Promoting Positive Mother–Infant Relationships: A Randomized Trial of Community Doula Support For Young Mothers

Abstract

Doulas, whose traditional role is to support women during labor and delivery, are being increasingly utilized within community-based programs where a primary goal is supporting mother-infant relationships. The present study investigated the effect of doula services on parenting among young, low-income mothers. A total of 248 pregnant women were randomly assigned to receive either doula services or routine medical and social services. The doulas provided prenatal home visitation, support during labor and delivery, and 3 months of postpartum home visitation. Parenting was assessed through video recordings of mother-infant interaction at 4, 12, and 24 months of child age and maternal report of parenting attitudes and stress. Intent-to-treat analyses showed that mothers who had received doula services endorsed more child-centered parenting values, showed more positive engagement with their infants, and were more likely to respond to infant distress at 4 months. Their infants were less likely to show visible upset during observed interactions. Most effects of the program on parent and child behavior faded over time. Community doula intervention is a promising practice for supporting parenting and parent-infant interaction. Integration of doulas into longer term home-visiting models might sustain the early impact of doula services and enhance parenting services offered by traditional home-visiting programs.

Teenage Childbearing, Reproductive Justice, and Infant Mental Health

“…The model has been described in a variety of sources, including a book (Abramson, Isaacs, & Breedlove, ) and a documentary film (Alpert & Suffredin, ). Randomized controlled trials of the community doula model have shown positive impacts of the intervention on breast‐feeding as well as early mother–infant interaction (Edwards et al., ; Hans, Edwards, & Zhang, ; Hans et al., ).…”

Prenatal Depressive Symptoms and Toddler Behavior Problems: The Role of Maternal Sensitivity and Child Sex

“…Although the IRB and hospital HIPAA advisors did not allow collection of demographic or health information on non-participants, these women were almost certainly African American and low-income given the population served by the clinics. At the end of the prenatal interview, mothers were assigned to receive either community-based doula services (n = 124), or regular prenatal medical and social services (n = 124) [44].…”

Primiparous Women’s Experiences of Normal Vaginal Delivery in Iran: A Qualitative Study

“…Kozhimannil et al (2013) concluded that the emotional support provided by "Doula" can relieve the labor pain, increase the satisfaction, and create a pleasant experience and positive outcome (42,43). Doula is an experienced woman who provides continuous emotional support to women during childbirth (30,(43)(44)(45). Moreover, Boryri et al (2016) stated that ongoing support from Doula or one of the family members reduced the medical interventions, increased the mother's satisfaction, enhanced the neonatal outcomes, and 13 improved the psychological wellbeing of mothers(4).…”