Explainer: What is a death doula – and why is Nicole Kidman training to become one?
While birth doulas support pregnant people, death doulas support the terminally ill – and Hamnet director Chloé Zhao has trained to become one too
Nicole Kidman’s latest role may be her most unexpected yet.
Kidman shared that the death of her mother in 2024 inspired her decision.
A doula – the word is derived from the Greek word doulē, meaning “woman who serves” – is a role typically carried out by a woman, offering emotional and physical support to another woman through the latter’s childbirth journey. This includes pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion and post-partum recovery. Conversely, a death doula provides emotional, spiritual and practical support to individuals during their final days.
The death doula movement began in 1998 when Phyllis Farley, then chairman of the board of the Maternity Center Association in Manhattan, was struck by how many people spent their final days alone in hospitals. In response, she created a training programme that paired volunteers with terminally ill patients.
The programme evolved into the New York-based Doula Program to Accompany and Comfort, an organisation that has provided the services of trained death doulas since 2001. Today, it is one of many. Notably, death doulas are not medical professionals. There has also been ongoing discussion regarding how to consistently regulate and license the profession, as it can currently vary by location.
In recent decades, the birth doula’s role has resurged. There is evidence that shows that birthing parents supported by doulas experience shorter labours, reduced need for pain medication and improved neonatal outcomes. Studies have also linked doulas’ presences to lower rates of post-partum depression.