In early 2023 the Maine Doula Coalition initiated the first Maine Doula Survey to gather information about the doula workforce. Understanding the workforce was essential to identifying cultural and geographic gaps in care and better informing efforts to increase access. 

 

At the state level, Maine recognizes both the inequities that exist in perinatal outcomes and the importance of doula care. Expanded support for doula services is recommended by a growing number of reports in Maine as one approach for improving perinatal health outcomes. A deeper understanding of the demographics, scope, capacity and needs of the Maine doula workforce was needed to inform the path forward to expand doula services. In response to this need, Maine Doula Coalition initiated this project to better understand the landscape of doula work in Maine via a survey and interviews of doulas throughout the state. Our results provide a first look at who Maine doulas are, where we are, who we serve and what types of challenges Maine people face in accessing our services.

 

In October 2024, MDC release the completed workforce assessment. The completed report is available here: Download

 

This project was possible with the enthusiastic support of Maine Health Access Foundation. We would also like to thank the many doulas and reviewers who many this report possible and our fiscal sponsor the  Mabel Wadsworth Center.

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