Doula Integration Toolkit // Assessing Readiness for Doula Integration
Assessing Readiness for Doula Integration
The tools in this section provide hospitals and health systems with information, ideas, tools, and examples to aid in assessing readiness for doula integration. By engaging champions and skeptics and analyzing potential opportunities and barriers to integration, you can better understand a system’s capacity for doula integration policies and practices.
What is Doula Friendliness?
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene:
The State of Doula Care in NYC 2023
“Consistent evidence shows that doula support is associated with improved birth outcomes and a better labor and birth experience, including fewer cesarean deliveries, greater likelihood and duration of breastfeeding, improved mother-baby bonding, and reduced rates of postpartum depression.”
Readiness Self-Assessment
New York City Health and Hospitals:
NYC Hospital Doula-Friendliness Guidebook
Provides a myriad of resources for hospitals specific to doula integration including Doula Friendliness Assessment.
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene:
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
New York Coalition for Doula Access put together a guideline for Creating a Doula-Friendly Hospital as well as a Doula-Friendliness Capacity Assessment.