New initiative to provide doulas to Milwaukee moms

A new initiative aims to provide support to expectant and new mothers in one of Milwaukee’s most distressed neighborhoods.

The pilot program between the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services and the Milwaukee Health Department will provide doulas to 100 expectant mothers in the 53206 zip code.

“A healthy city starts with healthy moms and healthy babies,” Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said at a press conference at Canaan Missionary Baptist Church before approving the plan.

Milwaukee County Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic worked with Alderman Khalif Rainey on developing the initiative.

“We want close the infant mortality gap, but we want to close the achievement gap in the classroom. We want to close the income gap between whites and African-Americans,” Rainey said. “So beyond this, it’s our hope that we can do so much more.”

Dimitrijevic said the program is “just the beginning.”

“I want to be known for the zip code and the city that has the most support – prenatal, labor support and postpartum – and that we have the healthiest families in the nation,” she said. “We can do it and this is the place where it will be done.”

Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik said there will be three doulas and a coordinator who’ll be housed at a south side health center. They’ll work with other doulas in the community to create a program that can be scaled.

They’re also looking for more funding and partnerships.

“We can’t do this alone,” she said.

Alderwoman Milele Coggs agreed.

“We owe it to our children, those unborn children and those mothers-to-be to work together,” Coggs said.

Shani Toor, a doula, said doulas not only provide support to mothers but also advocate for them so they receive the best care.

“We want to get these moms and these babies up to the same level as everyone else,” she said. “Everyone else is sprinting the marathon and these moms and these babies are just running in place with glass in front of them.”

Vanessa Johnson, a doula, said requiring insurance to cover services provided by doulas could help build on the initiative.

“We are not only providing doula support, but a lot of times we are the social worker, the care coordinator,” she said.

Training curriculums that are culturally appropriate to the clients they’re serving could also help as well as support from health providers, she said.

This article first appeared in the Wisconsin Health News daily email newsletter. Sign up for your free trial here.