While many military dads fight the war on terror, some of their wives need a little help on the home front.

This need led Michelle McClory of Brentwood to Amy Farr of Worthington, a volunteer with Operation Special Delivery.

Farr is a doula, an experienced mother who is trained to provide emotional, educational and informational support and companionship to expectant mothers before, during and after childbirth.

Operation Special Delivery is a volunteer-based nonprofit organization that provides doulas to pregnant women whose husbands or partners have been injured or killed in action or are deployed in the military.

McClory, whose partner, Mark Anderson, is deployed to the Middle East with the Navy, learned about the organization through a moms group she attends at which many military moms were talking about OSD. She looked it up online and applied.

McClory said that Mark "knows there's gonna be somebody there. I think it makes him feel better."

McClory met with Farr for two doctor's appointments before her delivery, and the women stayed in close contact regarding the pregnancy's progress.

Farr said part of a doula's role in childbirth is to anticipate the mother's needs — to think of the details for her.

Toward that end, Farr attends every birth with a bag that includes comforting items like massage tools, a heating pillow, an ice pack, mints, flavor spray for ice chips, mouthwash, lip balm and music of the mother's choosing for relaxation.

Those things came in handy Nov. 29 when McClory gave birth, almost five weeks early, to Matilda Jean Anderson at 5 lbs., 8 oz.

Unlike McClory's three children from her previous marriage, Mattie took a little longer coming into the world. Her labor lasted 24 hours and McClory was faced with the option of Caesarean. She said she and Farr discussed the option, but ultimately she went for natural birth.

"Thankfully I decided not to have the C-section,"McClory said. "She (Farr) offered many suggestions for how I could be more comfortable and was awesome at helping me to push when the time came."

"I was very scared, knowing the risks of premature delivery and I was very lucky to have someone there to help allay my fears," McClory said.

McClory's 13-year-old daughter, Amanda, was also in the delivery room and "did not want to miss a second of the experience," McClory said.

A few days after Mattie was born she had to be checked into Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh because of a bacterial infection. Farr drove there to be with McClory while she waited for test results. Mattie is doing well now.

Doulas always enlist a backup in case they cannot make it to a birth. In this case, Farr's sister, Brenda Cirrincione of Cabot, was ready to back her up.

Cirrincione acted as Farr's doula when she had her son, Ryan, earlier this year.

In addition to companionship, most doulas offer childbirth education and comfort measures as well as lactation consultation.

Cirrincione said that often a doula's role is mistaken for that of a midwife. When Farr was about to give birth to Ryan, some people wondered why Cirrincione wasn't going to deliver the baby.

"We do nothing that's clinical,"Cirrincione said. They refer all medical questions to the mother's health care provider.

Farr said that she believes women with doulas are less likely to receive epidurals or to need a Caesarean section because a doula helps the mother trust her body and relax.

A study published in the online medical journal, Birth, found that women who had a doula present during labor had a 12 precent lower Caesarean delivery rate than those without a doula. These women also had a 12 percent lower rate of receiving an epidural. Those with induced labor had a 46 percent lower rate of Caesarean delivery.

Operation Special Delivery began in 2001. Doula Patricia Newton organized doulas to offer their services to pregnant women whose husbands or partners would be deployed or who had been killed or injured. When the organization grew, Newton offered it to the Childbirth and Postpartum Professional Association, CAPPA.

Since CAPPA began to oversee OSD, 700 families have been assisted according to Marybeth Nance, CAPPAdirector of OSD.

"None of the volunteers that serve with OSD receive any compensation whatsoever, for their professional service or for their expenses incurred in volunteering,"Nance said.

That doesn't hold Farr or Cirrincione back from giving their time to military moms.

"It's a wonderful cause," Farr said.

To learn more about Operation Special Delivery, visit operationspecialdelivery.com.