What a fantastic result - the internet is such a wonderful tool and resource - what would we do without it! There are doulas all over the world, some places have less than others but you would be surprised where you do find them.

Also a note on tearing - directed pushing shortens the pushing stage but increases the likelihood of tearing. So go with your body and not direction if you want to reduce the chance of tearing. Directed pushing seems the norm in the US from those Foxtel shows too And yes, a huge percent of US women have epidurals at birth, they showed the stats on one of the birth shows, I think it was somewhere around 75-80% of women have them in the USA. That stat is around the same for first time mothers in Australia having them. But the only clients I have had in the last couple of years who had one was the 3-4 c/s clients (obviously) and one who had a difficult twin birth... so not 80% by far.