Doula Medicaid Project

The National Health Law Program’s Doula Medicaid Project seeks to improve health outcomes for Medicaid enrollees by ensuring that all pregnant and postpartum people enrolled in Medicaid who want access to a doula will have one.

Low-income people in the United States are at a higher risk of poor birth outcomes, and pregnant and birthing people of color, especially Black pregnant and birthing people, are especially vulnerable. Doula care is among the most promising approaches to combating disparities in maternal health. Pregnant and birthing people receiving doula care have been found to have improved health outcomes for both themselves and their infants, including higher breastfeeding initiation rates, fewer low-birth weight babies, and lower rates of cesarean births. Doulas can also help reduce the impacts of racism and racial bias in health care on pregnant people of color by providing individually tailored, culturally appropriate, and patient-centered care and advocacy.

At NHeLP, we are lawyers, researchers, and policy advocates. We are not doulas. As such, we seek to do all our work in partnership with and with the guidance of community doula groups, doula collectives, and individual doulas, especially Black doulas and Black-led doula groups, as well as doulas and doula groups serving low-income clients.

To achieve the goal of Medicaid coverage of full spectrum doula care, we are engaged in advocacy work on various fronts, including:

• Working with doulas and other stakeholders across the country to provide technical assistance, information sharing, and other support as they work to propose policies, pass legislation, and implement programs for Medicaid coverage for doula care in their states and regions;
• Educating state agencies, legislators, and other stakeholders about the importance of expanding full-spectrum Medicaid coverage of doula care, including doula support during the prenatal and postpartum periods, labor/delivery, miscarriage, stillbirth, and abortion;
• Identifying and overcoming barriers to creating sustainable, equitable, and inclusive programs for Medicaid coverage for doula care;
• Advocating for state legislation creating a Medicaid coverage of doula care program, initially in California and then promoted as a model strategy in other states.

If you have any questions or comments, or would like more information, please contact NHeLP Senior Attorney Amy Chen at [email protected].