WEEKLY UPDATE: 05/07/26
The inaugural session of the Connecticut Hospital Association’s (CHA) new educational programming, “From Evidence to Practice: Enhancing Doula-Clinician Collaboration in Hospital Settings,” was held at Bridgeport Hospital on Wednesday, May 6, marking the first of six forums in Fairfield County birthing hospitals over the next two months.
Birthing hospitals in southeastern Connecticut — including Hartford HealthCare’s St. Vincent’s Medical Center, Northwell Health’s Danbury and Norwalk Hospitals, Stamford Health, and Yale New Haven Health’s Bridgeport and Greenwich Hospitals — are inviting perinatal hospital staff who work in their respective facilities and community doulas who serve Fairfield County patients to participate in joint, interactive, educational forums. The programming clarifies doulas’ roles and scope of practice, teaches evidence-based benefits of doula support, provides tools to improve communication and coordination, and identifies and addresses common misconceptions about doulas.
Information about and registration for the upcoming sessions can be found here as details are finalized. Continuing Education Credits will be available for nurses and physicians.
Each educational event will be co-facilitated by a doula and a hospital-based perinatal clinician who helped design the curriculum alongside peers from across the state. Over the last year, the group channeled lived experiences and valuable expertise into a defined set of recommendations needed to cultivate a doula-friendly hospital environment.
This ongoing, evolving project is made possible by Fairfield County’s Community Foundation (FCCF) Black Maternal Health Initiative. Strengthening doula and clinician collaboration in hospital settings elevates CHA’s sustained efforts to mitigate stark racial inequities in maternal health outcomes — a pillar of Connecticut hospitals’ statewide strategy to improve maternal health.
The doula-clinician collaboration programming is one piece of the infrastructure that Connecticut hospitals support to enhance respectful, culturally responsive care, address implicit bias through ongoing training, and ensure every patient feels heard, safe, and supported. Explore all of CHA’s ongoing maternal health initiatives here.
Click here to learn more about the project to enhance doula-clinician collaboration in birthing hospitals.
Click here to learn about upcoming forums.
