Gwenan Wilbur was working at the literary journal TriQuarterly when she began volunteering at Chicago Women’s Health Center. The 20-year-old nonprofit collective in Lakeview had been founded in 1975 by members of the pre-Roe v. Wade underground abortion service known as Jane; it offered gynecological and obstetric care as well as counseling, education, and outreach programs regardless of a woman’s ability to pay. When a full-time position in the center’s prenatal program opened in 1998, Wilbur left her job as managing editor to join the staff as a health worker and doula.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Doulas are women trained to provide prenatal, labor, and postpartum support to mothers; CWHC was the first organization in the city to incorporate doulas into standard prenatal care. They don’t perform clinical tasks but can help a woman communicate with her medical staff, provide massage and other pain relief services, give breast-feeding advice, and even clean up around the house while the new mother gets her bearings.
Studies have shown that when a doula is involved, cesarean rates are reduced, there are fewer complications, and a woman’s satisfaction with her birth experience tends to be higher. “Pools and showers can really help women with pain relief during labor,” says Wilbur, “but they aren’t offered by nurses; epidurals are offered. Doulas can help women have the labor that they want. We’re there to be an advocate for a woman when she has to use all her concentration and energy just to deal with the labor and she doesn’t have energy left over to negotiate.”
