Hartford HealthCare nurses and doulas gathered at the capitol Monday, waving breastfeeding flags. They marked a state and hospital partnership that is bringing doulas to support people with breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding is “a priority for the state of Connecticut,” said Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz, commenting on the two laws enacted in July to expand doula reimbursements and improve hospital collaborations with doulas.
That in part drove Hartford HealthCare to partner with doulas in the community to help initiate breastfeeding. Connecticut Medicaid – known as HUSKY Health – began reimbursing doula services this year as part of its maternity bundle launched in January.
More than 40% of all births in Connecticut are covered by Husky Health.
Easha Canada, deputy commissioner at the Department of Social Services (DSS), said Connecticut has one of the highest rates of breastfeeding in the nation. More than 85% of Connecticut babies begin life with breastfeeding, she said.
But racial disparities persist.
LaSonya Cromartie, a doula at Earth’s Natural Touch: Birth Care & Beyond, said she was exhausted after giving birth to her daughter, a beautiful baby girl. She fell asleep, and when she woke up, hospital staff were providing her daughter a bottle without her permission.
“Not only was I devastated, but I never got the support that I needed in order to initiate breastfeeding,” she said.
Cromartie’s experience as a Black woman is far from unique.
“My mother nor her mother breastfed any of their children because of the history of wet nursing and slavery in this country,” she said, explaining that “giving your baby a bottle did equate to freedom.”
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that fewer non-Hispanic Black infants (78.1%) are ever breastfed compared with non-Hispanic Asian infants (87.7%), non-Hispanic White infants (87.7%) and Hispanic infants (85.9%).
Also, infants receiving the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) are less likely to ever be breastfed (79.2%) than infants eligible, but not receiving WIC (87.5%).
Canada of the DSS said the agency’s maternity health bundle program, which includes doula services, lactation consulting and care coordination wrapped around the mother and family, “is directly aligned with the new maternal health law signed this year.”
Christine Stuart, spokeswoman for the DSS, said it was too early to comment on doula utilization since new laws took effect this year.
“Suboptimal breastfeeding results in over $100 billion in annual economic losses driven by preventable medical costs – premature death and reduced cognitive development,” said Dr. Elizabeth Deckers, director of maternal quality and safety at Hartford Healthcare. “We are actively addressing these challenges.”
She was citing a 2024 study published in the journal Health Policy and Planning.
Daileann Hemmings, system director of maternal health equity at Hartford HealthCare, said the organization is working to create more doula-friendly campuses.
