The role of doulas and community birth workers in abortion and contraception care: An international scoping review

Clare Heggie; Lin Tong; Aishwarya Heran; Ishika Bhambhani; Shelley McKibbon; Martha Paynter

doi:10.1016/j.contraception.2024.110482

The role of doulas and community birth workers in abortion and contraception care: An international scoping review

Contraception. 2024 May 9:110482. doi: 10.1016/j.contraception.2024.110482. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Clare Heggie¹, Lin Tong², Aishwarya Heran³, Ishika Bhambhani⁴, Shelley McKibbon⁵, Martha Paynter²

Affiliations

¹ University of New Brunswick Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, 3 Bailey Drive, P.O. Box 4400, Fredericton, NB, Canada, E3B 5A3. Electronic address: clare.heggie@unb.ca.
² University of New Brunswick Faculty of Nursing, 33 Dineen Dr, Fredericton, NB, Canada, E3B 5A3.
³ McGill University Faculty of Science, 853 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec H3A 0G5.
⁴ University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine, 317 - 2194 Health Sciences Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3.
⁵ Dalhousie University WK Kellogg Health Sciences Library, 5850 College Street Halifax, NS B3H 4H7.

PMID: 38734230
DOI: 10.1016/j.contraception.2024.110482

Abstract

Objectives: Equitable and safe access to abortion and contraception is essential to protecting reproductive autonomy. Despite this, barriers to access remain. "Doulas", non-clinical support people providing supporting throughout the perinatal period, may be able to facilitate access to abortion and contraception services and care, but evidence on the scope and efficacy of doulas in abortion and contraception care is lacking. The aim of this scoping review was to synthesize what is known about the role of doulas in abortion and contraception care.

Study design: We followed the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology for scoping reviews. A clinical librarian performed an initial search of all relevant databases. Three reviewers independently screened the titles and abstracts for assessment against the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The populations of interest included doulas, non-clinical and/or untrained birth attendants and birth companions, and patients who use doula services. The concept of interest was the doula role and the context was access to abortion or contraception care RESULTS: Our review identified thirty-three relevant studies conducted in sixteen different countries, published between 1976 and 2023. Studies broadly focused on three key themes: doulas performing procedural abortions, doulas supporting abortion care, and doulas supporting contraception. Outcomes of interest included client outcomes, barriers to access, and doula training, roles and attitudes.

Conclusions: Doulas have the potential to improve client satisfaction and mitigate barriers to accessing abortion and contraception services. Further research is needed to identify the training needs of doulas, the potential for their integration into interdisciplinary abortion and contraception care teams, and the doula role in supporting medication abortion.

Data availability statement: Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Keywords: Abortion; Contraception; Doula; Review.

Publication types

Review