Death doulas are for people who are deemed terminal to help them come to terms with their prescribed fate and to act as their advocate when helping family come to terms. Sometimes families make fucked up decisions because they will do anything to try and force their ill loved one to live one more day even if they are in pain, heavily sedated and deserve to be let go. Some hospitals actually have an End of Life Care department - mostly cancer centers. Maybe if these babies' parents had proper end of life care they wouldn't be doing this crazy shit.
I was pronounced terminal 4 years ago. Thanks to a well-timed major advancement in medicine and a lucky draw in the clinical trial lottery, it didn't stick. During my illness I saw some fucked up shit. I spent more than 70 nights in patient at a major cancer hospital, (they block the Farms on wifi!). Less than 5% of people admitted there walk out. I did it 4 times.
A young Italian lady was at the end. For 13 days I watched as her extended family packed the waiting room and hallway everyday. They brought freaking feasts with them. The poor woman was kept in a near comatose state - nothing I would consider alive. All the while dozens of Italians are making the sign of the cross and loudly praying to god for a miracle. They kept insisting that the docs try more stuff so they could extend her pain just a little bit longer. The night she died I was awoken by a mother's death cry at 3am. It's always 3am. By morning the family was gone and the room was ready for the next one.
That family could have used a death doula. Someone to remind them that she was in pain and deserved to be free from it. Someone to advocate for her wishes. Some emotional help to make them realize it was happening. I have seen more than a few people refuse to accept it when the doc says this is it, a few days at most, maybe a week. Let's just say I can really see the value in having a death doula.
This is a part of palliative care, which is designed to improve quality of life without necessarily being curative, and hospice, which deals with end-of-life issues.