Cook County Health expands access to doulas for pregnant patients who need it most
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Birth assistant, advocate, companion—these are all roles a doula can play for a woman who is pregnant.
Now, a new program from Cook County is expanding access for people who need it most.
"We usually hear that people want to hire a doula because they don't want to die," said Tayo Mbande, a doula and the cofounder of Chicago Birthworks Collective, "and it's terrible to start your conversation off with somebody trying to avoid death."
Mbande now trains others on how to guide parents through pregnancy. Most of the families who use the services of the Chicago Birthworks Collective find it through word of mouth—because the collective knows the dangers facing Black women in particular.
"That doesn't take me by surprise to know that Black women continue to be the most at risk when it comes to navigating through pregnancy," said Mbande. "It's frustrating, because it is so surprising to others."
This year's March of Dimes report card gave Illinois a D grade for preterm births, and put the preterm birth rate for Illinois 10.8—a number that has been worsening over the last decade.
Data show Black women have a pr-term birth rate of 15.2%—one and a half times higher than their counterparts in other demographics.
"Black and brown women in particular face the highest rates of maternal mortality and complications," said Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.
Those disparities are some of the reasons Cook County Health gave for their new program—$ 1 million to fund doulas for some of the county's most vulnerable patients.
I can definitely save those that I have serviced love having a doula. I can't get rid of them, you know?" said Cook County Health Reproductive Life Planning Coach Shalonda Carter. "And that's OK. I love that part of being a doula."
Cook County Health currently has about 1,000 pregnant patients. They will initially start with ten doulas selected by a partner organization, Prism Health Care, to guide patients from early in their pregnancy through the first year of postpartum.
The county says other states and counties have tried to bring the support of doulas into systems before, but never in such a comprehensive way.
Cook County Health is also asking Prism to find doulas with Spanish and Mandarin language skills.
The program should launch early next year.