Community Doula Initiative (CDI)

About

The doula is a professional trained in childbirth who provides emotional, physical, and educational support to a mother who is expecting, is experiencing labor, or has recently given birth. Their purpose is to help women have a safe, memorable, and empowering birthing experience.

​Through collaborations, training, support and education, CDI aims to build community capacity to understand, support, and embrace birth work in addressing maternal and infant birth outcomes and health.

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Aims

The purpose of CDI is to: ​

• Inform families on the benefits of birthing with a doula and gather their feedback on the best way to bring them doula services
• Enhance, strengthen and support existing working being done in birth and doula work
• Cultivate a collaborative community of doulas/birth workers
• Discover gaps/needs
• Conduct a current inventory of doula services
• Garner support from community leaders, stakeholders and elected officials

The CDI does this through three core strategies:

1. Doula Roundtable 
2. Doula Champion Program 
3. Community Conversations ​

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Partners

African American Breast Feeding Network

Lifecourse Initiative for Healthy Families

Wisconsin Partnership Program

Team

Kaija Zusevics, PhD