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The State of Doula Care

Ashley Nguyen Independent journalist Ashley Nguyen got to the root of maternal health issues faced by birthing individuals across the country.

Marquette students Rachel Ryan and Sarah Lipo worked with Nguyen on the series. The team examined relevant maternal health issues.

The team published a piece in The Lily, a publication of The Washington Post, in early March 2021 covering the reintroduction of nine bills, along with the introduction of three new ones, that seek to address widening racial disparities in the maternal health crisis, especially in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a four-part series in The Lily, the team found that Medicaid reimbursement for doulas could be "an essential part of the solution" to the worsening maternal mortality crisis in the United States. Doulas offer emotional, informational and culturally congruent care to pregnant individuals, which can reduce widening racial disparities in health. They focused specifically on the states of Oregon and Minnesota, two states that have solid Medicaid reimbursement programs that "falling wildly short," with unsustainable wages and complicated system navigation.

As a part of the series, the team created a website with important information for doulas called Doula series footnotes.

Follow-up stories appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and The Lily.

Nguyen organized a public forum in May 2021 at which birth workers discussed maternal health challenges and solutions.