Why Nicole Kidman Is Training to Become a Death Doula

• Nicole Kidman says she’s coaching to develop into a loss of life doula following her mom’s loss of life in 2024.
• Loss of life doulas present non-medical assist to individuals nearing the tip of life, specializing in emotional, sensible, and religious care.
• Consultants say rising consciousness helps spark conversations about end-of-life care.

Nicole Kidman is drawing new consideration to end-of-life care after revealing she’s begun coaching to develop into a loss of life doula.

The Oscar-winning actor first shared the information throughout an look on the College of San Francisco, the place she sat down for a dialog with journalist Vicky Nguyen as a part of the college’s Silk Speaker Sequence, in response to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Kidman stated she was impressed to discover changing into a loss of life doula following the passing of her mom in 2024, an expertise that shifted how she thinks about assist in an individual’s closing days.

“As my mom was passing, she was lonely and there was solely a lot the household may present,” Kidman informed attendees, per the Chronicle. “And that’s once I went, ‘I want there was these individuals on the planet that had been there to take a seat impartially and simply present solace and care.’”

“In order that’s a part of my growth and one of many issues I shall be studying,” she added.

Kidman later expanded on her choice and the general public’s response to it throughout a HISTORYTalks occasion in Philadelphia.

“I did this speak not too long ago the place I stated I’m increasing into studying to be a loss of life doula, which appeared to have individuals confused or intrigued,” she stated, in response to The Hollywood Reporter.

Kidman defined that she finds the work of loss of life doulas “fascinating” and “stunning,” noting that “it’s important to be a sure character to have the ability to do it. However I came upon that I’m really that character.”

“It’s essential to me,” she continued. “There’s at all times struggling, but when there are individuals there who may help with that, assist these closing phases be much less painful — should you really feel the connection in your coronary heart, then that’s beautiful. In order that’s what I’m exploring.”

Kidman’s announcement is bringing elevated visibility to the necessity for loss of life doulas and the way they will enhance end-of-life care.

In accordance with The International End of Life Doula Association, a loss of life doula­ — typically known as an end-of-life doula — is “a nonmedical companion who gives personalised and compassionate assist to people, households, and their circles of care as they encounter and navigate loss of life, loss, and mortality.”

In addition they advocate self-determination and impart “psychosocial, emotional, religious, and sensible care to empower dignity all through the dying course of.”

In contrast to docs, nurses, or different healthcare professionals, loss of life doulas don’t present medical remedy. As an alternative, they typically work alongside current healthcare groups to supply a variety of further assist.

This assist can embrace sitting with somebody of their closing days, serving to facilitate troublesome conversations, or helping with end-of-life planning, resembling advance directives.

Along with Kidman’s announcement, portrayals of loss of life doulas in common media are additionally bringing new consideration to their position in healthcare.

A current episode of the favored medical drama “The Pitt” featured a nurse appearing as a loss of life doula for a terminal affected person as she navigated end-of-life care within the emergency division.

In a current interview with Healthgrades, doctor and loss of life doula Shoshana Ungerleider, MD, stated portrayals like these seen in “The Pitt” can have a real-world affect by serving to individuals higher perceive end-of-life care and prompting them to consider their very own needs.

Ungerleider can be the founding father of End Well, a nonprofit targeted on enhancing end-of-life care, and has labored to coach the writers of “The Pitt,” serving to information the present’s depiction of end-of-life moments.

That rising consciousness, she stated, additionally highlights a deeper problem in how end-of-life care is delivered, and why she based Finish Effectively.

“I noticed a spot between how we die and the way most of us say we wish to die,” Ungerleider stated. “Time and again, I witnessed sufferers spending their closing days in environments that felt impersonal and overly medicalized. Conversations about what actually mattered had been occurring too late, or not occurring in any respect.”

“I got here to grasp that dying shouldn’t be primarily a medical problem. It’s a human one,” she added.

Consultants like Ungerleider applaud the elevated visibility loss of life doulas have been receiving, hoping it’s going to lead extra individuals to develop into within the area.

“I feel we’d like extra individuals who really feel referred to as to look after the dying and their family members. Loss of life doulas play an vital position,” Ungerleider informed Healthgrades.

“The extra we will reconnect to the human components of dwelling and dying and put together for the tip when it’s close to, the higher. Loss of life doulas are educated to do precisely that.”

She additionally stated she hopes the rising consideration will result in extra analysis into “how loss of life doulas affect high quality of life and value outcomes, and extra considerate integration of doulas into healthcare groups.”