Doula Integration Toolkit
Intentionally Incorporate Doulas Into Your Care Model
Doulas are non-medical professionals who provide emotional, informational, and physical support to a pregnant person through pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. Because doulas are non-medical support team members, many hospitals have struggled with how to meaningfully incorporate doulas into care.
As doulas become more common and a growing number of states certify and/or include Medicaid payment for doula services it is imperative that health systems, hospitals, and providers revolutionize their approach to doula integration through intentional incorporation of doula services. To that end, health care providers and hospitals can leverage resources in this toolkit to meaningfully integrate doulas and allow doulas to truly serve their clients.
Better understand the why, what, and how of doula integration.
The Doula Integration Tool Kit is organized into the following five sections. The tools, information, and resources provided may be used by healthcare providers, clinical care teams, doulas, health systems, and other stakeholders to better understand the why, what, and how of doula integration.
Learn why doulas are an evidence-based strategy to improve perinatal care, the role of the doula, and doula training and certification pathways.
Explore how existing doula organizations, groups, and independent providers are already attending births and developing collaborative relationships.
Understand a system’s readiness and capacity for doula integration policies and practices through information, ideas, tools, and examples.
Learn to leverage your organizations expertise to assist doula organizations in adapting their billing practices to a rapidly changing doula reimbursement landscape.
Additional Resources
Find more useful resources for doula integration, including links to peer-reviewed journal publications on U.S. doula programs, a slide set overview of this tool kit, and more.