Germanna Bringing Cavalry to Newborns and Their Moms
An innovative program at Germanna Community College will produce doulas, who are trained to provide support during pregnancy, labor, and the first weeks of a baby’s life.
by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
The best part of Erin Gabriel’s job is walking into a client’s home and watching the stress fall away from a new mother’s face.
“It’s like the cavalry has arrived,” said Gabriel, a postpartum doula who works in the Fredericksburg area. “I watch them realize, ‘Oh, I’m going to sleep tonight.’ When hormones are out of control and you’re physically exhausted, that is the greatest gift I can give.”
As a postpartum doula, Gabriel works primarily with one family at a time for about 12 weeks after a new baby is born, and her services are individualized depending on what the family needs. She might take care of household tasks so a new parent can focus on the baby, or she might take over baby care while the parent rests or spends time with older children.
“I do a lot of night shifts—that’s when moms need somebody the most,” Gabriel said.
Though not a lactation consultant, she can provide basic information about breastfeeding or infant feeding in general, as well as some new parent education.
But more than anything else, what Gabriel does is provide emotional support. There’s a reason she named her business First Village Doula Services.
“Modern motherhood can be so lonely,” she said. “I grew up in a huge Irish American family where there was always someone to babysit or step in and help. They always say, ‘It takes a village,’ but this area is so transient and lots of families down here don’t have that extended family support. It’s just something I felt the community needed.”
Answering the Call
Doulas can either provide postpartum support to families with newborns, like Gabriel, or they can provide physical and emotional support during pregnancy, labor, and childbirth.
They are not clinicians, and cannot prescribe medicine or deliver a baby, but their presence has a documented positive effect on birth outcomes—especially for Black women and women from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, who are at a higher risk of adverse birth outcomes.
Black women—regardless of level of education and socioeconomic status—are three to five times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related complications during childbirth or in the month following, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control that were cited during a March 2024 panel discussion on maternal mortality sponsored by Germanna Community College.
Virginia recognizes the important role doulas can play in improving birth outcomes and is one of four states in the U.S. in which Medicaid will provide reimbursement for doula services.
Germanna Community College’s new doula training program, which is ready to welcome its first cohort in August, was born out of a desire to improve maternal mortality in the state by increasing the supply of community doulas.
“We answered the call,” said April Morgan, associate dean of nursing at Germanna. “We were approached [by the Virginia Department of Health] and provided with information about the growing need for support for pregnant mothers, especially those in underserved areas, and the decrease in the amount of healthcare personnel for pregnant mothers and infants in the area.”
Editor’s note: For more the decrease in healthcare personnel for pregnant mothers and infants, see our story on disappearing OB-GYNs.
Training Doulas
Germanna’s 60-hour course was developed by Sharon Leake, a member of the college’s nursing faculty and a practicing midwife. It will take about six weeks to complete and includes coursework that can be completed at home as well as weekly in-person classes.
Participants will witness two live births as part of their training, Morgan said.
The program has been approved by the state and graduates will have met the requirements to become state-certified community doulas.
John Stroffolino, the college’s interim dean of arts and sciences, said that what is so eye-opening about the maternal mortality statistics is that even when adjusted for education and socioeconomic status, Black women still die at a higher rate than white women.
Doulas are advocates who can help their clients navigate a complicated health care system by providing emotional support and information.
“Fear is real in terms of childbirth, and doulas are going to do an amazing job of offering that level of support [necessary to combat fear],” said Nanette Graham, a doctor and associate vice president of health sciences at Germanna, during the March panel discussion.
Gerald Lowe, a nurse educator at Stafford Hospital and another member of the March panel, said doulas are not new, but previously may only have been available to families with the economic means to pay for their services.
“Kudos to Germanna for this program to educate and provide the community with doulas” whose services can be covered by Medicaid, Lowe said.
Allison Balmes-John, population health manager for the Rappahannock Area Health District, said during the panel that increasing the supply of doulas is also a goal of the health district.
“We want to see openness to a team approach [to childbirth],” she said. “The patient, the obstetrician, the doula, the partner—these things can coexist together.”
As Gabriel would say, it’s part of building a village for the benefit of all birthing individuals and babies.
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