Your birth coach is there for the sole purpose of aiding you through your birth experience. Unlike a midwife or obstetrician, birth coaches are not licensed to deliver babies. Instead, they provide comfort measures, from as simple as offering a cold washcloth for your forehead to teaching you yoga, breathing and meditation techniques to ease labor. A birth coach will give you information about interventions such as labor-inducing medications, epidurals and other pain management techniques, episiotomies and cesarean sections. She’ll hold your hand and cheer you on as your labor progresses, and she’ll snap photos of the newest member of your family when (s)he arrives!

Birth coaches act as an objective, compassionate advocate on your behalf at a time when you most need a calm and reassuring presence. Birth coach may attend hospital births and home births. They are hired directly by the pregnant client, not by a hospital or birth center. They do not attempt to sway your opinion about important choices for labor and delivery; instead they are there to offer you information and support you in your decisions.