What is a Doula?
Michigan Medicaid now covers birth and postpartum doulas but many people didn’t know what a doula is so here’s a video explaining the important roles of doula in birthing families and how they impact birth experiences and birth outcomes.
Doulas are trained non-medical professionals who provide emotional, informational, and physical support during pregnancy, birth and postpartum.
You can connect with a doula any point in pregnancy but the earlier the better to ensure a spot on your doula’s calendar. Each doula only takes on a select number of doula to ensure quality care.
During labor, doula can provide emotional support, hands-on comfort measures, coping strategies and information to help you feel calm and supported. Doulas have experience supporting families who plan on having a vaginal or surgical (cesarean) birth.
After you had the baby, a doula can provide postpartum doulas support. They can help care for baby or older kids, do light housework, cooking, laundry so that the mother can rest and feel supported. They can informational and emotional support while mom and partner navigate life with a newborn baby.
Benefits of Doula Care
One-on-one doula support has been shown to:
- Reduce stress, anxiety and pain.
- Promote personal autonomy and confidence.
- Shorten the duration of labor.
- Improve the rate of spontaneous vaginal birth.
- Reduce cesarean births.
- Improve likelihood of a positive birth experience
Doula-assisted birthing people are:
- Four times less likely to give birth to a baby with low birth weight.
- Two times less likely to experience a birth complication involving themselves or their baby.
- Significantly more likely to initiate breastfeeding.
What does Medicaid Cover?
From pregnancy to up to the baby’s first birthday, the doula can provide up to 12 prenatal or postpartum visits (virtual or in-person) as well as in-person support during your labor and birth. If all 12 visits are used, the doula can do a prior authorization from the Medicaid Insurance to see if more visits can happen.
How Does this Work?
I’m interested but how do I find out if my Medicaid insurance will cover doula services and how do I find one?