What is an Abortion Doula?

This week’s guest is Alyssa. She is a student of women’s health and social work, and has a personal abortion story that contributes to the wisdom she shares in this podcast.

In every episode I read a blog post I’ve written and we follow up with a conversation about the topic at hand and what it means for women and their ability to thrive after abortion. Happy listening and as always feel free to send me your reflections and questions at the PodBlog page on my website.

This week's guest is Alyssa. She is a student of women's health and social work, and has a personal abortion story that contributes to the wisdom she shares in this podcast.

The post:

Wikipedia surely has it’s benefits and drawbacks, but when defining the role of a doula they give the most comprehensive written definition I could find:

“A doula (/ˈduːlə/) is a trained non-medical companion who supports another individual through a significant health-related experience such as childbirth, miscarriage, induced abortion or stillbirth or non-reproductive experiences such as dying.[1][2][3][4] A doula may also provide support to the partner, family and friends.[5][6] The overall goal of a doula in any context is for their client to feel safe, be informed and feel comfortable, complementing the role of health professionals providing medical care.”

I was a full time birth doula for a few years before I had my third child. Doula training and study gave me lots of tools, tips, and tricks. I knew when and how to use acupressure to support labor, how and why to use movement for optimal fetal positioning, the best sound and breathing to loosen and open the body for delivery, but the thing I did best was holding space. 

As soon as I packed my bag and left for the birth, I began the work of clearing my mind, releasing judgement, and opening my intuition so that I could give the family the best of me. I was careful never to pray for any particular outcome, but to always ask for the highest good for everyone involved. I was a master at shifting my perspective, and opening to faith in even the most challenging circumstances. 

I knew exactly how to mediate all the working relationships in a birth room, how to clear lingering negative energy, and call in extra support for spiritual and emotional wellbeing. I couldn’t take away my humanness: I made mistakes, missed signs, wore myself too thin at times, but I always recovered, learned, and grew to hold even better space the next time. 
Birth doulas still hold a statistically small role in the greater birth landscape, but their work has the potential to completely transform the birth culture and tie together the disjointed parts of the western birth world. Holding an even smaller role in women’s health is that of the abortion doula.

I get the question “What does an abortion doula do?” a lot. A good percentage of the population has heard of a birth or postpartum doula, but they can’t wrap their head around what exactly an abortion doula would do.

An abortion doula fills the very important role of holding space for mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing throughout the abortion experience. Like birth doulas, abortion doulas vary in their scope of practice. Some are present during the procedure, some only available surrounding the decision making and healing.  Depending on location they may or may not be provided by the clinic. Some are hired or contracted privately and expand their services beyond the actual procedure to help a woman make her decision and heal afterwards. Essentially an abortion doula meets the needs of the head and the heart, while procedure practitioners care for the physical abortion itself. 

The most important role of an abortion doula is to help a woman feel seen, validated, safe, and supported in her unique situation. Research shows that most women do not regret their abortions, but the landscape of feelings and experiences days, months, and even years after abortion varies widely. As is the case in all mental and emotional health, women are looking for connection and community in their human experience, and abortion doulas have the potential to offer that in many different ways. 

Whether you are considering an abortion, or have had an abortion it’s well worth your time to explore how an abortion doula can help you make the most of your experience. A good doula will help you thrive before, during, and after, showing you how strong and capable you are of living your best life despite challenging circumstances. 

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If you are one of the 1 in 4 women who have had an abortion in your lifetime,
and you are not thriving the way you desire: