How to Discuss Comfort Measures with Your Clients
The term “comfort measures” is one you will hear often in birth work. It’s a topic of conversation in nearly all of our trainings and workshops and on our community app. A comfort measure is anything that offers a client even just a tiny bit of soothing, comfort, or safety during a reproductive experience.
Regardless of the experience your client is preparing for (abortion, birth, postpartum, miscarriage, menstruation, etc.), they will have a range of needs and preferences, and their needs and preferences may change throughout your work together. It’s also important to note that while many comfort measures are physical or tactile in nature, many folks experience an overlap between the physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental. For instance, something physical, like smelling lavender essential oil, may offer emotional ease, and a massage tool may offer a mental distraction.
This blog is meant to offer practical support for full-spectrum birth workers as you navigate the dynamic process of supporting birthing folks through a range of reproductive experiences. Each doula-client relationship is unique, so, as always, take what resonates with you and leave the rest.
How to Discuss Comfort Measures with Your Clients:
Have a handful of foundational ideas in mind. Heating pads, stress balls, music, positions/props, and drinks and snacks are some go-to items that you might have in mind to share with clients. With experience and/or research and talking to birthing folks, you will grow your toolbox of ideas to offer clients. Also, keep in mind that you don’t need to do ALL the things, and you may not be comfortable offering all comfort measures. That’s okay! It’s important to offer support you feel confident in.
Ask your client how they have coped with intensity/pain/discomfort in the past. As a doula, we can be a mirror for our clients, so while it’s great to have some ideas in mind, we make space for our clients to explore and express their own unique needs and preferences. We can invite them to consider the ways they have navigated past experiences, as some of these same tools may be ones they’d like to utilize again. As you listen, reflect back what you are hearing.
Invite the client to explore a range of sensory supports. Consider accessibility while inviting your client to explore different sensory inputs– touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Discuss the things they tend to turn to for soothing in each sensory category that is meaningful to them. You can explore and experiment with different sensory supports during preparatory meetings and invite them to continue this process on their own.
Discuss consent and communication around touch. Talk through ways that your client likes and dislikes touch. Acknowledge that consent is an ongoing process. For example, they may agree to a hug after your visit, and they may not want to be touched as they are recovering after their abortion. Naming this upfront makes space for your client to offer feedback or shifts in consent as the relationship grows.
Practice and/or role play some of the comfort measures. Tap into muscle memory! Practicing comfort measures can help make them more accessible when they are truly needed. Additionally, sometimes the client will have some time without your physical presence (or you may be supporting them virtually), so it can help for them to have embodied practice with their own tools, so they can recall and use them when you are not right there with them.
Help your client create a tools + resources list. This can be a “to do” item for your clients between sessions or it may be something you spend time on during a meeting. Listing possible comfort measures is another way for clients to embody the tools and make them more available and ready.
Make space for changes or shifts in needs. While it’s important to discuss comfort measures ahead of time, it’s also key that both you and the client hold space for their needs and preferences to change. For example, the client may think they’ll want to use a bath or shower during labor, but when the time comes they may change their mind. We suggest explicitly naming that you are open to their feedback and changes in needs throughout your work together. While you may address this ahead of time, it can be helpful to name it again when you arrive to offer physical support.
Join the Convo with BADT
We are honored to be a space where students learn, process, and share together. Join is as a BADT participant in our upcoming courses to expand your practical skills, in addition to growing your perspective as a justice-centered birth worker.
Finally, check out our recent blog by BADT team member Ama on trauma-informed care to integrate this into your comfort measures toolbox.