I am a trained Labour Doula with CAPPA Canada. CAPPA stands for Childbirth and Post partum Professional Association. CAPPA was founded in 1998 and CAPPA Canada in 2004. The association was founded to offer the highest level of professional membership and training to childbirth educators, labour doulas, postpartum doulas and lactation educators. The organization consists of a leadership board, regional representatives, province representatives, mentors, advisors and its membership. We believe that empowering a woman in the childbirth experience, promoting informed choice and enhancing awareness of healthy living can create positive results.*

Parental Responsibility

Parental responsibility begins during pregnancy. Parents have the responsibility to choose the birthplace, attendant, procedures, etc. that are safest for their baby. This is not the responsibility of the doctor, midwife, doula, Childbirth Educator, or anyone, but the parents. While parents should be able to trust those they have chosen to assist and care for them during pregnancy and birth, none of these will have the responsibility of taking that child home and raising it. Parents should feel good about and be a part of every decision made about their care throughout the entire process of pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period, as well as throughout the child’s life.*

Interventions

We believe that women have the right to a birth free of unnecessary interventions. We have the duty and opportunity to educate women about the potential dangers unnecessary interventions can cause, as well as the “snowball effect” they can have. We teach the importance of true informed consent and how to achieve it. No woman should feel that she does not have the right to ask any health care provider questions about a procedure or treatment being offered or given to her. It is her right to reject any treatment or procedure that does not directly jeopardize the health of her baby. It is our job as childbirth professionals to help parents understand this right and enable them to take control of their own bodies.*

Methods of Childbirth and Pain Relief

In most situations and for most people, natural childbirth is the safest way to have a baby. Women should be encouraged to trust their bodies in the birth process and myths about childbirth should be dispelled. They should be given the tools to achieve a natural birth, if that is what they desire, and should be equipped with knowledge to make informed decisions about their birth. This knowledge should include a full understanding of the risks of interventions and medications, as well as their benefits in certain situations. Education should not involve guilt, but should empower women to choose the kind of birth that is best for them – be it medicated or unmedicated, intervention-free, or full of traditional interventions. We believe that, given the facts, more women would choose a natural birth for themselves and their babies.*

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