When Catherine Parker gets a call in the middle of the night to come to the hospital, it signals good news. Parker willingly keeps her cell phone on because she is a birth doula. Although that word might not ring a bell with everyone, it means a great deal to the pregnant women and their partners who rely on one.
A doula is trained to provide one-on-one, non-medical, physical and emotional support to a pregnant woman, and to assist with communication between the medical team and the woman, her partner and her family. Parker, a Point Loma native and Ocean Beach resident, explained that unlike a midwife who is fully trained in obstetrics, a doula helps through comfort techniques, such as relaxation, massage, breathing and positioning.
Parker has already served as a doula at 46 births in two years. “I love it”¦I cry at every baby’s birth,” she said. “It’s such a miracle; it’s fascinating.”
In her private doula practice, Parker is on call 24/7 for everything from teaching relaxation techniques, helping women and their partners with pre-natal visits and giving pregnancy massages to relieve lower back and hip pain. She likes to get involved with her clients by the mother’s second trimester, and customizes her support to the needs of the mother-to-be and her partner.
“I really enjoy helping women feel empowered,” Parker said. “It’s so amazing to watch the strength women have that they never knew they had. It’s amazing to watch couples together, and see the men so supportive and nurturing.”
Nicole McInerney, a Point Loma resident, had Parker assist her late in her pregnancy and throughout the labor and delivery of her daughter, Neela.
“Catherine was there for me mentally and emotionally. She did everything: aromatherapy, breathing exercises, visualization techniques”¦and the massage was great for tough contractions. Her whole demeanor was awesome.”
McInterney said Parker was also helpful to her husband, Jason.
“He was sitting there feeling helpless while I was dealing with contractions. It was so comforting that he had someone to talk to who wasn’t stressed out. The midwife and nurses can’t be there all the time.”
Parker, who is also a certified massage therapist and pregnancy massage therapist, first considered becoming a doula when she was taking a pregnancy massage class at the School of Healing Arts in Pacific Beach. She began training at the Hearts & Hands volunteer doula program at UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest, and has continued as a mentor there.
“I hesitated at first because I thought it would be so difficult,” Parker said. “I learned that just being there and being a willing participant is enough.”
UCSD’s non-profit, all-volunteer doula program began in late 1999 in the Hillcrest hospital’s birthing center, which offers both traditional labor and delivery and a birthing center with midwives.
Now with 40 volunteer doulas available to any mother in labor at the hospital, Hearts & Hands remains the only hospital-based program of its kind in California, according to Ann Fulcher, manager of the program.
“The idea is as old as childbirth itself,” Fulcher said. “There used to always be women at the birth with the mother, not just the midwife.”
She credits the Internet with helping to spread the news about doulas.
“All the Web sites on birth talk about it,” she said. “I don’t think you can be pregnant in America without hearing the word.”
Fulcher, who has been a doula for 12 years, appreciates Parker’s dedication.
“It takes a huge commitment to do what Catherine does. She’s on call 24/7. When you go out, you have to take separate cars in case you get a call. It’s a lifestyle, not just a job”¦it’s pretty all-consuming.”
But Fulcher added that having a doula doesn’t replace the family.
In addition to caring for her private doula clients and mentoring at the hospital’s volunteer program, Parker offers mobile massage and a Pacific Beach location at sevenfourseven Skin and Body Studio, 747 Emerald Street.
Kendra Hill, Pacific Beach resident and the studio’s owner, said Parker’s energy just fits with her own.
“She told me about being a doula when we first met, but I’d read about it and heard about it,” Hill said. “I will definitely have a doula when I’m going to have a baby.”
Parker also finds time for her artistic side, offering belly casting where she makes a cast of the pregnant woman’s torso with gauze strips dipped in plaster, then custom paints it. “A lot of women don’t think their body is beautiful when they’re pregnant, but I think it is,” Parker said. “This is a really beautiful way to memorialize the birth.”
For more information about Parker, visit www.mymassagedoula.com or call (619) 757-0062. The studio can be reached at www.747skinandbody.com or (858) 274-7477.
For information about UCSD’s doula program or volunteering, call (619) 543-6269 or visit www.health.ucsd.edu/women.