Continuity of Care for Birthing Families: A Partnership Between Doulas and Home Visitors

Q1: How did PVDC begin building relationships with Community Action Pioneer Valley?

PVDC: In early 2026, the Healthy Families program was providing home visits for a client who was also referred to PVDC for doula care. We quickly realized we could better support this family’s layered needs through collaborative care…We had introductory calls with [CAPV Healthy Families Program] representatives from different counties (Hampshire and Hampden). During these calls, we each presented our respective programs: how we support families, our overarching missions, and where our work aligns. We then discussed cross-referrals and the paperwork involved in collaborative care. Today, we email, text, cross-refer, and collaborate to identify what other supports may be important for a family’s emerging needs.

Q2: What does the partnership look like in practice?

PVDC: As doulas, we can typically identify very quickly when a family lacks community support during the postpartum period. We know that connecting them to other available resources can be the difference between a family in crisis and one that’s thriving… Our doulas and Community Action’s home visitors meet families at different moments and stay with them on different, yet overlapping, timelines. Doulas support clients from pregnancy through one year postpartum, including during the intensity of labor, which gives us long contact time and an intimate view into needs that may not surface in clinical appointments. Home visiting continues past that first year and carries early childhood developmental and overall family support further. Partnering means neither of us is working from a partial picture. Doulas are present immediately during the notorious postpartum care gap. Because we’re with families through labor, we’re often the first people in their home after birth. Rather than a family having to arrange enrollment with a new program on their own, we make a warm referral to Community Action and help get them enrolled.

CAPV: Healthy Families Home Visitors are quite knowledgeable concerning the services offered by PVDC, and PVDC has become our first go-to for doula support for pregnant, birthing, and postpartum participants. Participants who have made use of doula services through PVDC have shared that they experienced warm, inviting, responsive support, and we have seen how that support can help reduce stress and provide a sense of relief… Knowing that our participants are connected with knowledgeable doulas from PVDC who can attend births and provide direct supports with many of the practical needs that arise during postpartum period, such as newborn care, child care, and household tasks, allows our Home Visitors to focus on what they do best: supporting parent-child bonding, strengthening family relationships helping families work towards their goals, hopes, and dreams, and promoting overall family wellness during the three and a half years they are enrolled in our program…Together, these services provide families with both immediate, hands-on support and long-term relationship-based support, creating a strong foundation during a significant life transition.

Q3: How do families benefit from being connected to both doula care and home visiting support?

PVDC: From the very beginning of our introduction to a family, we invite them to fill out a comprehensive needs assessment, which allows us to identify what resources are needed. What surfaces is rarely just birth-related. Families name transportation, housing, food access, language access, insurance navigation, and long waits for mental health care alongside their questions about labor and feeding. Most of these needs are unmet not because a service doesn’t exist, but because getting to it takes more steps than a family can manage while pregnant or caring for a newborn. Increasingly, we are supporting not just as birth professionals but as resource barrier navigators. The systemic divestment our clients face deserves layered care that is directly bridged from one program to the next. It is incredibly reassuring to us that we are holding families in partnership and that once our care reaches the end of its timeline, there are services they are already connected to carry them further. This continuum of care creates a sturdy foundation for the parenting years ahead.

Q4: What makes the partnership between PVDC and CAPV successful?

CAPV: A shared vision and belief in parental autonomy. Recognizing parents as the experts in their own lives and in the lives of their babies. We also share a deep respect for families and an accepting, inclusive approach to supporting them. The partnership has also benefited from a commitment at all levels of both organizations to providing the best possible support for parents, as well as taking the time to meet and learn about one another’s programs and build trusting relationships.

Q5: What advice would you give to other programs that want to build a similar community partnership?

PVDC: Connect. Learn about the alignments in your respective missions. There is often so much overlap between home-visiting programs and doula care — we cannot practice either of these in isolation. We bring differing perspectives, cultural identities, and lived experiences, which can only strengthen the holistic, true care we provide to individuals and families. Doulas bring a level of expertise in the newborn and infant season, and they often know what questions to ask and how to hold the intensity of the transitions that come with the perinatal period. A Healthy Families home visitor once shared with us how grateful she was to know our organization exists, so she could connect a family navigating so much during an already transitional time with meaningful, quality, comprehensive support.

Q6: In an ideal world, what would even stronger collaboration between doulas and home visiting programs look like?

PVDC: In an ideal world, we would have access to a project-based grant to further explore this partnership between doulas and home-visiting programs. A funded initiative could support a shared care coordinator role, someone who manages referrals, tracks outcomes, and ensures information flows smoothly between our teams. It could also fund joint training sessions so that doulas and home visitors build a shared language around perinatal mental health, attachment, and trauma-informed care, and know exactly when and how to hand off support to one another… Longer-term, ideal funding would also help close the gap that exists once MassHealth-funded doula services end around the 12-month mark. A joint initiative could extend some form of light-touch, collaborative support through toddlerhood, so families aren’t facing a hard cutoff in care right when they need continuity most.CAPV: One idea would be to offer a signed release of information with every referral so that Home Visitors and doulas can periodically check in with one another, coordinate services, and ensure families receive complementary support without unnecessary duplication.