DETROIT – There’s a new push by Henry Ford Health to save the lives of pregnant women and their babies by expanding access to doula services.
The program makes the services of a doula available to pregnant women with Medicaid. It can make a big impact for low-income pregnant women with Medicaid.
The hope is that trained professionals will help close racial gaps in maternal health by guiding pregnant women through the birthing process before, during and after their baby is born.
First-time mom Jasmine Lattimore had somewhat of an idea of what a doula does.
“I knew that they would provide me with some type of support. I thought she was just going to help me with different positions,” Lattimore said. “But it was more, it was a lot more.”
Ideally, a patient’s relationship with a doula begins early in their pregnancy. And though that wasn’t the case with Lattimore, the relationship was still beneficial.
“So, Jasmine and I met the day before she delivered,” said Sandra Pope, who has been a doula since 2019. “We were able to go over different things like comfort measures because she wanted to have her birth a certain way, she wanted her labor a certain way, she wanted low interventions, and pain -- she didn’t want to use pain medication or get an epidural, so we went over different things that she could do to help kind of stay away from that or prevent that since that was her goal.”
Doulas are providing what many consider to be a necessary service for mothers in marginalized communities. That’s because the United States has the highest maternal death rate of any developed nation in the world.
For Black women in particular, - the maternal death rate is three times more than that of white women.
“80% of the maternal deaths are preventable. They are from high blood pressure, bleeding after delivery, and sepsis. And then for infant mortality, it is pre-term deliveries,” said Dr. D’Angela Pitts. “Doulas can help with that. We know access to prenatal care can help with that and also public health. Some of that is our SDOH, and our social determinants of health, making sure they have transportation, that they have food, that they have working lights, and things.”
Doulas can help with cultural and language barriers. And studies show pregnant women who use doulas are less likely to require a C-section or use pain medication and their babies are less likely to have a low birth weight.
“My vision is that we actually start to move the needle. I think we’ve had this conversation about maternal health and infant mortality for decades now, and not to say that doula care is the only thing that’s going to help, I think as healthcare providers we need to know that we need help and our historical ways are not working so we need to reach out to our community and be open to receive the help,” Dr. Pitts said. “So once I show that it works at Henry Ford, I want to expand it. I want it to be in every health care system and every health care system will be open for this.”
Pregnant patients with Medicaid who will deliver their babies at Henry Ford Health in Detroit or Henry Ford Health West Bloomfield Hospital are eligible for this program.
Doula services can cost upwards of $5,000 and most aren’t covered by insurance.