Governor John Carney signing House Bill 80 on Thursday. The bill ensures that Medicaid will begin to reimburse for Doula services in the state of Delaware by January 2024. Black women are 2-3 times more likely to suffer negative outcomes related to pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, sometimes as serious as death of them, their baby, or both, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Doulas are non-medical support persons who are trained to assist birthing people with continuous support, researching evidence based information, assisting with advocacy, and much more. Doulas have been shown to decrease the occurrence of negative outcomes which makes this bill extremely valuable to the birthing community in Delaware who are insured through Medicaid.
Do Care Doula Foundation Inc has a community Doula group, Central Delaware Community Doula Program with the mission of decreasing Black birth disparities.