Spring 2025 Updates

As the flowers bloom and the days grow longer, we at Portland New Family Fund have been hard at work strengthening birth and postpartum support for families across Oregon. We’re excited to share what we’ve been up to in recent months!

Training Latinx Doulas to Become Postpartum Navigators​Through our recent Oregon Parenting Education Collaborative grant, we’ve been partnering with Build Your Nest to train Latinx doulas as postpartum navigators. This training equips doulas to provide in-depth postpartum planning for Latinx families, ensuring that new parents receive culturally responsive care and support. Doulas receive the training for free, are paid a stipend for completing certification and then paid to provide navigation services to families. With recent changes in migrant and refugee policies, this initiative is more important than ever in addressing the unique needs of these families.

Building Community: A Doula Gathering​Connection is at the heart of our work, not only for the families we serve but also for the doulas who provide essential care. Recently, we hosted a gathering where PNFF doulas could connect, share experiences, and support one another. Community-building among doulas strengthens the care we provide. We’re grateful to the Portland Children’s Levy for funding this event and our doula/client liaison, Tierra, for hosting it!

Some of our PNFF doulas.

PNFF is Now an Oregon Health Authority Approved Billing Hub!​We are thrilled to announce that PNFF has officially become an Oregon Health Authority-approved billing hub, meaning we can now bill Medicaid! This milestone expands access to essential birth/ postpartum/lactation services for more families while also ensuring doulas receive proper reimbursement for their work. While we remain committed to serving low-income families who don’t quite qualify for Medicaid, this approval allows us to reach even more families in need. This was a BIG feat, requiring a multi-month approval process and a mountain of paperwork, but we did it! A huge thank you to our operations staff member, Tiffany, for her incredible dedication and hard work in making this happen!

Partnering with OHSU NICU for a Pilot Study​We are excited to share that PNFF is partnering with OHSU NICU for a pilot study on the impact of postpartum doula care for low-income NICU families. We are finally at the recruiting stage and expect to spend at least two years on this study. We look forward to sharing updates as we prove how postpartum doula care can improve outcomes for these families. We're so grateful to the OHSU NICU team we are working with who have made this study happen: Sasha Ondusko, M.D., Ladawna Gievers, M.D., Christina Nguyen, D.O. and BreAnna Dupuis, LCSW.

Empowering Doulas Through Free Training​We believe that every family deserves expert, compassionate postpartum care, and we’re committed to making sure doulas have the resources they need to serve low-income families. Our recent FREE three-part training series covered trauma-informed care, NICU support, cultural competency, and much more. We provided this training free to all Oregon doulas because we want this information to be accessible to everyone. With the new expansion to the Medicaid doula package, there was a need in our Oregon doula community to train doulas on more postpartum care skills. We were thrilled to see 70 doulas from across Oregon sign up, demonstrating the deep commitment within our community to improving postpartum care for all. Thank you so much to Jesse at MotherTree Birth for making this training have CEUs for Mediciad doulas! Here are the three parts of the training - thank you to our educators!

Wendy Sue Horn, MSW - Trauma Informed Care and Self Care Practices

Tierra Salmon, Doula, Midwife, CHW - Supporting Low Income Postpartum Parents at Home

BreAnna Dupuis, LCSW - Low Income NICU families and Social Determinants of Health

Serving Families Across Oregon​

Last but certainly not least, we are actively serving many mamas, parents, babies, and families right now. Our clients represent a diverse range of backgrounds—spanning race, ethnicity, age, ability, housing situations, mental health challenges, and more. We are constantly inspired by their strength, resilience, and love. The reality is that we all need help and support sometimes, and PNFF is here to make sure new families receive the care they deserve as they begin their journey with their new babies.