About Ella
Ella Rowland (she/her) is an aspiring birth doula who has recently completed her in-person training with Doula Canada.
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Note: In order to receive her full certification, Ella must attend three births and submit feedback from the new parents. If you or someone you know is in need of doula care at low- to no-cost, and would be willing to provide feedback postpartum, please contact her through the Bookings tab!
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Ella has always been drawn to support friends and family through particularly intense life moments. She has been a resource to friends and family while they navigate the ups and downs - through grief related to the death of a family member, complicated feelings surrounding abortion, struggles with mental health and marriages or relationships ending. In this way, she feels that she stepped into the doula role before she even knew what that word meant. She believes that most people (yes, you!) have acted as someone's doula.
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She became interested in the birth space after hearing her own birth story from her Mom. Where there should have been empowerment, consent, and time to make informed decisions, there was instead coercion, condescension and an overall feeling of being blindsided by pregnancy and childbirth. Hearing this story, Ella became interested helping parents protect the magic and safety of their birth, whether it happens at home or in hospital.
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Ella also strongly believes that no family can survive alone, but knows that asking for help is hard! As a doula, she wants to create a village of friends, family and birth workers around her clients, so that they feel holistically cared for in the early days of parenthood. ​
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In 2023, Ella completed a Bachelor of Arts & Science at McGill University in Biology and Eastern Religions, hoping to satisfy interests in the scientific as well as the spiritual. In birth work, she feels she has finally found the perfect marriage of those two things.
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Who should hire a doula, and why?
A 2017 review by Bohren et al. combined the results from 26 trials and found that people who received continuous care during labour:
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Were more likely to have spontaneous vaginal births
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Required fewer Cesareans
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Were less likely to need or want pain medication
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Experienced fewer negative feelings about childbirth long-term
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Were less likely to have vacuum or forceps-assisted births
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Experienced shorter labors by about 40 minutes on average
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A doula can do more than just improve birth outcomes. The doula's role is to centre your experience as the person giving birth, giving you their full attention, emotional and physical support. Prenatally, they take the time to get to know your concerns, and provide you with tailored information so that you walk into the birth space feeling confident and safe.
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Doulas support partners too! Often, the intensity of birth can be a lot for a partner. Maybe they feel pressure to be a birth "expert," to say all the right things at the right time. Doulas relieve that pressure, because with a knowledgeable, experienced person in the birth space, the partner can do what they do best, be the birthing person's rock!
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If you are a "Googler," and want to feel educated about birth and postpartum...
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If you are a partner who wants to feel present and helpful, without having to be an expert...
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If you want your space and wishes protected during birth, so that you leave feeling grounded...
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Hire a doula! We are here to help.
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Also, here's a link to that study:
Bohren MA, Hofmeyr GJ, Sakala C, Fukuzawa RK, Cuthbert A. Continuous support for women during childbirth. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017 Jul 6;7(7):CD003766. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD003766.pub6. PMID: 28681500; PMCID: PMC6483123.​ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28681500/