survey of the Texas doula workforce<\/a> \u2014 an attempt to get a picture of a profession that largely operates outside of the traditional medical establishment, with no one single credentialing agency and many training pathways.<\/p>\n\u201cWe wanted to reflect the reality of our community-based work,\u201d Vonbartheld said. \u201c[That includes] informal care, unpaid labor, cultural responsiveness, and, of course, the emotional and financial toll of supporting families in an under-resourced system.\u201d<\/p>\n
The survey confirmed that Austin is a hotspot for birth workers, with almost 30% of doulas who responded saying they worked in Travis County. Rural doulas were more isolated, and indicated they could use more support. Across the board, doulas said they still encounter a lack of understanding from the public about what their job is and why it\u2019s important.<\/p>\n
Vonbartheld said the TDA wants to ensure state policymakers are educated about this, too, especially as several bills related to doula services have been filed in the past two legislative sessions.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving to sit across a policymaker that’s going to say, \u2018OK, I’m going to vote on this bill, but I still don’t know what you do,\u2019 is alarming,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Increasing advocacy<\/p>\n
The push to cover more doula services through Medicaid has gained momentum in recent years. Around half of U.S. states now offer reimbursement through their Medicaid programs, but bills in Texas that would have introduced a Medicaid pilot program have stalled in committee.<\/p>\n
In 2023, Texas legislators did pass an adjacent law that allows doulas to be reimbursed for a narrow scope of work \u2014 conducting assessments of non-medical drivers of health, like transportation and housing needs. It\u2019s case management work, not straightforward birth support.<\/p>\n
Vonbartheld and many others see this as a step in the right direction. But many doulas also feel it\u2019s a laborious process to get qualified for a small amount of reimbursement that doesn\u2019t cover the core parts of their work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI personally want to see more doula slash birth work covered before I really make the push to do the case management,\u201d said Darline Turner, executive director of Healing Hands.<\/p>\n
The TDA is already looking ahead to the next Texas legislative session, and is hoping to get more individual doulas involved in advocacy efforts moving forward. That\u2019s something Rivera-Clemente said she\u2019s interested in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’d like to get more involved and become more knowledgeable about how these things can change and why they’re remaining the same,\u201d she said. \u201cThe compensation, to me, doesn\u2019t equate to the work that\u2019s being done and the impact that\u2019s being made. So I\u2019d like to see change there, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the meantime, she loves the work she\u2019s doing. That work has also been motivating for her client, Adegbite, who hopes to work towards becoming a labor and delivery nurse. She wants to help other women to have positive experiences with childbirth.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it was so good,\u201d Adegbite said. \u201cIt felt like I could do it. I knew what I was doing, I had support, I felt heard, I felt seen \u2014 and that’s really what every woman deserves during labor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Support for KUT’s reporting on health news comes from St. David\u2019s Foundation<\/a>. Sponsors do not influence KUT’s editorial decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Josephine Adegbite had her second baby last spring, all the stars seemed to align. At a midwife-led…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,69847,69848,69849,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-172867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-doulas","12":"tag-doulas-in-austin","13":"tag-maternal-health-care","14":"tag-medicaid"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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