Doula Support
The Hackensack Meridian Health Network is pleased to support patients who wish to have a specially trained and/or certified doula present during their labor and postpartum care.
Our doula support program provides compassionate, patient-centered assistance through the birthing and postpartum journey, helping women and families before, during and after birth. We serve expectant parents, birth partners and referring providers across New Jersey with expert doula-supported maternity care. Hackensack Meridian Health offers doula support throughout New Jersey, delivering personalized physical, emotional and educational support alongside medical teams. Patients in North, Central and South NJ can access this enhanced care near home. As part of New Jersey’s leading health-network, we combine clinical excellence, innovation and family-focused support to deliver the best experience and outcomes.
The Role of the Doula
Provides individualized physical, emotional and educational support to patients and their partners before, during and after birth. While they do not provide medical advice or perform medical tasks, they provide support that includes:
- Provide massage and relaxation techniques
- Assist with breathing, relaxation, emotional encouragement, movement, and positioning, as well as
all other on-site comfort care - Support patients and partners in making informed decisions
- Support patients and infants during breastfeeding and skin-to-skin time
- Follow the guidance of health care professionals during care, including medical emergencies
New Jersey law provides patients with the right to choose to use a doula for labor and postpartum support, and all doula services are to be contracted privately by the patient. The hospital will not be responsible for the services provided by the doula.
Doulas at Hackensack Meridian Health
- All doulas will work collaboratively with the patient’s plan of care, and the patient’s physician, nurse and any other HMH hospital team members involved with the patient’s care.
- In the event of a Cesarean section, only one support person may accompany the patient into the operating room. An additional person may accompany the patient if all surgical team members agree.
To view the full Hackensack Meridian Health Doula Policy, or for any questions, please call 848-888-4538 or email HMHdoula@HMHN.org.
Please be sure to indicate the hospital location where the patient is delivering.
Hackensack Meridian Health reserves the right to make changes to the policy at any time for the safety of the patient.
Why Choose Hackensack Meridian Health
- Doula support embedded in a network that is nationally recognized for excellence in maternity care, six of our hospitals earned the “High Performing” designation by U.S. News & World Report for Maternity Care
- A family-first, team-based maternity approach: obstetricians, midwives, nurses, neonatologists and doulas work together to support the patient’s goals
- Personalized care that recognizes preferences: the doula role emphasizes emotional and educational support throughout the pregnancy-birth-postpartum continuum
- Access to advanced maternity services and postpartum support including lactation, neonatal-intensive-care units (NICUs), and high-risk pregnancy expertise when needed
- Convenient access across New Jersey with multiple outpatient and hospital sites, making this kind of enhanced support more accessible to families