Doula Program

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.

About Iowa's Doula Program

Iowa HHS recognizes disparities in maternal health outcomes among African American and Black-identifying individuals in Iowa and we also seek to reduce these inequalities by expanding and modifying Iowa’s MCH Service Delivery System (the Delivery System).

• Iowa’s population health data shows that the greatest disparities exist in maternal health outcomes for African American/Black women.
• Iowa’s African American/Black women experiences higher rates of severe maternal morbidity as well as maternal mortality.
• Additionally, Iowa’s maternal health data shows disparities in supportive maternal health behaviors such as accessing prenatal care in the first trimester and rates of breastfeeding.
• Data will be tracked so that the outcomes associated with this pilot project have the opportunity to be applied across all Title V populations at a later date.

 An identified enhancement to the Delivery System includes developing a community-based service for pregnant women that provides effective interactions between the expectant mother and their OBGYN within this demographic.

Program Purpose & Mission

To answer the need identified for the Delivery System, Iowa’s Title V Doula Project (Doula Project) was created. A doula is a trained, non-medical professional that will provide continuous emotional and physical support to the mother before, during, and after childbirth. The doula will live in the same area as the pregnant woman and will facilitate the best possible birth experience for the mother and child.

The CDC Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant and Mid-Iowa Health Foundation are providing funding support for the Doula Project model run - launching in the fall of 2021 - in Black Hawk, Dubuque, Polk, and Scott counties.

Project Outcomes

• Improve maternal health outcomes for African American/Black families in Iowa.
• Increase breastfeeding initiation rates for infants born to African American/Black families in Iowa who participate in the community-based, culturally congruent doula program.
• Establish the business case for reimbursement for doula service reimbursement by insurers

Find out more about the Doula Project.