
With her confluence of complenetary skills, Dr. Paige Dougherty serves women through conception, pregnancy, labor, and postpartum as "The Chiropractic Doula". She is a Chiropractor, an Acupuncturist, a Birth doula, and all around awesome human being.
I hope you enjoy our conversation as you learn about her passion for birth work and her unique holistic practice.
Here is Dr. Paige!
Would you like to start by sharing a little about yourself and the services you offer through "The Chiropractic Doula"?
Sure, So I was born and raised in Delaware, but I moved from Delaware to Florida about 10 years ago. There I got my bachelor's degree at University of South Florida, and then got my doctorate of chiropractic at Palmer College of Chiropractic with a dual enrollment with acupuncture certification at National University. I am also a DONA certified doula and a CAPPA certified childbirth educator. Just this past year, actually just a couple weeks ago, I found out that I passed my IBCLC exam for International Board Certified Lactation Consulting, and I'm super excited to be able to help families in Delaware!

Wow. Your education and additional certifications are so holistic!
I love education-- I just couldn't stop! As soon as I graduated from chiropractic college, I attended my first birth as a chiropractor. A doula friend of mine who would later become my business partner in Florida, called me and said, "Hey, one of your chiropractic patients is in labor, but she could really use an adjustment."
And so I went over to the birthing center to adjust the mom in labor, adjusted her, did a little bit of acupuncture too, and got things to progress. These therapies were able to help open the mom's pelvis enough for her baby to move down a little bit easier. She had really tight round ligaments, as is common in pregnancy, and releasing the round ligaments allowed baby to move down pretty easily. I was invited to stay for the whole birth, and I felt so honored.
People don't realize how real the birth high is. And so after that experience, I felt a need to move into birth work. I was exhausted. I had been working all day before I got called to that birth, and I didn't get home until 4am, but I did not care. I got home, my husband was a little bit worried about me, because that had never happened before, I'd never been gone all night. He woke up when I was came home, and I just wanted to tell him everything that happened at 4am and he was like, "Can we just go to sleep?"
So after that, I decided that I wanted to be a doula. I love being a chiropractor, but I wanted to be able to help moms in other ways as well, and support women through birth. I wanted to be trained and to have the knowledge to know how to properly support them. So that way, if I was called to a birth again, I would have those tools. And so that's why I went through Dona for my doula training.
The reason I chose Dona was because they are very well known and all the hospitals have them on the list of doula accredited organizations. And a lot of hospitals, especially through COVID, started being very strict about who they allow in the hospital. And so the doula certification really mattered.

Dona gives you a very official name tag!
Yes, they do. So I got my certification, got my name tag. I also chose Dona because they allow you to accept insurance, even TRICARE is covering doula services, there's Medicaid that's covering doula services, there's Blue Cross. So I just wanted to make sure that I would be able to help families in any way I could and make it accessible.
That's wonderful. I'm in the beginning stages of looking into doula certification for myself. I don't know if I will be marketing myself as a doula, but I would love to have those tools to be able to help support from an informed and knowledgable place.
That is how I feel abouyt being an IBCLC. I don't plan to market that I am a lactation consultant, but as a doula, I wanted to be able to help moms. Because I do, I stay in touch with most of the moms that I am a doula for, and my work as thier doula doesn't just end after the birth. Postpartum is so, so important and although I'm not a postpartum doula, I do do one or two visits postpartum, and I just felt like I needed more knowledge about helping them with breastfeeding.
I have often thought about this too. As a photographer, if I'm coming in--even just for a newborn session for a family that didn't hire me to document their birth. I am aware that I am being invited into a very vulnerable space-- a transitional space. In those early weeks and months, everybody in the family is figuring out their new roles-- even if it's their second or third baby, there are changes that are happening within the family dynamic that they are adjusting to. And every baby has a different feeding journey. It would be so nice to have the knowledge of how to help them beyond my personal experience breastfeeding my four children. Any advice I give is right now is just mom-to-mom. I wish I could have the knoweldge base to feel comfortable helping to latch a baby for somebody or to help mom get baby into a better position.
I love that you have all the IBCLC background in your extensive tool box in addition to all the other ways you are able to support your clients.
Yes, a lot of people with ask me, "Why did you continue with all these certifications and education? Each is a career in itself." And I answer that I just couldn't stop. I love knowledge, and I love helping moms.
One thing I hate about our our health care system is that we bounce people around. You start out at an OB office or a midwife's practice, and then they're like, "Oh, if you need help with, pregnancy nutrition and gestational diabetes, go see a nutritionist. If you need, help with childbirth education, go see this person", Which I think is fantastic, because we do have so many of those workers in the area, and I refer to them all the time myself, but I also feel like some moms get really overwhelmed.
Sometimes t's hard for you to make your own appointments on your own, but if you have one person that's able to kind of assist-- at least minimally-- in all those areas, that is a great benefit. Then, if you need further care, right? You know exactly what you need. With my IBCLC, I know that I will probably be refering out to people that have been doing work longer than I have and have more expertise in certain areas than I do.

