Gilliland: Doula training is for “anyone curious about birth.”
Amy Gilliland believes that a positive birth experience has a lasting effect on the lives of both mother and baby. Gilliland should know: As a research fellow in the U.W.-Madison’s School of Human Ecology, she studies and teaches about the psychological needs of people during the birth experience.
In October 2018, Gilliland self-published The Heart of the Doula: Essentials for Practice and Life to share best practices from three decades as a doula practitioner and trainer. Doulas are trained professionals who provide physical, emotional and informational support to women and their families throughout a birth experience.
“It’s one of the most complex jobs on the planet,” says Gilliland. “You’re part negotiator, part counselor, part cheerleader, part consoler and part loving parent — and best friend — all at once.” Doulas are adept at managing the needs and negotiating the roles of everyone in the birthing suite while maintaining the focus on the laboring mother.
Gilliland has interviewed more than 60 doulas for her research on the effect of doulas on the birth process. She’s gathered a wealth of first-hand experience “about getting along with nurses and doctors, what clients really need from their doulas, and why some things that may seem natural, like sharing your [own] birth story, are not helpful to the doula-client relationship,” Gilliland says.
The Heart of the Doula draws on these interviews to complement and reinforce what Gilliland teaches doulas in training sessions.
In October 2017, she began interviewing a new generation of doulas to add to her study sample. Her current research is taking her deeper into the role of oxytocin in attachment. (Oxytocin is often called the “love hormone” because of its role in sexual arousal and social bonding.) With this research, Gilliland hopes to learn more about the brain structures of experienced doulas and how they become better at recognizing and interpreting the emotional content of others’ behaviors.
Gilliland’s route to a doctoral degree in human development and family studies led through three universities, with a pause for the birth her own son in 1985. “If I hadn’t already known about the birth system in the U.S., I probably would have blindly participated in it,” she says. “But I did know, so I sought out a midwife and a birth center. From that I became a doula.”
Gilliland says that doula trainings are for “anyone curious about birth — not just for people who want to become doulas. When I saw my first birth, I wondered: Why is childbirth knowledge offered only to pregnant women? Everybody deserves support. That’s the number one message of my book.”
Gilliland’s work training doulas and offering continuing education on doula labor support, women’s sexual experiences, infant mental health and the psychological needs of people during the birth experience is drawing attention across the English-speaking world; people from Mexico, Canada, Australia, the U.K. and South Africa have attended her workshops.
Anyone considering becoming a doula is Gilliland’s intended reader for The Heart of the Doula. Social workers would also benefit from reading it, she says, especially the chapter on the transformational power of prenatal visits and nonjudgmental support.
Her next workshop in Madison is Introduction to Childbirth for Doulas on March 2, followed by Birth Doula Workshop March 8-10. More info is available at her website, amygilliland.com.
[Editor's note: This article has been corrected to note that the child Gilliland had in 1985 was a son and that she has attended three universities, not four.]
