Health Ministry to regulate doula services

The Health Ministry will formulate a method in which to regulate doula or birthing companion services.

Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said regulations were necessary so as to prevent any untoward incidents from taking place.

"We have been monitoring this matter and I have raised this (the need for regulating doula services) in the previous cabinet meeting.

"We are observing the involvement of doula and our own practices so that we can come up with some form of regulations.

"We are not out to restrict village midwives that, once upon a time, was part of our tradition, but we want to prevent any untoward incidents," he said to reporters at the Parliament lobby today.

A doula is usually a non-medical person who supports women, serving as a birthing companion or coach, before, during and/or after labour.

The issue involving doulas first came to light in February this year after a group of medical experts wrote an open letter appealing for the Johor sultan's intervention in the matter of non-medical supervision to homebirths following the death of a newborn, whose birth had been purportedly supervised by a doula.

However, police said the services of a doula was not involved in the infant's death. 

The same group of medical experts, calling themselves, Medical Mythbusters Malaysia, had last week posted another letter on Facebook calling on Dzuklefly to take steps to monitor the use of doula services.

To this, the minister said he hoped the practice of homebirths would be controlled so that the welfare of mother and child can be ensured. 

"The Health Ministry wants to ensure their (mother and child's) welfare, safety and health are not jeopardised because we do not know the risks of such actions," he said. - Mkini