We are writing to you to ask that you continue the funding for doula services under the Maternity Support Services program. I urge you to continue this program and include it in the Governor’s next budget proposal. My fellow labor and delivery nurses have witnessed the need for doulas as well as researched the positive outcomes related to their use. The following are positive outcomes from national research supporting doula services:

• Doula supported deliveries for Medicaid beneficiaries save $58.4 million dollars per year·
• 10,000 simulated Medicaid-funded deliveries with doula support resulted in a 73% cost savings
• Reduction in cesarean section rates
• Shortened labors
• Reduction in epidural rates
• Reduction in assisted vaginal deliveries
• Higher patient satisfaction
• Reduction in infant mortality
• Reduction in low birth weight
• increased rates of breastfeeding·
• Lower preterm birth rates

The bottom line is that Medicaid reimbursement for doulas leads to improved health outcomes for mothers and babies as well as cost savings. For the reasons listed above I implore you to promote the Maternity Support Services program and insist that the Governor allocates a budget for this initiative beyond 2021.