Doula

Supporting the health and well-being of all mothers, children, and families is the goal of Title V Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Service Block Grant. Access to high-quality and equitable health services is one way to support MCH’s goal.

What is a doula?

A birth doula is a companion who supports a woman during labor and birth. Birth doulas are trained to provide continuous, one-on-one care, as well as information, physical support, and emotional support to women and their partners. (Dekker 2019)

Doula Services & Care

Doulas provide care and services leading up through pregnancy and delivery, including:

• Prenatal Period: A doula provides prenatal education, preparing families to make educated, well-informed birthing and parenting choices.
• Birthing: A doula provides physical and emotional support during labor and delivery, increasing the mother's feelings of safety and comfort. They provide non-medical pain management techniques that decrease the need for unnecessary and expensive medical interventions. Doulas also facilitate positive communication between the woman and their health care providers.
• Postpartum Period: A doula provides immediate postpartum support by helping initiate breastfeeding and enhancing a family’s confidence in caring for a newborn. Long-term doula care provides support and education for proper infant nutrition and health. They also serve as a trusted source of information and referrals for a wide variety of needs that a new family may have.

How Doulas Help

• Researchers have reported that doula care is a high-value model that improves childbirth outcomes, increases care quality, and holds the potential to achieve cost savings.
• Doula support to families during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum periods reduce cesarean deliveries, prematurity, and illness in newborns, and the likelihood of postpartum depression.
• Families who received doula care reported higher overall satisfaction with the experience of childbirth care and increased breastfeeding initiation and duration.