Yeah, I find that IBCLC's tend to be very specialized. A lot of them have their own, like, niches and passions, and which is beautiful because you have people who are able to help the mom who has plans to be returning to work with flange fitting and pumping, and there are those that are passionate about helping moms with tandem nursing or toddler weaning.
Yeah. I feel like, for me, the way I will use my IBCLC, the most, is in helping my doula clients in the first few weeks after birth. To make sure thier babies are latching well.
So you mentioned doing chiropractic adjustments in labor. I am curious about leanring about this and maybe other types of body work you are able to do during labor. How do you time it? Do you wait for a pause in between contractions? And then also, how do you read the laboring person? Sometimes people might be receptive to that idea, but in the moment, they're like, "hands off of me-- I don't want anybody to touch me!"
We have a word that they can say and I will stop or pause, or they can raise thier hand if thier contractions are making it hard to get the word out. I tell them: "Hey, you just let me know if it's too much".
Is this something that you practice beforehand?
Not always. Sometimes, if I'm being called birth, it's fairly early. Normally, when it's "failure to progress", there are not in transition yet, you know? They're not at the point where contractions are debilitating. They are able to talk in between.
Whenever they feel like they have a moment where they can just, like, breathe and like, look around and talk to their midwife or partner, that's when I'll have the conversation. If they're my patient beforehand and they are interested in chirprtatince during labor, we talk about this way beforehand.
I am sure that your doula clients see this as a huge benefit to working with you!
It's one of my favorite things. I love providing both acupuncture and chiropractic care during labor.
Can you share a story about the benefits of acupuncture during labor?
So, I had a great pregnancy-- no issues, no complications-- wasn't risked out of the birthing center at all. But my own birth story started when I woke up one morning at 37 weeks with a really bad, pinpoint headache. I felt very out of it. And I knew that it was not right. Birth workers know too much. With my knowledge, I was like, "I'm gonna have to transfer". And I took my blood pressure, and it was 180 over after 100. And so I called my midwife, and she was like, "I'm so sorry, but you have to go into the hopsital".
So had my own little mini cry session, you know, it was a lot to process. Luckily, I knew that the hospital that I was transferring to, was midwife run, and they have birthing tubs. So I was at least fortunate to know the hospital and know that itwas fairly holistic. And so we got there, and they're like, "Yes, I'm so sorry, but you have preeclampsia and because you're 37 weeks you should be induced today."

And I was like, "Okay, but my blood pressure is pretty good right now. Can you just keep me on the moniter and we will make sure baby is moving and wait until tomorrow morning" Now, I'm not advising people to say no to providers about induction, it was just that we were both stable and doing okay. So I asked it do you think maybe we could wait just until tomorrow morning. It was like, midday at this point and I was like, "Can we just wait until, tomorrow morning at 8am and we can start the induction then. Do you think that's possible?" And they were super understanding. They were like, "Okay. No problem." I had brought my needles to the hospital with me and I started doing acupuncture on myself.

