Center for the Childbearing Year
DOULAS CARE:
A Community-Based Volunteer Doula Program
Patty Brennan (3rd from left) appears with other award winners and DONA Founders,
Phyllis Klaus, Annie Kennedy, and Penny Simkin.
Great news! The Doulas Care Program has received the DONA International Founders' Award for Excellence in a Doula Group. This award was presented at the DONA International Annual Conference in New Orleans on July 24, 2004. On site to accept the award were program co-director Patty Brennan and Doulas Care volunteers Tina Braimah and Dyan Osborn. We are delighted with the recognition bestowed upon our program by the prestigious DONA International organization.
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Introduction
The goal of the Doulas Care Program is to improve maternal and child health outcomes and reduce disparities by matching qualified volunteer Doulas with culturally diverse populations of low-income women and adolescents with at-risk pregnancies. As special mentors, Doulas provide educational, emotional, physical, and logistical support to women and their families. A secondary goal of the Doulas Care Program is to provide career development opportunities for women.
Population Served
Community-based Doulas serve low-income families in the following counties of southeastern Michigan: Washtenaw, Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Lapeer, Genesee, Livingston, Ingham, Jackson, Lenawee, and Monroe. In 2003, the program served 125 women and 150 women were served in 2004. Since 2000, the program has grown between 25% and 90% per year. As an outreach program, Doulas Care receives referrals primarily from social workers and prenatal care providers, as well as pregnant women who refer themselves.
Services Provided
The volunteer Doulas are community outreach workers who provide unique social, emotional, and educational support during the childbearing year. They do not provide medical care services.
Services During Pregnancy
- Prenatal visits - provide a minimum of three home visits.
- Phone support between visits.
- Education - provide nutritional information and encouragement to clients. Educational efforts are aimed at preventing complications such as pre-term labor, low birth weight, and postpartum depression.
- Mentoring and emotional support - Doulas concentrate on building a relationship and empowering the pregnant woman.
- Transportation to prenatal care and childbirth classes.
- Accessing community resources - Doulas are trained to
identify social risk factors and promote risk reduction. They make referrals
and educate clients about available community resources as needed.
Services During Labor & Birth
- One-on-one labor support - Doulas stay with the woman throughout her labor.
- Mediation and advocacy - Doulas assist families in their navigation of the health care system. A multi-lingual Doula (or one who knows sign language) can serve as a woman's interpreter and facilitate communication with her caregivers.
- Promoting skin-to-skin contact and MotherBaby bond.
Postpartum Services
- Home visits - provide a minimum of three postpartum home visits.
- Ongoing phone support.
- Education on newborns and infant care skills, breastfeeding skills, maternal recovery, and coping skills.
- Breastfeeding support.
- Facilitate MotherBaby bond and attachment.
- Postpartum depression screening.
- Referrals - Doulas increase access to community
services for women and families at risk.
The Volunteers
Currently there are 91 volunteers ranging in age from women in their twenties to sixties. It is a diverse group. Some are former homemakers with grown children who are now able to offer their experience, time, and energy to new families. Others are students exploring career options in nursing, midwifery, or medicine and value the opportunity to work with women in a community setting as they consider a health care career. We also have retired nurses who are establishing a second career doing work they love. Some volunteers are professional doulas or intend to become self-employed professional doulas. And others are social workers, outreach workers, and educators who already work with with pregnant women on their jobs and are interested in enhancing the quality of their interactions and support. Many volunteers are young mothers themselves who simply love the work. A remarkable feature characterizing this group of volunteers is their passion for helping moms and babies.
Training
Scholarship Program
Scholarships for doula training are provided as a means of ensuring that the Doulas Care Program stays community based. Women who have a passion for working with women during the childbearing year are recruited from targeted high-risk communities served by Doulas Care. These women are trained and then engaged as a skilled support person for other women in their community. Scholarships pay for the entire cost of doula training and, in exchange, scholarship recipients provide free services for a minimum of five women. An effort is made in the recruitment process to attract low-income women seeking career opportunities as well as women who may already be serving informally as untrained doulas to women in their communities. Through the scholarship program we are making more doulas available and ensuring that cost of training will not be a prohibitive factor to anyone who has it in her heart to do this work.
