The SCBP doulas are a diverse group of women who are passionate about supporting women in labour.

The SCBP doulas are a diverse group of women who are passionate about supporting women in labour. They come from a variety of different backgrounds including nursing and healthcare professions in their home countries. Some are also school teachers, full time mothers, professional translators, yoga instructors, and registered acupuncturists, just to name a few. You meet your doula once in pregnancy, usually around 37 weeks and she is present throughout your labour and birth. Your doula often attends you at home in early labour, helping you to decide on the best time to come to hospital. She is in contact with the midwife or doctor on-call while you are in labour. We all view the doulas as an integral part of our team at SCBP. Some of our doulas have attended more than 200 births.

We make every effort to match you with a doula that speaks your first language. If this is not possible, translation services can be arranged.

These women have been a part of our team of doulas since the beginning. Some of them were auxiliary nurses or midwives in their home country. In addition to being doulas, they also work in community clinics, do massage therapy, provide translation services and provide home care in Vancouver. They are all committed to working with new immigrants to Canada in many different capacities. Between them they speak Punjabi, Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Indonesian, Tamil, Bengali, Japanese, Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Czech, German, Slovak, Spanish, French, Italian, Mandarin, Cantonese, and American Sign Language.

The success of the South Community doula program is in part due to devoted team of mentors who support new doulas through their first 3 program births. The mentor’s role is crucial in helping new doulas navigate the hospital as well as offering suggestions and encouragement while not taking over the role of the primary doula. Some of the Mentors joined the doula team as very experienced doulas and after many births with SCBP these committed women have moved into a place of mentoring. Some continue to take individual SCBP clients while others are available for mentor scheduling only as they are now UBC Midwifery students. Two of the mentors Do Stier and Dena Joy Paine were part of the original mentoring team and were instrumental in development of the mentoring program.