An Introduction for

Persis Bristol-Dodson

Hi. My name is Persis Bristol-Dodson. And I am a certified labor doula. My company is named, Accessible Doula Services based out of Atlanta, Georgia, but we serve the entire Georgia area. My background is, actually, I am a certified sign language interpreter and I got into the doula business, because as an interpreter I was witnessing a lot of situations where women seemed to be uninformed, not just women, but families, seemed to be uninformed about the birthing process.

I also had a bit of a heart, what’s the word, just a feeling of wanting to do something more than just interpret. I wanted to be involved. I wanted to be able to express my opinion, express my heart felt empathy – sympathy. An interpreter in the profession is not allowed to be involved in that aspect. So, I wanted to be involved in that way, and my business partner and I looked for a way that we could do that and stumbled upon doula work. So, we both decided to become certified as labor doulas. We are both certified in two different organizations, one is CAPPA, which is Childbirth and Postpartum Professionals Association, and the other is DONA, which is Doulas of North America.

And, so, we also set up a non-profit which was our other aspect of becoming doulas. We didn’t want to only want to become doulas in that we help women have the birth experience that they desire, but we also wanted to do it for women who would not normally be able to afford it.

Doula services are normally paid for by the family. The insurance compaies have not yet got to the place where they understand the benefit of having a doula in terms of the reduced risk in cesarean birth as well as, uh, epidural use and so on and so forth. They haven’t realized how good that is, so at this point, doula services is still paid for by the family. In very rare instances, that happens that the insurance company will pay for it. But for the most part, we do…

So, we built our non-profit so that women who would normally not be able to afford it would have the opportunity to have doula services regardless of the amount of income that they have or the resources that they have.

So, as a doula, we work with women before, during and after birth. The before part usually refers to the pre-natal interview and information session where we will talk to women about the type of birth that they want, um, we will help them realize the type of birth that is available to them, as well as help them develop, uh, a birth guide. Or a birth plan is another word that’s used for it. And also give them a lot of information about what they can expect when they go into labor.

Once labor has started, we would attend them at any point in labor. Most of the time, we would arrive at their home and stay with them until they are ready to go to the hospital. We would then go with them to the hospital and then stay with them until the birth of the baby. Usually, about two hours after the birth, we would stay with them to help establish breast feeding, initial breast feeding.

After they are settled and everything is calmed down, we would leave, and then return again to their home, usually two weeks after the baby has been born to do a postpartum follow-up, to make sure that everything is going well. To also check in on lactation issues and allow them to have access to any other resources they may need, specifically having to do with lactation, technical issues, or postpartum information.

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