For Families

Welcome! 

• Doulas are trained professionals who help you explore options, choices, and desires during pregnancy, birth, and beyond. 
• You can connect with a doula at any point during pregnancy, though the earlier, the better. 
• Doula care is unique! Doulas get to know you during your pregnancy, stay by your side throughout labor and birth and can continue to offer support after baby arrives.
• During your labor, a doula can offer hands-on comfort measures, breathing and coping strategies, and information to help you feel calm and prepared. 
• Already had your baby? Some doulas specialize in helping families transition to life with a new baby.

Considering Hiring a Doula?

• MDHHS Doula Registry.
• This resource has questions to consider when interviewing a potential doula.
  • English, Spanish, and Arabic.

Benefits of Doula Care

One-on-one doula support has been shown to: 

• Reduce stress, anxiety and pain.
• Promote self-efficacy and confidence.
• Shorten the duration of labor.
• Improve the rate of spontaneous vaginal birth.
• Reduce cesarean births.

Doula-assisted birthing people are: 

• Four times less likely to give birth to a baby with low birth weight.
• Two times less likely to experience a birth complication involving themselves or their baby.
• Significantly more likely to initiate breastfeeding.

Want more information?

• American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Committee Opinion No. 766.
• Advancing Birth Justice: Community-Based Doula Models as a Standard of Care for Ending Racial Disparities.
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Issue Brief: Doula Care and Maternal Health.