Mary-Powel Thomas is the Director of the Citywide Doula Initiative and also the director of Healthy Start Brooklyn, and she spoke with the Amsterdam News for a Q&A about doula initiatives, partner programs, and eligibility for doula care. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
AmNews: Please tell us about your background in the doula world?
Mary-Powel Thomas: I was the first director of the By My Side Birth Support Program, which started in March of 2010, which eventually grew into the Citywide Doula Initiative in 2022. We brought in seven other community-based doula programs through a request for proposals, and we’ve been partnering with them in the work ever since.
AmNews: Could you talk about doula care in the different boroughs in New York based on the report “The State of Doula Care in NYC.”
Mary-Powel Thomas: One of the most exciting things about this report is the data that we have now from the New York City birth certificate worksheet. We have never known how many doulas were out there, how many doulas were providing support. …There was an estimate from a survey called Listening to Mothers about 10 or 15 years ago that estimated maybe about 6% of births nationwide were attended by a doula …. In the Bronx, for instance, which has the lowest levels of doula support, the CDI provided almost half of the support, so without the CDI, it would have been much smaller, I think, in terms of differences among the boroughs. The other boroughs are starting to catch up, and doulas are becoming more and more well-known which is wonderful because the more they’re well known, the more demand there will be, which eventually will lead to more supply.
AmNews: Do you think there’s going to be a bigger push to let even more people know that they’re eligible for doula care?
Mary-Powel Thomas: I think there’s two answers to that. One is for the Citywide initiative specifically, and one is broader, right, so I guess I’ll start broader. The state has done some work on sharing information …We’re also part of a group called The New York Coalition for Doula Access, that’s a statewide group that [was founded] in 2011. So there are more and more doulas registered as Medicaid providers, and they’re on that directory, and people are looking [and] potential clients are finding people there and reaching out.
In terms of the Citywide Doula initiative, we are trying to strike a balance between publicity
and capacity, so we don’t want to do a huge publicity push and then not have the ability to provide services for all the people who are interested. We do lots of outreach at health fairs. We have a partnership with a group called Bronx Rebirth which works with hospitals … Our team that works with hospitals, one of the things they do is help hospitals develop referral pathways … The other thing I’ll say is we also want to make sure that we’re really reaching people who need the service and might not be hearing about it through the usual channels.
AmNews: Can you talk about workforce development?
Mary-Powel Thomas: There were a couple of successes related to workforce development. Sustainability has improved. The health department doesn’t have a direct role in workforce development except through the Citywide Doula Initiative, and there’s a sister program called Healthy Women Healthy Futures … so those two organizations do provide training, but there are lots of others.
AmNews: Could you talk about a recent bill that became law to require a directory of community doulas?
Mary-Powel Thomas: The directory is already up, and we actually have heard some of our doulas who enrolled as Medicaid providers are getting calls, which is exciting. You can
filter by county … if you’re in Kings County, you can find all the doulas who work there or New
York County.
AmNews: Is there anything else you’d like to tell the Amsterdam News readers?
Mary-Powel Thomas: [Doulas are] available in all the boroughs. We have partners that are definitely willing and able to accept new clients … we want as many people in the community who are interested to be trained in helping support expectant mothers and birthing persons.
For more information please visit: https://www.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/citywide-doula-initiative.page