This year, dozens of mothers who wouldn’t otherwise have had access to a doula will receive personalized, hands-on help from doulas and other community health workers before, during, and after their babies are born.
That’s thanks to NHRMC’s Community Health Worker-Doula Program, which officially began in January. The program, funded by a two-year grant, connects pregnant mothers to a community health worker and doulas who will help educate and serve as a support system for the moms during their pregnancies and for up to a year after they give birth.
The program will primarily serve Black mothers in New Hanover, Pender, and Columbus counties, whose babies die more often than do babies born to white or Hispanic mothers. If a Black baby is born underweight -- which is more likely to happen to Black infants than it is to white infants -- that baby is almost four times more likely to die.