ARKANSAS, USA — With Arkansas being known for having the highest maternal mortality rate in the country, a new organization has been formed with goals to improve and support maternal health across the Natural State.
The Doula Alliance of Arkansas, which got started with the help of a $250,000 grant, aims to expand access to quality doula services.
"We give you like the guide. We help you through you know the exercises and what you need to do to prepare yourself for like the big sprint, the big race, which is giving birth," Liyah Wasson, one of the alliance's founders, said. "I really look at doulas as the soldiers in a maternal health revolution."
Wasson and co-founder Sondra Rodocker said doulas have become more popular since the pandemic.
"When mothers were giving birth they were really restricting visitors a lot, but doulas had a place in that role and doulas were welcomed back into the labor and delivery units before other visitors were welcomed back," Rodocker said.
While doulas have become more accepted in the medical field, Wasson and Rodocker said there is still work to be done.
"We want doulas to be more integrated as part of the team instead of it feeling like somebody outside coming in," Wasson said.
"Doulas haven't really had a clear definition, specifically in our state, as to what our scope is [and] how we fit into the picture," Rodocker said.
Wasson said not only is gaining acceptance one of the goals the alliance has set for itself, but they also want doulas to get paid.
"We have doulas in the state who have been in the profession for decades," Wasson said. "When you look at how fast it has expanded and then how things have expanded ... we do see a lot of doulas who are just doing this from the kindness of their heart."
The little to no compensation often leads to burnout, according to Wasson.
"There are people who after three years are attending birth [and] not making enough money that they feel it's a fair trade-off for the time that they're maybe sacrificing with their family, the resources that they're sacrificing," she said. "It's just overall taxing. It's physically taxing. It's emotionally taxing. I really hope to see in my lifetime the changes that are going to come from that especially here locally in Arkansas."
Membership in the Doula Alliance of Arkansas is open to doulas, community partners, and supporters of doulas.
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