Lemon et al.: Quantifying Doula Care and Birth Outcomes (AJOG, 2025)
Doula care produces more VBACs, more breastfeeding, fewer preterm births
Propensity-score-matched study published in AJOG (epub Aug 2024, print April 2025). Doula care associated with more VBACs, more postpartum visit attendance, higher exclusive breastfeeding, and fewer preterm deliveries. 15-34 extra VBACs per 100 patients receiving doula care.
The Lemon team published a study in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology (epub August 2024, print April 2025) that quantified the benefits of doula care across the full maternity continuum using propensity-score matching. The matching approach addresses the obvious concern that women who choose doula care may differ in other ways from women who do not.
After adjustment, doula care was associated with significantly more VBACs (15.6 to 34.2 additional VBACs per 100 patients), more postpartum office visit attendance, higher exclusive breastfeeding (7.9 to 11.4 more per 100), and fewer preterm deliveries (3.8 to 4.0 fewer per 100). The paper strengthens the case that the doula effect extends well beyond the labor itself, into postpartum recovery, breastfeeding establishment, and the prevention of preterm birth, which is one of the harder outcomes to move in maternal health.
15.6-34.2
Extra VBACs per 100 doula patients
7.9-11.4
Extra breastfeeding per 100
3.8-4.0
Fewer preterm per 100
2025
AJOG print publication (epub 2024)
Why it matters
Doula care moves several outcomes that are notoriously hard to move with any intervention, including preterm birth and exclusive breastfeeding rates. The effect runs across the whole pregnancy, not just the labor.
This is one finding from the research library behind How to Birth a Mother. Everything here traces back to a study, a dataset, or a systematic review.