Hospital-based maternity care practitioners' perceptions of doulas.

Introduction: A birth doula provides continuous informational, physical, and emotional support during pregnancy, labor, and immediately postpartum. Existing data on the benefits of doulas, especially for low-resource, high-need patients, do not address how and why individual practitioners decide to recommend this model of care. This project aims to describe best practices of integrating doulas into hospital-based maternity care teams to facilitate access to this evidence-based service for improving maternal health outcomes.

Does Doctor Know Best? Cultural competence is patient-centered care.

[Full article available at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2017-10.asp].