Doula Rant- Don't Use OLD Information

• Transcript

  00:04

  Welcome to doula Tips and Tips. This podcast is a place where we answer one question about doula work, both to support you and to help you support your clients. I'm Kaylee Harrod. I've been supporting families in this perinatal space since my oldest was born, 12, nearly 13 years ago.

  00:23

  I am a birth and postpartum doula childbirth educator, La Leche League leader, and a doula coach. I love guiding and supporting doulas as they work out their doula business. It is a tremendous joy to be trusted in this way.

  00:36

  Thank you for joining us on this journey. Welcome back to doula Tips and Tips. I am on rant episode number three. This is doula Rants. So rants about doulas from a doula to other doulas. This was born out of, I don't know, I use that all the time in regular life by the way.

  00:58

  This idea was born from this and my family is just like, God you're so integrated into birth you can't even take it out of your vocab. I do feel like I could integrate a little bit more. This idea has dilated into a beautiful concept.

  01:16

  I'm going to work on that. I'm going to integrate a few more birth puns and metaphors into my everyday language and see how my family responds. I'm sure they're going to love it. It's going to be the best thing ever.

  01:28

  So if you have not listened to the other two, I do recommend that you go back. The first is all about how doulas should not ever make it about them. The second is all about how doulas should not be assholes.

  01:39

  And so those might seem like very straightforward, but I want you to listen to them so you hear the nuance of what I'm talking about because I think more often than not we can slip into that unintentionally.

  01:53

  And I think that we need to be really cautious to not do that. So my third today, the one I'm talking about is the one that I'm going to be talking about. into now is not staying up to date with information and then sharing outdated information.

  02:08

  Now this is maybe like a smaller one, right? But I see this kind of a lot because I teach child birth classes. So I am in the DC area. I have my own child birth class. I teach private child birth classes to my clients.

  02:22

  And then I also teach child birth classes for a nonprofit called the Breastfeeding Center of Greater Washington. And so at the Breastfeeding Center, I have like, I don't know, six to nine couples in most of my classes.

  02:38

  So I have, you know, like up to 18 people sometimes. And oftentimes at least a handful of them have doulas. And there are some things that are definitely not evidence based that doulas are sharing with their clients, that I'm like, oh, that is not recommended, right?

  02:57

  And so There are some resources that I think doulas can use to stay up to date on information and to make sure that they're sharing evidence -based information with their clients. Now, the reason that matters is that you are in a position as a doula of authority of information.

  03:15

  So your client will be like, is this correct? And you're the one who gets to say, yes, it is, you know, it's not, or I don't know, right? What happens, what I see is that a client will say like, hey, what do you think about this thing?

  03:29

  And then their doula is like, yes, you should definitely do it because of XYZ. And then actually that thing is not evidence -based and it's not recommended. And they have just set their client down this whole path of doing something that truly the research around it shows is not helpful.

  03:48

  Right? And so what I sometimes see is I'll share stuff in class that's like, you know, this is really not evidence -based. You don't need to be doing it. And then, I mean, this happened recently. Someone said to me, oh gosh, my doula is the one that told me about that.

  04:02

  And I was like, oh, so sorry. I'm like, but it's still not evidence -based. Like even if your doula is the one that told you that doesn't make it an evidence -based practice, it is actually outdated.

  04:14

  And your doula should know that. You know? And so what I think about doula work, one of the things that's a little bit tricky is that we don't have regulations around us. Now, I think in some ways that's good, right?

  04:28

  Like I find it incredibly problematic, all the different ways that we regulate different professions, you know? But I do think one of the benefits sometimes is having continued education requirements and having requirements that people continue to be up to date on the newest research.

  04:46

  I would love to see doulas do continuing education around evidence -based practices because then we would be in such a better place to educate our clients. and teach them what is actually beneficial and helpful, right?

  05:03

  Now I will say, there are some amazing resources out there that can help you kind of stay up to date. One of my ones that I literally send to everyone is evidence -based birth. That is a wealth of knowledge.

  05:17

  As doulas, there's a professional membership where you can get the latest research, you can get all different sorts of benefits. There's also loads of free resources that you can use with yourself, with your clients, with your education, and make sure that you're kind of staying up to date on what the most updated practices are, okay?

  05:39

  Now, the other way that I see this come out is in wrong information that we either believe or were taught or whatever that we then perpetuate with clients. I see this a lot in sleep and feeding. like so much in sleep and feeding.

  06:00

  And I hear people say things like, oh, I know they say this, but really, you know. And I mean, I understand, right? Like on the one hand, I was a parent who shared a bed with my kids. So I get it, right?

  06:17

  Like the, definitely if I'm talking to a pediatrician who very firmly is against bed sharing, they're gonna be like, what? And I'm gonna be like, yeah, well, I did it. And I did it safely. And this is how I did it safely and blah, blah, blah.

  06:30

  Right? Like I firmly believe that people can bed share safely and that sometimes it is the best scenario for a family. Not always, but sometimes, right? However, there's really problematic information around like a newborn's need to eat at nighttime or a newborn's amount of sleep that they need, right?

  06:52

  Or amount of food that they need or amount of holding that they need or whether or not a newborn can like develop a terribly bad habit about something, which is quite frankly, the most ridiculous thing ever.

