For parents, the first few weeks and months with their babies are some of the hardest. In Houston and Fort Worth, families now have a new resource to help them through the “fourth trimester.”
Delighted to Doula, a nonprofit that’s been supporting new parents with postpartum doula services in Dallas for the last four years, is now serving Fort Worth and Houston.
“Birth is so unpredictable,” said Prinscilla Moore, founder and president of Delighted to Doula. “Nobody knows that they’re going to have postpartum depression. No one goes into birth thinking they may die.”
Those are frightening possibilities, but they’re real. Nationwide, postpartum depression and anxiety affect 1 in 5 new mothers, according to the National Institutes of Health. And Texas is in the grips of a maternal health crisis, with a maternal death rate 19 percent higher than the national average, according to the March of Dimes. Those problems are more pronounced in Houston, particularly among women of color. Knowledgeable, consistent care from experienced postpartum doulas can vastly improve outcomes for new moms.
“We are working to eliminate maternal mortality in historically underserved communities with unbiased, non-judgmental postpartum care and education,” said Moore, who is also president of the Childbirth and Postpartum Professional Association, (CAPPA) one of the largest certification organizations for doulas, lactation educators, and childbirth educators.
Moore and her team of postpartum doulas meet parents where they are, literally–the first several weeks of an engagement happens in the home, where mothers, fathers, and birthing people get evidence-based education, support, and nurturing for the full range of struggles that often come up, including:
- Breastfeeding support
- Wellness assessments
- Respite care for new parents
- Delivery of postpartum recovery items for mothers, such as pumping bras, bathing essentials, pads, and other essentials needed for mothers recovery.
Delighted to Doula’s approach is built on partnership. Santa Maria Hostel have helped make the agency’s expansion into Houston possible, while The Morris Foundation paved the way for Delighted to Doula to serve in Fort Worth.
The Boone Family Foundation, The United Way and Nexus Recovery Center are longtime supporters of Delighted to Doula’s work in Dallas. The organization was recently featured in the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas Social Innovation Accelerator, a program aimed at scaling social impact in north Texas.
source: press release