Where they aware?
I didn't ask for permission.
I love it.
So I was like: I'm just gonna do it and see what happens. Once a nurse came in, and she was like, "Oh. I don't see anything. But good job". And the midwife did the same thing. I think the nurse, like, warned her, and the midwife just pretended like she didn't see anything, even though she was checking things, and she could clearly see the needles.
I did two sessions of acupuncture on myself, and that night they really wanted me to get one of the Misoprostol pills. So I took the Miso pill. It's rare for that to truly do initiate an induction-- it'll help to kind of soften the cervix and whatnot, but it's rare for it to actually start things on it's own. So for me, I was like okay. My water broke at midnight, after I fell asleep, and then I didn't have to do anything else. Now, it was first baby, I was 37 weeks, and had had no signs of labor beforehand.
So I just after that, I have felt so strongly that people should consider acupunture during labor, especially for inductions, because inductions are so common. I want to help more Moms be able to get things moving. It works.
Labor encouragement acupuncture is one of my favorites. I even do home visits for it.
That is amazing. That's really cool. I I really didn't know anything about acupuncture, and now, hearing your story, I feel like I could be a believer.
Could you tell me more about labor encouragement acupunture? What are you trying to stimulate? What points are you activating?
So I would like to preferece by saying that labor encouragement acupuncture will not work if baby is not ready. But if baby is ready, labor could start because I am stimulating points on the body that help to get oxytocin to flow. Oxytocin is what helps the uterus to contract. Some of the points are also helping to soften the cervix, or are helping to tone the uterus, just like red raspberry tea is known to do. There's one point that people think is more labor induction; however, it's actually used to shorten the second phase of labor. So it's not just about labor encouragement, this type of acupuncture is also helping to prep your body for a great labor in general.
There are other positional based points. Everybody talks about breach positioning being the position that most people would know that could warrant more medical intervention. But there are other baby positions that make it much more difficult to go into natural labor and could make it a longer labor-- like posterior positioning, or sunny side up babies. So I also do acupuncture points to ensure that baby is fully in a anterior position, which is what the guidelines is the optimal position.

Besides the labor encouragement acupuncture, what other types of acupuncture are you doing in your practice?
Just to preface, none of the acupuncture I do treats or addresses medical issues, but what it can do is get your body to be in the optimal state to improve these conditions or issues. Besides labor encouragement acupuncture, I have done acupuncture for patients with placenta previa, fertility struggles, with breach presentation, and morning sickness-- just all the things that may come with pregnancy.
Could you please describe the process, from start to finish, of what an acupunture sessions might be like for people who may be considering it but are hesitant or unfamiliar. I would love for them to know what to expect so they can be comfortable and confident going into a session with you!
So when a patient comes in to see me for acupuncture, I always start with a consultation. We sit down and talk for at least 20-30, minutes before the session starts. Every new acupuncture patient I block out a full hour for so we have time to talk about their concerns. It helps assist me with the deciding which points that I want to be stimulating. Some moms, they'll come in and they'll be wanting labor encouragement acupuncture, and I will feel through our conversation how anxious about their birth mental blockages are pretty significant.

That point is at the top of the head, right?
Yes, and there's obviously other scenarios where I'll change up the points or the protocol. There's also trauma that I take into consideration as well. I am trauma informed. So we'll, talk about it if neccesary-- it doesn't have to be anything detailed-- but if there could be a blockage from previous trauma regarding birth, and if that is the case, I'll add points like that into the protocol too. So we have a long conversation, and then I will sometimes do a test or needle if needed. If they're a little bit nervous of needles, I want them to know exactly what it feels like before we get started. I also have mom go to the bathroom before we get started because laying for 30 minutes for a pregnant mom is really tough with a full bladder.
I have them relax a little bit beforehand as I wipe off all the points with alcohol, and I find that this helps too, because they'll know exactly where the points are going to be. So when I'm wiping off all the points, they'll be able to recognize that where I am wiping is where the points are going to be. This helps get them into more of a relaxed state.
After I put in the points, I always check and make sure it feels okay for the for the mom and then I will put on their favorite music to help them relax even more during the session, and make sure that they're fully comfortable and don't need any extra pillows. I set up lights for them and then I close the curtain and let them know that I'll be back in 25-30 minutes.

