I can understand where the midwives are coming from - it IS their job to give you the best birth possible so I can understand that they would feel threatened by a doula.

Having said that, this is about you and your birth and it's not up to you to try and avoid putting their noses out of joint.

I would have thought a good doula will make sure that, if at all possible, she gets the midwives on-side, not up their noses (unless she really needs to go into bat for you and then a bit of no-nonsense straight talking will be required of course).

And it's not always about conflict and negotiation. As the others have said, the midwife may have other people she needs to attend to and it may be at a crucial moment when you have a bit of a panic about whether you can carry on. It's not necessarily always about the pain level either - it can be about the length of the labour.

I know after nearly three days of being in labour, I had that panic and asked for an epidural because I just wanted to press the pause button! I don't regret it but if I'd had a doula she may have been able to encourage me to keep going without or have said "look, why don't you try the gas first." At that stage, I'd completely forgotten that gas existed, so had my DH and so, apparently, had the midwives because they never even offered it to me.

So I think definitely go ahead with your plans to have a doula and perhaps ask the ones you interview how they go about dealing with midwives and building a positive relationship with them in the delivery room.

Best of luck.