Bearing the Burden of Care: Emotional Burnout Among Maternity Support Workers

Experiences of Community Doulas Working with Low-Income, African American Mothers

“…In literature, the relationship between witnessing mistreatment of laboring women and burnout of birth doulas has been observed; however, research has not explored how overextending oneself might influence burnout among community doulas. 38…”

Bearing witness: United States and Canadian maternity support workers’ observations of disrespectful care in childbirth

“…This study found a strong association between observing disrespectful care in childbirth and intention to leave the field, raising important considerations for strategies to improve maternity care quality and outcomes. MSWs who support women during labor and birth can also experience secondary trauma after witnessing disrespectful care, especially if they feel powerless to intervene . Doulas have long struggled with ways to sustain their practice in an occupation characterized by the stresses of being on‐call, and allegiance to a woman‐centered model of care that is often at odds with the care they observe in hospital‐based births .…”

“…Doulas have long struggled with ways to sustain their practice in an occupation characterized by the stresses of being on‐call, and allegiance to a woman‐centered model of care that is often at odds with the care they observe in hospital‐based births . Our study shows that L&D nurses who witness disrespectful care may also be at risk of leaving the work force, possibly because of emotional burnout and moral distress . The concept of moral distress is variously defined in the research, but in general it refers to the stress engendered when health care workers have difficulties navigating practice while upholding professional values, responsibilities, and duties .…”

“…We created a subscale for emotional regulation using the emotional intelligence scale from the measurement tool developed by Schutte and colleagues . The internal consistency reliability of the emotional regulation subscale was strong for the whole sample (α = 0.84) and within roles (nurses α = 0.82, doulas α = 0.85) . Geographic regions included Canada and the Northeastern, Midwestern, Southern, and Western Census regions in the United States (West = reference).…”

“…Beyond its effects on birthing women and their families, disrespectful care witnessed by doulas and nurses may contribute to their experiencing moral distress, itself a contributor to burnout, turnover, and poor quality of care . Doulas and nurses both attend to women during labor, yet differ in their philosophies, relationships to hospitals, and orientation to the emotional experience of birth . A key component of the doula role is providing emotional support and helping women achieve the most satisfying birth experience possible.…”