members of the Newland Volunteer Doula Project team recently visited Chicago on a fact finding and bridge building mission! Heather Barnes, Volunteer Doula Project Manager, Jackie Wright, Fenchurch St Centre Manager and Anna Heddle, Health Cluster Manager for the Goodwin Development Trust spent a weekend over in the windy city, meeting a similar organisation, the Chicago Health Connection.
The Chicago Health Connection has developed a similar model to that being rolled out by the Newland Volunteer Doula Project which is based in Hull. The Hull project trains volunteers to be 'doulas' of birth partners and then matches them up with and supports women through the latter stages of pregnancy, continuously throughout the birth and for 6 weeks after the baby has been born.
The Chicago Health Connection trains women from under-served communities to be well informed health educators and mentors to young families in their neighbourhoods.
Their trip consisted of attending a conference entitled ‘Nurturing Excellence’ at a hotel in Chicago. This was attended by many members of staff, doulas, volunteers and board members. Many eminent local speakers attended the conference, the focus being on nurturing the women, babies and families that they support. The day was inspiring and through provoking and also gave the Hull contingent the opportunity to network and build links with members of the team in the States.
The second day of the visit consisted of meetings at the office of Chicago Health Connection, gathering information on how they have developed their package of care and the training model, and how they have replicated this across the USA. It was interesting to note that the day to day challenges of developing and running the projects were very similar and the links between the two organisations will now hopefully be built upon and developed across the coming months.