Awesome. And then, like, what do you do after the needles are removed?
So after the needles are removed, for labor encouragement acupuncture for example, is put some clary sage on a tissue and wipe all the points with some clary sage. I'll address any points that have bled a little bit, sometimes a couple drops, is very normal, and in the world of acupuncture, it's a good thing. And then after that, I make sure that they're feeling okay, see if they want a glass of water, help them sit up, slowly, or turn on the lights very lightly, so it's not a not a shock. Sometimes moms will feel a little bit out of it after just because it's a lot of stimulation, and most people are not used to in the middle of the day laying just with their own thoughts. It kind of forces a little bit of meditation, which is pretty cool, and so they can kind of come out of it a little bit foggy at first. So we just want to sit there for a minute, talk about the session, make sure they're feeling okay, and then we just wrap up and maybe schedule the next appointment. If I am doing a labor encouragement session I don't always schedule another session just because I'm hopeful that they will go into labor and won't need me.
I know that if you were to go for a massage, for example, the massage therapist might recommend that you drink lots of water before your massage, and then after. Do you have any recommendations for how you can best support your body's resonse to the acupuncture?
Yes, normally with labor and birth and acupuncture, specifically, I will tell them to do the mile circuit, because, again, it does not get baby ready, but it does help you to get ready for labor. And doing mile circuit helps to get baby to put more pressure on cervix. Increasing water intake isn't necessary for acupuncture, but just staying in a good mental state, you know, decreasing stressors, just staying in relaxed as possible, is what I normally recommend, whatever that means for the person receiving it.
And that's probably very good avice for labor encouragement in general-- staying as relaxed as possible. Good advice for anyone, but especially for moms to start trying to go into labor!
Yes, I find that a lot of times, though, they take it too seriously-- where they're like, "oh, I'm supposed to stay active and do all of this walking" And they don't allow themselves time to rest. Rest is the best thing that will help put you into labor. Exercises can be really helpful, but you shouldn't be overdoing it.
How did you get into acucupunture?
I used to have migraines, they started when I was about 12 and I had been to tons of neurologists, but they couldn't figure out what was causing it. I used to throw up, have auras in my vision-- the whole nine yards! And they would just give me medication.
And finally, when I went to college in Florida, somebody told me about it acupuntcture and I was like, Okay, well, might as well it's been, you know, 10 years since I've been dealing with these migraines and nothing has worked, but I'm gonna try it. And they completely went away. I've never had a migraine ever again.
That's amazing.
So that's why I got into it. I just, I wanted to be an acupuncturist so I could help people in this powerful way. My acupuncturist figured out what type of migraine I had when no neurologist had really done that.
All he had to do was ask me, "When did you get your menstrual cycle?"
"I was 12."
And then he asked, "When are your migraines the worst?"
"The week before for my menstrual cycle."
Everybody was telling me to do a food diary, thinking that it was nutrition based or whatnot, they wanted me to take this shake or these vitamins, but really it was just a pretty significant hormonal imbalance I was dealing with.
So it was just, the acupuncturist asking the right questions. I feel like is so important, especially as an acupuncturist.
This is a little off topics, but I read on your website bio that you were an egg donor. I love that you have helped couples concieve in such a generous way! Did you ever use acupunture through the egg donation process-- I've heard it can be intense.
Yes, when I was in school, I donated my eggs three times. And so I basically went through IVF three times. I went to the top fertility clinics in the United States for this. For my first one, I flew to LA, and didn't get any acupuncture, and felt extremely bloated, had significant hormonal changes, and I just felt awful. They had an acupuncturist on staff, but this was before I had even gotten my migraine acupuncture, so I hadn't tried it yet or anything, and was cheap and didn't take advantage of it. I was like, "No, I'll be fine. I don't need that."
I went to New York and then to Boston for the following two, and and they also had acupuncturists on staff. I had done it for my migrains by then and had learned more about it and was more open to it. A nurse recommended it and she was like, "you have to just do it". It was like $70 and that was so much money as a college student, but it was so worth it. There's a reason that, acupuncturists are on staff at fertility clinics.
Would you like to address the chiropractic aspect of your work and your practice, how you work with moms, and what you might be looking for before you make adjustments and what are some common things that can go out of alignment during pregnancy?
