Minnesota Prison Doula Project

Since 2010, I have had the privilege of serving as the Research Director for the Minnesota Prison Doula Project (MnPDP). The project began as a prison-based pregnancy, birth, and parenting program at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee. Over the past decade, the program has expanded to serve people held in county jails throughout Minnesota. Today, MnPDP provides pregnancy and parenting support to incarcerated parents. In addition, MnPDP provides birth support from trained doulas, as well as group-based and individual education and support. The goal is to nurture healthy relationships and increase parenting confidence and skills.

Our research with MnPDP has been supported by a number of sources including pilot grants from the University of Minnesota’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the Program in Health Disparities Research. We have recently concluded a 2-year study (R03) funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development which used integrated data to assess the efficacy and cost-benefits of doula care for pregnant women in prisons.

Our past studies have documented the lessons learned from our community-university-corrections partnership, the feasibility of providing doula support to pregnant people in prisons, breastfeeding initiation, officers' perspectives, and caregivers' perspectives.

Our future work will include a multi-site study of enhanced pregnancy and postpartum programs in other state prisons.