ReviewWomen's health issues : official publication of the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health
Health Equity Considerations in State Bills Related to Doula Care (2015-2020).
Review in Women's health issues : official publication of the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Low-risk Cesareans Across the US: A Decomposition of Individual- and County-level Factors by Race/Ethnicity.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- "Sometimes the Doulas, They Need a Doula": A Qualitative Analysis of Black and Pacific Islander Doulas' Perspectives on Personal and Professional Growth as Birth Workers.The Journal of perinatal education · 2025Article
- Feasibility and Acceptability of a Multimedia Childbirth Education Intervention for Black Women and Birthing People and Their Birth Companions.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Building HOPE: Integrating community-based doula care in public hospitals in New York City.Health affairs scholar · 2025Article
- Opportunities to sustain matricentric models of community and person-centered care for perinatal substance use in the postFrontiers in psychiatry · 2025Review
- Role of Doulas in Improving Maternal Health and Health Equity Among Medicaid Enrollees, 2014‒2023.American journal of public health · 2024Observational
- Doulas as family partners in the neuro neonatal intensive care unit.Pediatric research · 2024Article
- Study protocol: a mixed-methods study of the implementation of doula care to address racial health equity in six state Medicaid programs.Health research policy and systems · 2024Article
- Listen to the Whispers before They Become Screams: Addressing Black Maternal Morbidity and Mortality in the United States.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Governing therapeutic pluralism: An environmental scan of the statutory regulation and government reimbursement of traditional and complementary medicine practitioners in the United States.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Doulas as Facilitators to Black Birthing People's Needs in Pennsylvania in the Context of Medicaid Coverage.Health equityArticle
- An Interprofessional Collaboration Between a Community-Based Doula Organization and Clinical Partners: The Champion Dyad Initiative.Journal of midwifery & women's healthArticle
- Article
- Evaluation of a Shift Model Doula Program During Labor and Birth at a Large Volume, Safety-Net Teaching Hospital.Journal of midwifery & women's healthArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionRacial inequities in birth outcomes persist in the United States. Doula care may help to decrease inequities and improve some perinatal health indicators, but access remains a challenge. Recent doula-related state legislative action seeks to improve access, but the prioritization of equity is unknown. We reviewed recent trends in doula-related legislation and evaluated the extent to which new legislation addresses racial health equity.
methodsWe conducted a landscape analysis of the LegiScan database to systematically evaluate state legislation mentioning the word "doula" between 2015 and 2020. We identified and applied nine criteria to assess the equity focus of the identified doula-related legislative proposals. Our final sample consisted of 73 bills across 24 states.
resultsWe observed a three-fold increase in doula-related state legislation introduced over the study period, with 15 bills proposed before 2019 and 58 proposed in 2019-2020. Proposed policies varied widely in content and scope, with 53.4% focusing on Medicaid reimbursement for doula care. In total, 12 bills in 7 states became law. Seven of these laws (58.3%) contained measures for Medicaid reimbursement for doula services, but none guaranteed a living wage based on the cost of living or through consultation with doulas. Only two states (28.6%; Virginia and Oregon) that passed Medicaid reimbursement for doulas also addressed other racial equity components.
conclusionsThere has been an increase in proposed doula-related legislation between 2015 and 2020, but racial health equity is not a focus among the laws that passed. States should consider using racial equity assessments to evaluate proposed doula-related legislation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.