from The Lily that examines how the role of doulas intersects with private and public insurance, race, socioeconomic status, policy and the medical community.
After protests spawned a national conversation about racism last summer, CVS Health began to take a hard look at what the company was doing to address disparities.
In July, CVS Health announced that it would invest about $600 million to “advance employee, community and public policy initiatives that address inequality faced by Black people and other disenfranchised communities.”
The company decided to focus on several areas with major disparities, including maternal and child health, said Joanne Armstrong, the chief medical officer for women’s health and genomics at CVS Health. Throughout the fall and winter, Armstrong met with employees to learn more about their birth experiences. Armstrong and her team also reviewed research about doulas, who support people during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. Num
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Long before she got pregnant or became a mom, Safiya Barclay knew she wanted the support of a doula, a nonmedical professional who coaches parents through pregnancy, labor and the postpartum period.
“Being an African American woman, I was always frightened of the thought of not getting the proper attention and care at the hospital,” recalled Barclay, 36, of West Palm Beach, Florida.
Barclay got her wish: she relied heavily on the support of a local doula named Averjill Rookwood when she delivered a preemie daughter in the summer of 2020. That support had an unexpected plot twist, though.