When Gerlisa Scott-Wiley found out she was pregnant, one of the first people she told was her fitness trainer. She’d been going to group fitness classes her trainer ran three times a week for the past eight years, and she wanted to make sure she could continue working out safely without harming the baby. Her trainer assured her that they’d make modifications when needed and then went further, offering to support her in a way that went beyond the gym: He wanted to be her doula.
Desmond Scott’s wife’s delivery had not been easy. She delivered their baby via C-section and was in the hospital for five days. She did not have a doula, and, looking back, Scott says there’s a lot that he wishes they’d known. “For example, she was given so much Pitocin to get things going, but I now know there are natural ways to speed things up,” Scott says. Shortly after their son was born, Scott told his wife how much he enjoyed supporting her during her pregnancy — and how much he regretted his blind spots in the delivery room — and she jokingly suggested that he become a doula, explaining to him what it was. The idea stuck with him, especially when he considered that most of his fitness clients were women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s.
