Anyone have a successful unmedicated birth in hospital without a hired doula?

This will be my second (due in February). I will be delivering at Kaiser with their midwifery unit with my husband as my support.

My first labor didn’t go as planned (I know you can never truly plan it). My water leaked, I didn’t go into labor. I was given misoprostol to move things along. Things were going well, until my baby’s heart rate was dropping too frequently for too long. I was wheeled in for a c-section. Her heart rate came back up. I said I wanted to push her out myself and avoid the c-section if possible. I was told I would need pitocin to speed things up for her sake. Which in turn I agreed to an epidural because I knew things would get intense and I could possibly end back up in the operating room, and if that was the case the epidural would be in place and I would be awake for her birth. 3 hrs of pushing and my baby was here. I’m proud of myself for avoiding the c-section I didn’t want, and delivering my baby but I’m still sad I had all the interventions. Though, I remind myself I did what I needed to do to get my baby here safely.

Fast forward to now.. I’m 38 years old and 32 weeks pregnant with a baby boy. Kaiser has a brand new labor & delivery 15 min from us and that’s where we have chosen to give birth. Hoping to be able to labor at home as long as possible. We did have great experiences with all the nurses and midwives from Kaiser the last time around.

My question is (with all the previous things considered), is it really necessary for me to hire an outside doula to achieve a unmedicated birth?

People seem to rave about doulas, but I feel like it would be like having another midwife/nurse in the room, that I have no real attachment to.. I’m trying to truly think how this would be helpful to me.

If I have my husband, my birth plan, took a birthing class… do I need to spend money on a doula? We are currently on a tight budget, so I feel like I really need to be convinced to go that route.