S7 E53: The Role of Death Doulas in End-of-Life Care ft. Darnell Walker

So Darnell, thanks for being here.

Thank you so much for having me.

It's such an honor.

Well, we often hear about death and grief in the NICU because most families are grieving something.

They're either grieving the experience that they thought that they were going to have, or

in some

cases, they're grieving the loss of their baby or their babies.

And so grief is something that I think sort of permeates the NICU.

It's just the way in which we approach it.

And I know that while people hear death or they hear grief, they may not have heard of the term death doula.

So maybe let's start there.

What is a death doula? Because I think people might hear that and be like, is that new? What is that? So let's talk about that.

No, absolutely.

In general, I always like to say that a death doula is someone who accompanies an individual or family at the end of life.

It's Usually that plain, that simple.

It's not it's nothing new.

It's what we've been doing for, you know, since the beginning of time, taking care of those we love.

I watched so many people do it before I before we knew what the term was.

My grandmother, her mother, my mother.

And who never heard this term.

I just heard it maybe 11 years ago.

But once I heard it, it just clicked.

It was like, oh, that makes sense.

That's exactly what that is.

But we just did it because it was love.