- A new report from public policy organization Elevance Health finds that pregnant women who receive doula care have lower rates of C-sections and less postpartum depression and anxiety.
- Most women who received doula care were black or white and lived in urban or suburban areas.
- Amid the maternal health crisis, there is growing interest in the U.S. in using doulas to bridge the care gap among pregnant women.
Doula care improves health outcomes for pregnant women receiving Medicaid, according to a new report from public policy organization Elevance Health.
The country's worsening maternal health crisis has sparked interest in the use of doulas as an additional support for pregnant women, especially black women, who have the highest maternal mortality rates in the United States.
However, most insurance companies do not cover doula care, and only 13 states, including Washington, D.C., offer reimbursement for doula care through Medicaid.
An additional 30 states have implemented or are considering implementing some form of Medicaid coverage for doula services, according to data from the National Health Law Program.
“Investments in providing these services are having positive outcomes for women at high risk of maternal mortality,” said Jennifer Kowalski, deputy director of the Elevance Health Public Policy Institute.
The report looked at health outcomes for 869 women enrolled in Medicaid, the federal health insurance for low-income Americans, who received doula care before, during, and after pregnancy and 1,094,005 women who did not. I'm comparing.
Women who received doula care were less likely to have a cesarean section during childbirth than women who did not receive doula care.
Additionally, women who received doula support had higher rates of postpartum visits and lower rates of postpartum anxiety and depression if doula care began early in pregnancy.
Most of the doulas mentioned in the study are community-based, or doulas who “live and work in the same community they come from,” Kowalski said.
In these communities, doulas serve as “spokespeople” for pregnant women, helping them communicate with doctors, develop birth plans, and connect new mothers to nutritional assistance programs such as WIC after the baby is born. Kowalski added.
“There are so many things a doula can do during every stage of pregnancy, not just the postpartum period,” Kowalski says.
The majority of women receiving care from doulas are Black women, who make up 44 percent of women receiving doula support. Among those receiving doula care, white women make up 30 percent and Hispanic women make up 17 percent.
More than 90% of women who received doula care lived in urban or suburban areas.
The report found that women who received doula care were more likely to live in counties with fewer gynecologists and certified midwives than women who did not receive doula care.
“Thus, the results show that although women with doulas have lower access to perinatal health care providers, including additional supports during the prenatal experience still produced more favorable outcomes. “This suggests that,” the report states.
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