CHEER has been awarded a three-year, $750,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) to develop a hospital-based model for integrating doulas into maternity care teams in Mississippi. The project builds on the success of our Mississippi CHAMPS (Communities and Hospitals Advancing Maternity Practices) program, which has significantly improved maternal and infant health outcomes across the state since 2014.
With this new funding, CHAMPS will work in partnership with community doulas, hospitals, and leaders in maternal-child health equity — including Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere (ROSE), a nationally recognized nonprofit that promotes breastfeeding among Black families — to design a sustainable, community-informed model for doula integration. The project will emphasize racial equity, institutional collaboration, and systems change, while making the case for Medicaid and private insurance coverage for doula care.
Research shows doulas improve breastfeeding rates, reduce cesarean births and pain medication use, enhance respectful care, and reduce racial disparities in maternal health. Yet doulas are underutilized in Mississippi hospitals, and Medicaid in the state does not reimburse for doula services. In contrast, 46 states and Washington, D.C. have taken steps toward Medicaid coverage for doula care, and 24 are actively reimbursing, with Vermont, Arkansas, Utah, Louisiana, and Montana passing laws in 2025 to expand access.
Over the next three years, CHAMPS will conduct statewide assessments of both doula care and hospital readiness to integrate doulas into maternity teams; enroll pilot hospitals to implement sustainable doula integration policies and protocols; provide training for doulas on breastfeeding and evidence-based maternity care practices; and collect breastfeeding and maternity care data to measure impact and demonstrate the value of doula integration.
Our CHAMPS program has a proven record of reducing disparities and advancing equity in maternity care. Since its launch in Mississippi, the number of Baby-Friendly designated hospitals has increased from zero to 30, breastfeeding rates have risen, and racial gaps in breastfeeding have narrowed. This new initiative will expand that impact by creating a replicable hospital-based model for doula integration that fosters collaboration between medical staff and community birth workers, demonstrates improvements in maternal health outcomes and patient experience, and lays the groundwork for meaningful insurance policy coverage.
Read the press release here.