Birth Doula Training
This 21-hour workshop has been approved as fulfilling one step towards Birth Doula Certification by DONA International. A basic knowledge of childbirth education is a pre-requisite for this training. The training prepares students to provide sensitive, knowledgeable, and skillful care as a doula. Topics covered include:
- the doula professional: scope of practice and ethical standards
- the doula's role during pregnancy
- emotional support in labor
- comfort measures and pain relief
- labor support strategies for normal and challenging births
- cesarean birth and vaginal birth after cesarean
- facilitating informed consent - creating birth plans that work
- essential communication and mediation skills for doulas
- the doula's role with the newborn and initiation of breastfeeding
- the doula's role postpartum
Postpartum Doula Training
This 27-hour training prepares students to provide excellent in-home care to families in the postpartum period and has been approved as fulfilling one step towards Postpartum Doula Certification through DONA. Topics include:
- the doula's multi-faceted postpartum role
- effective listening and communication skills
- importance of the birth experience and its impact on postpartum recovery and adjustment
- normal physiologic recovery for the mother and holistic support measures
- the newborn baby
- supporting families with twins (or more!)
- breastfeeding basics and troubleshooting common problems
- postpartum mood disorders
- support for the grieving family
Volunteer Trainings
Part I: Program Orientation.
This training serves as an introduction to the Doulas Care Program and covers: program guidelines, standards of practice, policies and procedures, use of forms with clients, resources available on-site, how and when to make a referral, and volunteer benefits and support.
Part II: Being in the Community - Outreach Worker Training.
This specialized training is designed to help volunteer doulas be effective in their interactions with pregnant women who have limited resources or who are at social or medical risk. Topics include: the volunteer doula's role as a community outreach worker, accessing community resources, assessment of risk factors, the importance of referrals, working with teen moms, cultural awareness, establishing boundaries with clients, postpartum depression risk factors and screening, lessons learned in the field, and more.
Continuing Education Opportunities
Numerous opportunities are provided for volunteers to increase their knowledge base and enhance their skills as doulas.
- Monthly Doula Support Group. A portion of the 2-hour meeting each month is devoted to a specific topic that the doulas have identified as needing more information/training on. Speakers from the community are brought in. A portion of the time is left open to allow for group sharing and problem solving among the doulas.
- A quarterly educational series called "With Women: Emerging Issues in Care for the Childbearing Year" provides enrichment and continuing education programs. This forum is open to other professionals in the community for a fee, but is free for the volunteers. Professional CEUs are provided.
- A limited number of scholarships have been made available to send select volunteers to conferences of interest.
- Scholarships are available for Postpartum Doula Training, also offering DONA Certification. These scholarships also require a volunteer work exchange and are part of a pilot Postpartum Doulas Care Program.
- The Center offers a number of other programs for a fee. These include: Ensuring Breastfeeding Success; Business Development Training; and Advanced Doula Training.
Volunteer Benefits
In addition to the scholarship program, extra training, mentoring, and continuing education opportunities described above, volunteers receive the following benefits:
- $25 stipend for completing the Volunteer Orientation
- A Volunteer Orientation Manual, filled with educational materials
- $75 stipend upon completion of services to a client, after turning in forms documenting services provided. The stipend is meant to reimburse some of the out-of-pocket expenses of being a volunteer.
- Pre-paid long-distance phone cards for use with clients whereby the doula incurs long-distance charges.
- Financial support, if needed, towards completing the DONA certification process (additional costs, beyond training, for certification total $145)
- One Doulas Care T-shirt
- One Doulas Care tote bag
- Our Doula Resource Center provides: computer and high-speed internet access; a space to meet with clients; and an extensive lending library that includes multiple copies of all of the books required for doula certification, professional journals, training videos, client handouts, community resources, and more.
- Free listing in our Professional Doula Referral List,
if desired. The Drop-In Center also provides space in which to display
brochures and business cards.
To Find a Doula:
Call our toll free number
(866-845-0003)
and speak with the Volunteer Coordinator. She will do a brief phone interview with you and then proceed to find a doula who is available to work with you.
To Make a Referral:
If you provide services to pregnant women and know of a woman who could benefit from having a doula, please give your client our toll free number
(866-845-0003)
and encourage her to call. We can also provide your agency/business with Doulas Care client brochures that you are welcome to pass out. In addition, the Program Director, Patty Brennan, is available to come and speak to your group about our program and answer any questions you may have.