{"id":5074,"date":"2024-04-25T21:44:44","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T21:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=5074"},"modified":"2024-04-25T22:26:41","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T22:26:41","slug":"penny-simkin-mother-of-the-doula-movement-dies-at-85","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=5074","title":{"rendered":"Penny Simkin, \u2018Mother of the Doula Movement,\u2019 Dies at 85"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As a childbirth educator and maternal advocate, she promoted a profession that provides comfort to women giving birth and offers postpartum care as well.<\/p>\n

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Penny Simkin, a childbirth educator and author who was often described as the \u201cmother of the doula movement,\u201d died on April 11 at her home in Seattle. She was 85.<\/p>\n

The cause was pancreatic cancer, said her daughter, Linny Simkin.<\/p>\n

Ms. Simkin, a physical therapist turned birth educator, was a pioneer in helping women have a better experience during and after birth. Doula is the Greek word for \u201cfemale servant,\u201d and it was embraced by alternative birth professionals sometime in the 1970s or \u201980s to refer to someone who supports mothers during labor. In books, workshops and training organizations, Ms. Simkin helped popularize that role and worked as a doula herself.<\/p>\n

Doulas are not medical professionals; their role is to provide comfort to women in the delivery room as well as postpartum care at home. That care might include snacks, massages or warm compresses but also more substantive assistance, like suggesting movements to ease labor pains or help with breastfeeding.<\/p>\n

Ms. Simkin\u2019s innovations included a device called the squatting bar, which is attached to a hospital bed for the mother to hang onto and squat, a position that opens the pelvis and allows gravity to help with the baby\u2019s delivery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Her work came out of the natural childbirth movement of the 1970s, when alternatives to the standard hospital birth were being explored. But she was agnostic about home versus hospital deliveries and about pain-relieving measures. Her focus, always, was on the mother.<\/p>\n

Ms. Simkin surveyed thousands of women about their birth experiences, to better train doulas in preparing women for childbirth. \u201cHow will she remember this?\u201d she exhorted her students.<\/p>\n

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As a childbirth educator and maternal advocate, she promoted a profession that provides comfort to women giving birth and offers postpartum care as well.Penny Simkin, a childbirth educator and author who was often described as the \u201cmother of the doula movement,\u201d died on April 11 at her home in Seattle. She was 85.The cause was pancreatic cancer, said her daughter, Linny Simkin.Ms. Simkin, a physical therapist turned birth educator, was a pioneer in helping women have a better experience during and after birth. Doula is the Greek word for \u201cfemale servant,\u201d and it was embraced by alternative birth professionals sometime in the 1970s or \u201980s to refer to someone who supports mothers during labor. In books, workshops and training organizations, Ms. Simkin helped popularize that role and worked as a doula herself.Doulas are not medical professionals; their role is to provide comfort to women in the delivery room as well as postpartum care at home. That care might include snacks, massages or warm compresses but also more substantive assistance, like suggesting movements to ease labor pains or help with breastfeeding.Ms. Simkin\u2019s innovations included a device called the squatting bar, which is attached to a hospital bed for the mother to hang onto and squat, a position that opens the pelvis and allows gravity to help with the baby\u2019s delivery.Her work came out of the natural childbirth movement of the 1970s, when alternatives to the standard hospital birth were being explored. But she was agnostic about home versus hospital deliveries and about pain-relieving measures. Her focus, always, was on the mother.Ms. Simkin surveyed thousands of women about their birth experiences, to better train doulas in preparing women for childbirth. \u201cHow will she remember this?\u201d she exhorted her students.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5076,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5074"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5077,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074\/revisions\/5077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}