BATON ROUGE - Baton Rouge General and Mary's Hands Network grew their volunteer doula program with the addition of 25 new volunteers on Saturday.

The new volunteers began their training Saturday morning, going through various exercises and practices. 

Doulas provide emotional and physical support to expecting families by offering services like comfort measures during labor, breastfeeding assistance and help with postpartum recovery. 

BRG is the first hospital to work with Mary's Hands by providing a place to train new doulas. 

According to BRG, doula support improves birth outcomes, increases breastfeeding rates and decreases C-sections.