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The essential midwife
The most fundamental aspect of active management of labour, largely ignored outside the National Maternity Hospital, is that of continuous midwifery care during labour. Professor O'Driscoll recognised that women in labour do not like to be left alone, so a basic provision of his policy ensures that every woman is given the continuous companionship of a midwife. There are now a number of studies world-wide (referred to as the doula studies) which bear out what every mother and every midwife worth her salt has known since the dawn of time: if a mother is fully supported during labour in a companionable manner, she is less likely to grow fearful, she will labour more effectively and need less intervention like forceps and caesarean section as a result.
A doula (from the Greek) is a woman who is present and interacts with a woman before, during and after labour. She literally mothers the mother....