How doulas help build villages of support for expecting, new, growing families

Editor's note: Sara Davison is founder of Kinly, a Triangle-based parenting platform designed to connect families of young children with programs, services and support.

LaToshia Rouse is a birth and postpartum doula certified from DONA International, a childbirth educator and a lactation educator providing support to families in person and virtually. Her desire to support, educate and empower women was born out of her own challenges while bringing her 11-year-old and 8-year-old triplets into the world. After those experiences, she knew there was another way to birth and experience postpartum.

Rouse is a wife of 16 years and the family has a dog named Lucas that has stolen their hearts. Another hat that LaToshia wears is that of a national healthcare consultant where she helps healthcare professionals learn from and connect with patient stories to make improvements in care for the next family having a baby.

Wew checked in to learn more about what Rouse does and how she helps new and growing families. Here's a Q&A.

Sara Davison: What are the common concerns for pregnant people right now?

LaToshia Rouse: I get plenty of questions on how to find a midwife, what options do people have for birthing locations, what are the COVID protocols at each facility. Moms are seeking out help to navigate and prepare for birth. I love being able to support them with the information they need to make the best choice for their family.                                                            

SD: What has been the biggest challenges you’ve seen for parents during this time?

LR: It has been the grief of this pregnancy experience not being what they thought it was going to be due to COVID or family circumstances. They are also having a hard time finding reliable information related to their pregnancy due to the increased misinformation online. I’m seeing an increased amount of anxiety during these uncertain times and the need to talk about what is going on with them without being judged.

I loving being the bridge to resources and ideas that can help them ease the worry or stress. Worry and stress is not good for pregnant moms. They need continuous support to help them learn relaxation techniques and to have that listening ear that understands these needs.

SD: What are your top tips to help pregnant moms?

LR: You have so much power in the outcome of your pregnancy. There are so many things you can do to make sure you are supported, educated and empowered in your experience. Take a childbirth education class. You have not done this before. Learning about what your body is doing and what it will do during labor completely changes your outcome. It gives you the information to play for a healthy birth.

Having that education and the support you need enables you to make empowered decisions about your birth. Who will deliver you? Where will you deliver? How will I manage pain? How do I create a birth plan? What things should I consider? What happens once the baby is born? How will I know if I’m healing well? What happens if I need a c-section? How do I lower my risk of C-section? These things will need to be discussed before you are in labor and everyone needs to know your wishes.

SD: What do you love the most about what you do?

LR: I love helping families enjoy pregnancy, their baby and their new family. I have heard first hand from many women how my being there totally changes their experience. AND I have heard from spouses who equally valued the support. I see doula work as a parachute into parenthood or a parachute into having additional kids INSTEAD of a free fall. We all need a village that will be there to lessen the confusion, stress and even help us sleep more.

SD: Tell us a little more about your practice and how you can support parents and children with your services.

LR: We have all been trained by a DONA International trainer and are certified or working towards certification. We provide several birth packages to support you while you are pregnant, continuous support in labor and a postpartum check in to make sure you are thriving. The support is encompassed in 3 areas. Emotional support, informational support and physical support. These services are proven to reduce C-section rates, increase breastfeeding rates, and reduce or eliminate the need for medicated pain management.

For postpartum, we offer customized packages to help support the moms healing and breastfeeding efforts by providing evening and overnight support to families with new babies.

In addition, we offer referrals to resources in the community, childbirth education, lactation education and lactation support.

My practice is also part of the Kinly network. Kinly is a parenting platform for families of littles. Once you connect to Kinly, you feel like you are part of a village, where families can easily connect to expert providers such as therapists, doulas, nutritionists, physical therapists and also access free, educational content from the experts on the network..

I like Kinly because it is a great resource for pregnant moms and families of littles. Not only does Kinly connect you with the experts you need on your parenting journey, but is also a great way to build your village of social support through the online & in-person events they are delivering for this community.

You can find LaToshia on Kinly HERE.

LaToshia Rouse CD(DONA) is a member of the Kinly Collective, a group of vetted experts from the Kinly parenting platform that are selected to provide free parenting resources, advice and tips to local families in the form of videos & interactive ‘ask the expert’ seminars on the Kinly parenting platform. Resources are currently free for all Triangle families, visit https://www.kinly.co or follow the Kinly Instagram or Facebook.

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