11/03/2026
Unassisted birth and doulas is not without risk to all involved. Unassisted birth, sometimes referred to as freebirth or unattended birth, refers to a planned birth that takes place without a qualified birth attendant present.
While doulas are birth experts, doulas are non-clinical. A qualified birth attendant refers to a properly trained midwife, obstetrician, or family physician.
At the International Doula Institute, we pride ourselves in always staying within our scope of practice. For this reason, we do not condone IDI certified doulas attending unassisted birth.
Doing so puts doulas in a position to easily slip into medical or clinical tasks which fall outside our scope of practices.
We believe all families deserve autonomy in their birth options. However, as IDI doulas we must be mindful to not step outide our scope nor create a false sense of security for birthing families.
Doulas do, however, attend out of hospital births with midwives present.
Read more: https://internationaldoulainstitute.com/2025/10/unassisted-birth-and-doulas/