So I am Webster certified, and so what that means is I basically took an extra certification course to focus in pregnant women and understand the changes that happen in pregnant women's bodies. For example, the hormone relaxin, is increased during pregnancy, and so the ligaments are more relaxed than normal, which causes things to go out of alignment a lot easier. People don't realize that when they get pregnant, they may need to see the chiropractor a little bit more often than they had in the past, just because their bodies are shifting and moving a lot more, and their center of gravity is shifting-- this means you are leaning forward a little bit more, causing the pelvic tilt.
During my second pregnancy, my daughter was breech for a few months, and that was the worst back pain that I've had. Does baby's position impact a mother's alignment?
Yes, even the placenta's positioning can have an effect on your spine and your joints and how things are moving. Some babies just love to snuggle up in one side, and that causes an imbalance in your pelvis.
And can you explain the relationship between the spine and the pelvis? Because it seems like you're talking about them as if they're like a unit.
Yes, they are connected. Basically, the spine goes down to the very bottom bone called the sacrum that people often refer to as thier tailbone. So basically the lumbar spine-- their lower back-- connects to the sacrum. The reason the relaxin is increased during pregnancy is so that during childbirth, the sacrum can freely move front and back to create room in the pelvis for baby to descend. And so that's another reason why laying and pushing on your back is not necessarily optimal, because when you're seeing your tailbone, it doesn't allow that sacral mobility.
Yeah, I have seen videos that illustrate this-- when you are pushing on your back, baby has to be pushed uphill against gravity!
And so basically what we'll do in the Webster protocol is we will pressure release both both piriformis muscles on the sides of the sacrum to make sure it's freely able to move around and not stop, or prevent baby from descending and coming out. And then, from that, the pelvis on the sides, you know, if you think about hips, you think about the side bones, the iliac crests. And so we'll make sure that they're both equal. Ones are higher than the other, because that could also cause, you know, babies hugging one side maybe get stuck on that pubic bone, which is up front.
You have such a beautiful confluence of complemetary skills-- How does being a chiropractor, an acupunctuist, and a doula well (as a mother yourself) influence the way you work with your clients?
I know alot about the pelvis from being a chiropractor and that has really helped me get better doula. I don't know if I would have been as good of a doula prior to chiropractic college, just because I feel like, as a doula, one of our main roles is getting moms into a really good position to help baby descend as big as possible, right?
Everybody wants a relatively short labor-- maybe not precipitous-- but a short labor. I find that my knowledge of how to open the pelvis properly is really helpful with my Doula clients, and a lot of moms they want a natural delivery, or when I say natural, I mean unmedicated. And sometimes those unmedicated deliveries are made possible by getting them as comfortable as possible, so my chiropratic skills help to make sure that their joints are aligned and that their round ligaments are released. This can be a vital part of allowing them comfortable throughout labor.
And then something as simple as knowing where to put your legs to help open the pelvis, depending on what station you're at, is really important. That's something that I love to focus on. So whenever the baby is higher in the pelvis, want your feet together, knees apart, and then whenever the baby enters the pelvis, you actually want to do the opposite, to open the outlet of the pelvis. So feet out opens the outlet, and then feet in opens the inlet to help the baby get into the pelvis.
I am constantly getting mom just to move. I have had one mom even make the joke that she "felt like a rotisserie chicken"! Even with an epidural, I am like, "let's grab the peanut ball... Oh, let's try hands and knees". I will help you get into that position myself or I'll have nursing staff help me. Every 30 minutes or so, I have the mom change positions as long as when they're doing we can see that movement during labor helps them progress.
And then after being a mom, Oh my gosh, I feel like my practice changed completely. I understood what it was like to be a mom. After going through the birth process myself, I was able to empathize a lot more with the grieving of the birth that they wish that they could have had, and then also the importance of setting expectations appropriately.
To make sure that they know that even though they may have a birth plan and clear preferences, that it will be okay if things go a little bit differently than they had hoped.
Honestly, before my birth, somehow all of the births I had attended were just great. And I know that that sounds crazy, but I had been to about 50 by that time, and they were all just beautiful, perfect births. And since then, when mine was not, I was like, "what happened?" And so it was eye opening.

Would you like to learn more about Dr. Paige's offerings?
You can follow here on Instagram: @thechiropracticdoula
or Check our her website: www.thechiropracticdoula.com
She practices out of Prospect Wellness in Trolley Square, Wilmington DE
1725 Delaware Ave,
Wilmington, DE
19806
Interested in reading other interviews with providers that work with new and expectant parents?
Check out the following interviews below:
Comments