Comfort in Death: A Conversation With an End-of-Life Doula

This week, the editors talk with East Hampton resident Susan Stout, a certified end-of-life doula who helps terminally ill people and their families find peace with dying. Death doulas are not medical personnel and don’t replace hospice care. Instead, doulas like Stout step in close to the end of life or after someone receives a terminal diagnosis to offer nonmedical, holistic support and comfort in a patient’s final days. As Stout herself says, “We only die once, so it should be as beautiful as we can make it.”