  07:04

  And newborns can't develop bad habits about terrible things. So like if you rock your newborn to sleep tonight and they're like two weeks old, they're not going to need to be rocked to sleep when they're 10 because of the things that you're doing now when they're two.

  07:20

  That's not how that works. It's not how their brain works. That's not just basic human development, right? This is not just biology, like just on a real basic level. So that's the kind of stuff that I think we use our own either experience, desire, or our own lack of understanding to actually steer people in a problematic direction.

  07:44

  Now, one thing I really love, and I sometimes talk to my clients about this, is providers that will admit where they're not an expert. Okay, so for instance, if I go to a pediatrician and say, My kid has this weird mole.

  08:00

  Are you concerned about that? Should I be concerned about that? And it's like a legitimately weird mole. I don't really have this scenario, but I'm using it as an example. I would want that pediatrician to say to me, you know what?

  08:11

  This is why we have dermatologists. Let me send you to one. Not because I think our medical system is great because, hmm, I could have a whole series on that too. And it would be rants. It would be, I promise.

  08:25

  But what I mean is in that moment, the pediatrician is like, I am not a skin specialist. I am a like general health for children specialist. Right. And so you have a very clear skin issue. And I want to send you to the child skin specialist, aka the pediatric dermatologist, right.

  08:47

  And so that to me is my favorite response from a pediatrician as silly as that sounds because I'm like, yeah, this is not your jam. Like this is not the thing that you have to have an expertise in. There's another doctor for that and so that's why you send me to that other doctor, right?

  09:04

  So as doulas, I think we need to do that too. Like if a client says, gosh my kid is not sleeping, blah blah blah, I think one of the things we need to do is be like, hmm, I'm not a sleep expert. Let me point you in the direction of someone who is an expert in sleep, because that is not me, right?

  09:23

  Now obviously, maybe you are a sleep expert. I'm not saying you're not. I don't, I don't presume to know everything that you know, right? But at the same time, there are some doulas out here, given some personal and very biased information about things that they are not experts in, and they're doing damage guys.

  09:44

  So I really, really, think it is a strong character trait to refer out to other people who have expertise that you do not have, and to live firmly in the reality of what you do know and what you don't know, and make sure that you're checking to see that what you're sharing and what you're telling people is in fact correct information and not outdated.

  10:15

  So that concludes rant number three. If this series is not your jam, you'll be real happy to hear that there's only one left for right now. I have one more for now, and then probably this might come up again at some point, because man, I have a long list of these.

  10:33

  I would love to hear yours, in part because I think sharing is caring, and also because I think that you benefit from knowing that you're not the only person that is peeved by something, or that you're like seen and validated in a moment, you know?

  10:50

  And so I would love to hear what you have to say, what you think doulas do terribly, what you think are problematic, practices that are unsustainable for the profession, we'll say. And the best way to share those with me is on Instagram.

  11:06

  At Harrodoula, run over there, open up your app, and shoot me a quick message and be like, oh man, I'm listening to your podcast series, and I would say that Doolas do this and that drives me crazy. So I can't wait to hear from you.

  11:22

  I will message you back, I swear, and it is always me messaging you back. And then, you know, who knows, maybe you'll be in one of the future episodes. Alright, I'll see you in the next episode. Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Doola Tips and Tits podcast.

  11:42

  If you learned something today or had an aha moment, we'd love for you to share that on Instagram and tag us at Harrodoula so we can celebrate alongside you. If you've found this podcast helpful, we would so appreciate you taking a second to leave a rating and a review.

  11:57

  on your favorite podcast app. That helps other doulas find us as we do this work together. This podcast is intended as educational and entertainment. It is not medical advice or business advice. Please consult your own medical or legal team for your own needs around your health and your business.

  12:14

  We'll see you again soon.

Never want to miss what we’re doing for doulas? Subscribe to our newsletter! We won’t spam you, but we do promise amazing content and classes! https://www.harroddoulaservices.com/newsletter

Are you loving the Doula Tips and Tits Podcast? If so we’d be so appreciative of your support! You have the option to choose monthly support starting at just $3 a month. 

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1916032/supporters/new

Another episode of rants about doulas from a doula to other doulas. Would you want to a doctor to give you dated information if you went it for stomach problems? No, so why should we feel we can do the same? This week’s episode is about making sure the information you give out to clients is up to date and non-bias related.

Quote from the show:

“ But at the same time, there are some doulas out here, given some personal and very biased information about things that they are not experts in, and they're doing damage guys. So I really, really, think it is a strong character trait to refer out to other people who have expertise that you do not have, and to live firmly in the reality of what you do know and what you don't know, and make sure that you're checking to see that what you're sharing and what you're telling people is in fact correct information and not outdated.  ”

SIGN UP for our January coaching group:

https://www.harroddoulaservices.com/doula-biz-blueprint 

CONNECT with Kaely on TikTok or Instagram

https://www.tiktok.com/@doulacoach

https://www.instagram.com/Harroddoula/

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @harroddoula

Kaely Daily is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services

It is sponsored by The Birth Prep Blueprint Childbirth Class

Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay