A new University of Queensland Churchill Fellow will investigate the value of Doulas or lay person assistants as a way of boosting maternity services in Queensland.
According to Dr Fiona Bogossian, of UQ’s School of Nursing, the introduction of trained Doulas has the potential to improve outcomes for birthing mothers and their babies, as well as responding to the national shortage of midwives.
(Doula is a Greek word for a woman experienced in childbirth who provides continuous physical, emotional, and informational support to the mother before, during and just after childbirth.)
“Ideally, midwives stay with a woman during birth, but are commonly required to provide clinical care for several laboring mothers at any one time and so may not be able to remain with one mother," Dr Bogossian said.
"Research has shown that continuous care results in better birthing outcomes and Doulas could provide this.
“Doula education could also act as an entry pathway to midwifery programs and perhaps shorten the time taken to qualify as a midwife. This would enable more midwives to qualify sooner."
Dr Bogossian said there were Doulas operating in Australia, but both their education and regulation of the role was haphazard.
The Churchill Fellowship, which was announced this month, will enable Dr Bogossian to visit several institutions in the United Kingdom and the United States, to investigate various Doula training programs and to meet with practising Doulas.
She will focus on education, the scope of work performed by Doulas and their regulation.
Dr Bogossian said her Fellowship report would also be provided to the State Government’s Maternity Services Steering Committee, of which she is a member.
A Churchill Fellowship provides recipients with an opportunity to travel overseas to undertake a study of a project or an issue that cannot be readily undertaken in Australia. Dr Bogassian will leave on her two-month study tour in November this year.
For more information, please contact Faculty Communications Officer Marlene McKendry, telephone (07) 33464713 OR 0401 996847.
