2025 at a Glance: Five Years of Community, Advocacy, and Doula Care

This year marked a powerful milestone for Community Doula Alliance: five years rooted in building, training, and sustaining community-based doulas.
 

Here’s what we grew together in 2025—and across our first five years.

Expanding Access to Community-Based Doula Care

Training the Next Generation of Doulas

• Trained and mentored over 60 community-based doulas through our core training program, Community Doula Training, and Diverse Doula Program Membership 
• Supported doulas from historically excluded and linguistically challenged communities  to enter and remain in birth work.
• Expanded our C.A.R.E. curriculum rooted in:
  • Culturally-specific, trauma-informed care
  • Advocacy within medical systems
  • Reproductive & racial justice
  • Equity-based, sustainable support

Impact to Date

• 90 doulas trained over 5 years
• 7 different languages represented
• 547 families supported by CDA Doulas
  

Strengthening Birth Outcomes Through Community Care

• CDA-trained doulas supported families across pregnancy, birth, and postpartum 
• Community-based doula care contributed to:
  • 1,132 prenatal & postpartum visits completed  
  • 1,762 hours supported for births
  • 20.7% cesarean birth rate –  9% lower compared to the state of Oregon’s overall C-section rate and 12% lower than the national average
  • 1154 lactation encounters through our Milk Magic Education partnership with Nurturely
    
• Outcomes reflect the power of culturally-specific, linguistically-centered support

These numbers represent more than statistics—they represent families held, advocated for, and supported.

Supporting Sustainable Doula Businesses

Business Education & Mentorship

• Delivered business-building workshops on:
  • HIPAA compliance and billing 
  • Contracts, policies, and scope
  • Mindfulness & preventing burnout in birth work
• Provided mentorship and peer support for new and established doulas

Sustainability Focus

• Centered fair compensation, rest, and longevity 
• Supported doulas navigating Medicaid, community contracts, and alternative business models (CHW, lactation, etc)

Partnerships That Deepened Our Impact

• Strengthened partnerships with hospitals and community organizations like Virginia Garcia, Oregon Doula Association, & Nurturely 
• Collaborated with CCOs like Trillium & CareOregon to improve referral pathways
• Celebrated Black Birth through Meyer Memorial Trust that was led by the CDA, in partnership with the Community Doula Program (CDP) and OHSU & Dr. Cheney and Micknai Arefaine from OSU’s Imagining Birth Equity (I-BE).
• Partnered with Washington County to advocate for birth equity and systemic change as part of the newly launched Douly Program.

Fundraising That Fueled the Mission

• Raised $6,587 as part of Give!Guide to:
  • Provide training scholarships for future doulas 
  • Support doula resources, programming, and continuing education
  • Sustain billing and business support for THW doulas & OHP families
• Celebrated CDA’s 5th year with our first Gala celebration where we were able to
  raise $9,275 to renew our commitment to community-powered care.

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A Sneak Peek Ahead

The Next Five Years with Community Doula Alliance

• Expanded training programs and advanced models of maternal health care 
• Deeper business mentorship and leadership development
• Stronger clinical and community partnerships
• Increased fundraising to expand services for doulas & families
• More spaces for rest, reflection, and collective healing

The Heart of It All — Our Community

Every doula trained.
Every family supported.
Every system challenged.

Thank you for being part of our first five years.
Here’s to having you with us for the next five and beyond – we’re just getting started.

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