Ask a Doula: How Do You Help People With Abortion Care?

The restrictive law is one of the 90 state-levellegislative effortsto curb abortion rights in 2021 alone.

Doulasdifferent than midwivesare not medical professionals.

Abortion and full-spectrum doulas can work individually, as part of an organization, or within clinics.

Some receive donations, which allow them to provide services at little to no cost for low-income patients.

Vicki Bloom is a full-spectrum doula atWhole Self Doula.

Verywell spoke with Bloom about her role as an abortion doula and her perspective on reproductive justice.

*Interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Now it’s a piece of the work that I really love.

Verywell Health: What exactly does an abortion doula do?

When youre interacting with a patient who is having an abortion, what are your steps in that process?

And that person gets to have somebody taking care of them, giving them support actively during their procedure.

That’s what the full spectrum concept is about.

Verywell Health: What are the major misconceptions about your work?

Usually when someone connects with us via clinic, they’ve already made a decision.

We are not medical professionals, so Im not performing an abortion.

Im also not a professional psychotherapist.

There are people doing this work all over the country.

Its important work because the emotional care of people is important.

Verywell Health: How do you connect with your patients?

Bloom:With a birth client, you might work with them for months before they give birth.

A lot of it is just reading people’s body language and treating them like a human being.

A surgical abortion can be physically uncomfortable.

Verywell Health: What do training programs for doulas typically involve?

We ask people to think about where their biases are and where their experience is.

And we do a lot of reframing language.

Sometimes medical professionals and certainly other people in life might use language that’s triggering, negative, scary.

We model how to use client-led and neutral language that’s non-judgmental.

Nobody who’s feeling stressed wants to hear someone yell “Just relax.”

And a lot of what we do is just reframe language to be connecting and personalizing to the person.

Verywell Health: What are the greatest challenges of this work?

Bloom:Sometimes it’s heavy in the room.

People have strong emotions.

We teach our doulas about self-care.

I’m not going to go home and fix somebody’s relationship for them.

I’m not going to fix their money problems.

I’m not going to fix the reasons why they’re here in this moment.

And I can’t go home and help them afford it.

So it’s hard to sometimes let it go.

And that persists today.

Verywell Health: How accessible are abortion doulas across the country?

Most of the abortion doulas in the country are working in partnership with clinics or facilities.

But if you put it as an opt-out, very few people say no.

In general, people appreciate having had that doula there, but dont want to ask for something extra.

A lot of doula work is about being in the room with somebody.

Bloom:Be there for your people, plain and simple.

Just be there as a support person for somebody who needs support as a friend.

The Doula Project also has a zine calledDIY Doula.

It has a lot of resources for people to take care of themselves in that kind of situation.

Verywell Health: What else would you like people to know?

It really is all connected.

It really is about people’s right to be seen as human beings and run their own lives.