Co-hosted by Nurture Connection, Early Childhood Funders Collaborative (ECFC), and the Early Relational Health Funders Community
ECFC, Nurture Connection, and the Early Relational Health Funders Community hosted this discussion on September 19, 2024 to explore a partnership to expand a community-based doula training curriculum to deepen the foundational impact of early relationships between children and their caregivers.
Nurture Connection, in collaboration with HealthConnect One, jointly enhanced the HealthConnect One curriculum for doulas, focusing on their role in supporting early relational health between birthing people and babies and advancing equity; this curriculum was tested in nine selected communities over a two year period. Investments from the Pritzker Children’s Initiative, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and Burke Foundation supported the work to develop a curriculum that helps doulas gain the skills and knowledge to advance early relational health, in order to augment the relationship building they are already doing with birthing people. The funders recognized that building the capacity of doulas, a trusted community partner, working with families prenatally and immediately following birth, to support families in building the early relationships with their babies, was an innovative approach to building the bridge between maternal and child health (MCH) and early childhood systems.
The partnership with HealthConnect One has been an opportunity to highlight racial, restorative, and reproductive justice within community-centered approaches, and to invest in strengthening familial bonds through peer-to-peer support that centers on communities most impacted by years of historical disinvestment and structural inequities.
Presenters highlighted the process of creating the content with doulas; shared insights into the implementation and impact of the Early Relational Health training; and shared policy recommendations from this partnership to support the practice of community-based doulas.
Panelists (Bios)
- Twylla Dillion, President and CEO, HealthConnect One
- Hoda Shawky, MSN, CPNP, PMHS, IBCLC, Noorture, LLC
- Kay Johnson, President, Johnson Policy Consulting, LLC.
- Cynthia Hayes, B S., CLC; Project Director, Doula Advocacy Team, Doulas4CT Coalition
- Andrea Palmer, Program Officer, Pritzker Children’s Initiative
- Dana D. West, Project Director, Department of Health Equity Innovation, National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ)
Moderated by: David Willis, Founder, Nurture Connection
- Webinar Slide Deck
- HealthConnect One Early Relational Health Training Report (Table 3 includes ERH tools)
- Early Relational Health Core Story (definitions, messages)
- State Leadership and Policy Action to Advance Early Relational Health
- Community-Based Doulas and Early Relational Health: The Role of Public Policy and Financing
- Doula Services Within a Healthy Start Program: Increasing Access for an Underserved Population, Matern Child Health J. 2017; 21(Suppl 1): 59–64.
- Healthy Start Fact Sheet
- FY 2021 Healthy Start Initiative Awards
- Healthy Start Community Based Doulas Fiscal Year 2022 Awards
- HHS April 2024 HHS regarding latest round of Healthy Start Sites