What is a birth assistant?

A Birth Assistant is trained to help the midwife at a birth.

At Cincinnati Birth Center, we bring two midwives or one midwife and a trained birth assistant to each birth. Each assistant is fully trained in neonatal resuscitation and can help if the baby needs help to breathe. Our birth assistants are trained doulas and know how to support you emotionally and physically. Most birth assistants are also training to become midwives.

During births, a birth assistant may assist the midwife in taking the mother’s blood pressure, temperature, pulse, listening to baby’s heart tones, and setting up supplies. The birth assistant helps to bring you things, such as a cold washcloth for your head, or an electrolyte beverage to sip on between contractions.

The birth assistant may also help the midwife with your electronic record, recording things such as when you have something to eat or drink, or when the baby’s head is born.

If there are any complications or emergencies that develop, birth assistants also know how to best assist the midwife. For example, if the mother is having too much bleeding, the birth assistant knows the midwife’s protocol for how to control the bleeding and can help the midwife. Usually births happen without any complications, but it’s good to know that the midwife brings a team!