Doulas: Not Just for Hippie MomsBy: Dina Roth Port

Doulas aren't just for holistic, wheatgrass-drinking, and yoga-loving moms anymore. Find out why there has a been a rise in the popularity of doulas through the years.

You may think the only women who hire doulas are the crunchy-granola types, but that's not the case: It seems more and more women are hiring doulas these days. Although it's difficult to say how many certified (and noncertified) doulas there are, the number has increased within the past decade.

According to DONA International, one of the oldest and largest doula associations in the world, more than 4,000 birth and postpartum doulas are currently certified, though more than 6,500 birth and postpartum doulas have been certified to date -- which is more than triple the number certified in 2002. Why do an increasing number of women want to have doulas?

"Once women learned there was someone out there to help them achieve the most satisfying birth experience that they could, they wanted to seek that kind of support," says Sunday Tortelli, president of DONA and a birth doula in Cleveland. Here are four reasons our society has embraced doulas more through the years.

This isn't the 1960s anymore, and lifestyle choices that were once considered hippie-dippy or alternative (health food, yoga, living "green," doulas, natural birth) are now more common and accepted by our culture.

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