too messy for me to feel comfortable having midwives in. She told me if I called her early enough, she'd come round and clean it . She said it was her job to make sure I was as relaxed as possible and that could mean a million things.