Community voices: With new corporate support, Healthy Start expands doula services for pregnant women

Infant mortality, defined as the death of a baby before its first birthday, is much higher in the United States than in other developed countries. In Pinellas County, the Healthy Start Coalition is an organization dedicated to the prevention of pre-term and low birth weight births – the leading causes of infant death.

Since Healthy Start Coalition – Pinellas’s founding in 1992, infant death across the county has decreased by 33%. That’s one in three babies who now live to see their first birthday. But approximately 45 babies per year still die, many to preventable causes, leaving grieving families and communities to mourn their loss.

To continue to protect young lives, Healthy Start Coalition’s executive director Mary Jo Plews reports that the organization is moving aggressively to increase access to doula services, an ancient method of support for pregnant women that, according to contemporary research, dramatically improves maternal-child health outcomes.

“The word Doula derives from a Greek word, meaning ‘a woman who serves.’” Plews said. “They are certified, trained non-medical professionals who provide emotional, physical and information support before, during and after childbirth.”

Doula care results in fewer low birthweight babies, fewer preterm births, fewer Cesarean sections, and a narrowing of the racial health disparities gap. And they save millions of dollars in healthcare costs annually, which is why doula services are a covered Medicaid benefit.

But this benefit is not well understood, according to Plews, and Doulas, most of whom work from small, private practices, find navigating insurance billing requirements a challenge and want to be able to reach more women who most need their services. So, the Healthy Start Coalition in Pinellas is using their special expertise to create a doula network and registry, and to leverage their connection to virtually every prenatal care provider in the county to tout the benefits of doulas and connect them to pregnant women on Medicaid.

“We recognized this disconnect and saw an opportunity for the Healthy Start Coalition to help doulas build their practices and deliver their life-saving services,” said Plews. “We already have contact with more than half the pregnant women in Pinellas County, and 70% of them have Medicaid coverage.”

Healthy Start Coalition is building the infrastructure to connect doulas to the Medicaid system and offer informational, administrative, and billing services to the practitioners. They will act as the back office for the practitioner network, leveraging their existing operational infrastructure for the benefit of the program. They will capture a small fee for their services, which Plews hopes will make the arrangement a financially sustainable social venture benefitting all parties.

In November, Plews participated in the Fast Pitch competition, organized by Social Venture Partners Tampa Bay, having been selected as one of nine nonprofit organizations to present their social ventures to a panel of judges. Although her pitch did not win one of the three cash awards, her project caught the attention of corporate leader Jim James, who was in the audience that night at the Palladium.

James is the CTO of Clarity Services, a division of Experian that helps non-prime consumers get access to credit. He was struck by the practicality of Healthy Start Coalition’s plan to create a countywide doula network, benefitting the practitioners’ businesses, and connecting more pregnant women to these vital services.

James reached out to Plews on behalf of Experian and offered a gift of $10,000 to help the Coalition launch the social venture. “Mr. James said that he was inspired because before his career in technology, he had wanted to practice midwifery,” Plews said. “He was very well informed about what doulas do and how they contribute to better outcomes for mothers and babies.”

“Healthy Start does amazing work,” James said, “but leveraging their hard-won network of expectant mothers to get doula support paid for by Medicaid by taking care of the billing is genius! I admire the determination of these women to eliminate infant mortality here in Tampa Bay.”

According to Plews, although she did not win one of the cash prizes from Social Venture Partners, the work she did perfecting her pitch and articulating the case for the doula network was a clear benefit from participation in the Fast Pitch process.

“The fact that the event connected our organization to Mr. James and educated others in the audience that night about doulas was an amazing opportunity,” she said. “We absolutely know that these services will save babies’ lives and reduce unnecessary health care costs associated with incidences of premature and low-weight births.”

For more information about the Coalition or their efforts, visit http://healthystartpinellas.org/ or email info@healthystartpinellas.org