I have spent the last 8+ years of my life supporting women

I have spent the last 8+ years of my life supporting women and families throughout their pregnancies, labor and births, and their postpartum transitions as a birth doula, birth assistant, and certified lactation counselor. I have chosen to expand my field of study by becoming a nurse. Ideally, I would like to continue to work with women, families, and babies as either a labor and delivery nurse or a postpartum nurse. While this isn't set in stone, and I am keeping my options in the nursing field open, I do have a strong desire to stay connected to "my roots", by continuing to support pregnant women on their journey to motherhood.

Depending on how my BSN program goes, I may even end up pursuing my master's to become a Certified Nurse Midwife.

During my time as a professional birth doula, my job was to support my clients emotionally, physically, and informationally throughout pregnancy, labor, and postpartum so they could feel supported and have the best experience possible.

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Research shows that women who are supported by doulas have fewer interventions, fewer cesarean surgeries, higher breastfeeding rates, and higher satisfaction with their birth experiences overall.

One of the biggest challenges I faced as a doula, was helping women get respectful, compassionate, evidence-based care in hospital settings. In 2017 (most recent data available from (www.cesareanrates.org), my state of Florida had the highest rate of cesareans in low-risk mothers. 31% of low-risk mothers underwent major abdominal surgery despite having a normal, healthy, low-risk pregnancy. While cesareans and other interventions can absolutely be life-saving for both mothers and babies, we have to make sure that hospital policies and provider practices are not contributing to unnecessary interventions that may lead to unnecessary surgical births.

Practices like induction of labor, augmentation of labor, starving women in labor, limiting their movement, etc. are all things that can increase the chance/risk of a cesarean section. In many cases, these interventions go against the mother's wishes.

For my study, I would like to survey women in Florida to see how many felt that they were forced/bullied/coerced/pressured into an obstetrical intervention that they did not want. I will poll several online forums that consist of mothers in Florida to obtain my data. The poll will ask if at any point in their pregnancy or labor/birth if they felt pressured/forced/bullied/coerced into an intervention that they did not want. The poll will have a simple yes or no option. I expect to find that 1 in 3 women (33%) will answer yes.