About

Doulas Care is a 501c3 non-profit organization working to improve maternal and infant health outcomes and reduce health disparities by matching qualified volunteer doulas with pregnant women and adolescents who have limited resources.  Qualifying low-income women receive these services for free.  We also offer affordable birth services for $350 and postpartum services on a sliding scale for families outside the range of our free services.  As special mentors, doulas provide educational, emotional, physical, and logistical support to women and their families. Doulas Care also helps the volunteers by providing the opportunity to gain hands-on experience soon after training and opens a professional pathway in the field of maternal and infant health.

The Doulas Care program was founded by Patty Brennan of the Center for the Childbearing Year in 1999.  It began as a grass roots program that matched childbearing women who were seeking doulas with recently trained doulas from the education programs conducted by Patty.  In the first three to four years of the grass roots program, 40 women were matched with volunteer Doulas.

In 2002, the program began a process of expansion and evaluation under the support of Lisa Kane Low from the University of Michigan.  In her role as a program evaluation and development specialist with Doulas Care, we were able to secure grant funding and technical support  from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Michigan Chapter of March of Dimes and the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, Pfizer Foundation and Blue Cross Blue Shield Community Foundation among others.  Patty became a DONA approved Doula trainer and was able to increase the number of women she trained as Doulas.  We also added additional education for our volunteers to prepare them for their role in Doulas Care.  Over the next five years, the program expanded to include over 75 volunteers who served growing numbers of families, reaching just shy of 250 families in 2006 who lived in eleven different counties throughout Southeastern Michigan.

In January 2008 the Doulas Care program became an independent 501(c)3 organization while our former parent organization became a for profit business now known as Center for the Childbearing Year LLC (www.center4cby.com).

Doulas Care has maintained its focus and mission throughout, which is to provide childbearing women and their families with well qualified volunteer Doulas who provide support and education to promote empowerment during the childbearing year, optimal birth outcomes and a positive transition to parenting.  Our program services include free volunteer Doulas who provide prenatal, birth and post partum support to low income families who qualify based on financial need.  We also provide a Birth Doulas program for a reduced set fee for families who may not otherwise qualify by their income levels for free services and offer Post Partum Doula services using a sliding scale fee model to promote access for women of all income levels to this much needed service.  You can find out more information about these programs by emailing info@doulascare.org

Currently our program has over 50 volunteers who work with childbearing women and their families throughout Southeastern Michigan.   In 2008, we provided services to 199 families as a result of generous grant funding from the Knight Foundation and the Michigan March of Dimes as well as donations and gifts in kind from a very supportive community of partner organizations, businesses and individuals. The majority of our services are concentrated in the Washtenaw, Wayne and Oakland Counties but we have reached into nine other counties as well. 

In February 2009, we joined in alliance with the Lamaze Family Center (www.lamazefamilycenter.org) to promote access for more families to Normal Birth and the opportunity to have Doula support if  they desire it.  Through this alliance we now have access to new office space which is pictured below.  We are jointly promoting  our mutual goals for childbearing families and look forward to programing opportunities between our two organizations.  We maintain collaborations with the Center for the Childbearing Year and the Breast Feeding Center of Ann Arbor who provide us with excellent education and DONA training for our Doulas.  We also have a new relationships with the Healthy Start Program in Detroit as well as other organizations who serve childbearing women and their families.

In 2009, we anticipate expanding our number of volunteers and the scope and reach of  our Doula services.  We have again been privileged to receive funding from the Knight Foundation for work in Jackson and Livingston Counties.  We will also be adding a “Dial a Doula” program as the result of a generous donation to the University of Michigan on our behalf from Rachel Bendit and Mark Bernstein of Ann Arbor.

As we expand our services and continue to grow in our new identity as an organization, we look forward to working with other organizations and professionals who serve childbearing women and their families.

About

• Our Mission, Values and Vision
• Meet the Staff
• Board of Directors
• What is a doula?
  • Birth Doulas
  • Postpartum Doulas
  • Doula Training and Education
  • Comments from Doulas Care Clients
• Our Funders