The Role of Doulas in Home Births: What’s the Difference Between a Doula and a Midwife?
When planning a home birth, you may hear about both Midwives and Doulas—but what’s the difference? While both provide essential support, their roles are distinct yet complementary. Understanding how each professional contributes to the birthing experience can help you decide what kind of care you want.
I want to start by saying I LOVE working with Doulas in general. I think believe they are a vital part of the team and a great way to set yourself up for success in birth and especially in an unmediated home birth setting.
1. What Is a Midwife?
A Midwife is a medical professional trained to provide clinical care during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. Midwives specialize in low-risk pregnancies and focus on natural, holistic birth experiences while ensuring safety.
Role of a Midwife:
Provides prenatal care (checkups, fetal monitoring, risk assessment)
Manages labor and delivery (monitoring, hands-on assistance, interventions if needed)
Handles minor complications (bleeding, stalled labor, newborn resuscitation)
Carries emergency medical supplies (oxygen, medications, IV fluids)
Offers postpartum care, newborn exams, and recovery support
A Midwife as your primary medical provider during prenatal care, your home birth + postpartum care.
2. What Is a Doula?
A Doula is a trained birth companion who provides emotional, physical, and informational support before, during, and after birth. Unlike Midwives, Doulas do NOT perform medical tasks but instead focus on comfort, advocacy, and reassurance.
Role of a Doula:
Provides emotional and physical support during labor (breathing techniques, massage)
Helps create a calming birth environment (music, aromatherapy, lighting)
Offers labor position guidance to ease discomfort and progress birth
Encourages and reassures the birthing person and their partner
Advocates for the birthing family’s wishes during labor
Provides postpartum emotional support and breastfeeding guidance
Think of a Doula as your personal coach, advocate, and support system during birth.
3. How Midwives & Doulas Work Together?
In a home birth setting, Midwives and Doulas often work as a team to create a safe, supportive experience. The Midwife ensures the medical well-being of both parent and baby, while the Doula focuses on comfort and emotional well-being. As Midwives, we focus on the emotions and physical support as well, but our primary responsibility is safety for birthing parent and baby first and where a Doula is immensely helpful is in those longer labors where they can provide support to the parents (yes, a Doula is there for the partner as well), while ensuring the Midwife is not worn out before the actual birth event.
Example of Their Roles During Labor:
Midwife: Monitors the baby’s heart rate, checks cervical dilation when indicated/discussed/when beneficial, and ensures labor is progressing safely.
Doula: Offers calming touch, guides breathing, and reassures the birthing parent through contractions, and can also be a support person that is not your medical provider that can help guide you through decisions without feeling like there could b pressure from your Midwife.
Together, they create a balanced, empowering birth experience that prioritizes safety, comfort, and informed decision-making.
4 . Do You Need Both a Doula and a Midwife?
It depends on your personal preferences!
Not everyone needs or wants a Doula as well as a Midwife, sometimes families feel that this is too many people
Some families feel like they’ve done it before and feel okay without a Doula and some families report that they will never birth without their Doula.
Some families love the idea of having someone they can call earlier in labor to support them until it’s time for the Midwife to come so they can feel supported longer and some families do not want anyone there until active labor.
Many families choose to hire both because their roles complement each other beautifully and neither is a substitute for one another.
5. Where should I start to look for the perfect Doula for me?
There are A LOT of amazing Doulas in the Metro are and sometimes it can feel overwhelming! A few places you can look:
I have put together a resource page with Doulas I work with frequently and have loved working with
Asking friends/family/social media groups
Googling and reading website bios to see if you find some that fit what you’re looking for
The MN Database
If you’re having a hard time with the cost of a Doula and/or you’re covered through Medical Assistance, you could qualify to have your Doula covered through Every Day Miracles! Below are pregnancy and birth related things that your insurance could cover: