Davina McCall will train as a doula to help women through labour

Davina McCall, 54, reveals she will train as a doula to help women through labour after finding support invaluable during the births of her three children at home

  • From host of Big Brother, Davina McCall has revealed her next career move
  • McCall wants to be a doula – earning about £600 for each birth
  • Doulas learn skills needed to support women during labour rather than deliver
  • Meghan Markle reportedly employed a doula for the births of her two children

She has gone from hosting reality show Big Brother to taking up the mantle of Britain’s menopause guru.

Now Davina McCall has revealed her next career move – she is to train to become a doula, helping women through childbirth.

The TV presenter, who has three children, even hopes to use the expertise she gains to help her daughters give birth when the time comes. Recalling her own experiences of being in labour – having had all three at home – Ms McCall, 54, says that she would not have been able to get through them without support.

Davina McCall has revealed her next career move – she is to train to become a doula, helping women through childbirth

And that’s why she has decided to train as a doula, who are not medically trained and have a different role to a midwife’s.

She said: ‘I had all my babies at home and it was the best experience of my life.

‘I laughed, I wept with joy. I said I couldn’t do it and was supported by the people around me, so I am going to learn to be a doula.

‘I’m praying that my daughters or my son’s partner ask me to be at their births.’

In the past two years, Ms McCall has helped raise awareness of the menopause, and been at the forefront of campaigns to help women gain access to HRT amid mass shortages.

The TV presenter, who has three children, even hopes to use the expertise she gains to help her daughters give birth when the time comes

A doula earns about £600 for each birth. They have become popular with middle-class mothers-to-be who want extra support other than from a midwife or doctor. The trend arrived from the US around ten years ago after A-list celebrities including singers Alanis Morissette and Alicia Keys and Australian actress Nicole Kidman said they used them.

And it was reported that Meghan Markle employed London-based Dr Gowri Motha as a doula for the births of her two children, Archie and Lilibet, and phoned Dr Motha – whose clients have included Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna – from America to prepare for her daughter’s birth last year.

A doula earns about £600 for each birth. They have become popular with middle-class mothers-to-be who want extra support other than from a midwife or doctor

Doulas differ from midwives, who are medically qualified to deliver babies on their own. They do not need medical training but instead learn skills needed to support women during labour.

Women who employ doulas have been found to have greater success with breastfeeding and lower rates of postnatal depression.

The word doula originates from the Ancient Greek word meaning ‘woman who serves’.

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