Goals:
Due to the success and immense growth of this program, we anticipate the exhaustion of our current funding by September 2024, leaving many families without access to community funded doula services unless another funding source becomes available.
We strongly believe that anyone who is reaching out for help deserves urgent and professional care, without judgment and with as few barriers as possible.
As a result, we are looking for opportunities to expand our community partnerships and secure additional grant funding in order to support the growth of direct services for families on the Cape, islands and beyond.

Past & Current Partners and funders:
Cape Cod Children’s Place, Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, Cape & Islands Maternal Depression Task Force, Cape Cod Healthcare Foundation, Tower Family Foundation, Falmouth Human Services, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Children’s Trust, Massachusetts Department of EEC, Rossigner Family Foundation, Sandwich Partnership for Families, Mass PPD Fund, Cape Cod Five, Perinatal Wellness Alliance for Cape & Islands & High Point Treatment Center

Families impacted:
-Since the beginning of this program in 2020, we have been able to assist over 500 families across Cape Cod & Martha’s Vineyard, many of whom otherwise would not have access to doula support.
-In 2023 alone, 200 families registered for home visits and our team completed over 1000 hours of direct services.

Highlights:
-Services expanded to Martha’s Vineyard in 2022
-Portuguese & Spanish speaking services added in 2023
-Expected services for Nantucket in 2024

History:
In late 2020, professionals working with new families in our area noticed a trend of pregnant and postpartum families expressing feelings of isolation, and in need of emotional support.

With the help of the Maternal Depression Task Force, Krista Sullivan owner of Monumental Beginnings designed and implement a home visiting program for families on Cape Cod, using grant funds to sponsor postpartum doula services.

Cape Cod at this time was especially vulnerable due to the pandemic and cuts made to local family services. A major change for the community happened in April of 2020 when Falmouth Maternity Unit shut its doors for good. That decision to close the department also eliminated all childbirth and parenting classes, lactation services, and postpartum support groups that existed on the Upper Cape. This choice left many local expecting families scrambling for a new healthcare team, and without a safe birthing location, as the nearest hospital with delivery services was over 1 hour away for some families on the Upper Cape.

During the height of the Covid pandemic, there was much uncertainty and fear in our community about safety and health recommendations for pregnant people and new babies. Best practices at the time was to limit visitors, leaving many families without the support of their friends and family during a critical time of new parenthood. Limitations regarding birth support were also being imposed by hospitals across the nation, leaving pregnant people with understandably high levels of anxiety about their support and care plan.

There were also no in-person groups for new parents on Cape Cod for almost a year due to the pandemic, and as such, new parents were isolated like never before.
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Our home visiting program addressed a critical gap care at the time by providing families with postpartum doula support, which offered them reprieve, education, emotional support, and help caring for a newborn. While highly beneficial during the pandemic, the data continues to show that new parents benefit significantly from doula support post birth. Data shows that families who work with a doula report lower levels of perinatal mood complications, higher breastfeeding success, and more confidence as a caregiver.

Under the original project, full time residents of Cape Cod who had a baby under 12 months were allowed 3 home visits with a postpartum doula. Since then, thanks to local partnerships this program has remained active and grown substantially to now service families across the entire Cape & islands. We now offer doula visits in Spanish and Portuguese. We also provide additional visits for high-risk families on a case by case basis.

Funding was made possible through the efforts of Cape Cod Children’s place’s grant writer, Patty Watson and executive director, Cindy Horgan, and in collaboration with the Cape & Island's Maternal Depression Task Force supervised by Mary Wilson. Monumental Beginnings facilitated home visits by matching families with a doula on our team that lived in their nearby area to deliver direct services and provide referrals to other resources as needed.

Our work with the doula program is a “boots on the ground” type of service-putting talk into action by showing up for families in real life. Unlike short office visits with other providers, doula home visits offer families 9 hours of care in their own home which for many families, is a safer model to ask for help when they're ready and how they best need it. .Once in their space for 9 hours of direct care, many moms feel safe opening up and sharing concerns to us and in turn, we can accurately and confidently point them in the direction of extension of care such as: mental health services, health/wellness resources, financial assistance, and local support groups for new families. What started as a program with one home visiting doula, now is a team of 12-including several BIPOC practitioners, a doula on Martha’s Vineyard, and doula services available in Spanish and Portuguese.

Testimonials:
“As someone who suffered from severe PPD/PPA after the birth of my first child in 2021, I knew I would need help with the birth of my second child in 2022. I learned about the grant available to Cape families via Monumental Beginnings. I had an initial call with Rosetta [doula] when I was pregnant and we made a plan for visits once my son was born. My son was born 3 weeks early and I was a mess, including almost bailing on our first meeting.
Rosetta visited me during my son’s first week of life and I don’t know that I have the words to describe her (it makes me teary just thinking of it)… she was calm, compassionate and just so gentle and loving in all of the ways I didn’t realize I needed. She listened to me in my struggles, through the intensity of that first week, when I had awful dizziness and insomnia, sleeping only an hour a day.

Rosetta has been a huge part of my postpartum healing - sharing her experiences as a mom of 2, as someone with knowledge of new babies and moms freshly home from the hospital. She was the one who taught me it was okay to rest, so that I could eventually be there for my oldest child again the way I wanted to be. She was the one who told me it’s normal that my baby was doing xyz. She alleviated so many of my worries just by being there. She recommended some postpartum items - and dropped them off to me! More than anything, she was just… there for me in the rawness of postpartum life

We had 3 visits together and by the third, I was in a place where I knew I’d be okay. Now I can say I’m actually ENJOYING this time with my children, but I owe so much to Rosetta for helping me figure out how to put the pieces together in my new mom of two life. She still checks in on me even at 4 months postpartum and I just feel tremendously lucky to have met her in this journey of motherhood. I would hands down recommend her to anyone looking for doula support. She’s one in a million.”

“Having a postpartum doula to help me attain my basic needs throughout the day was incredibly helpful. I have had PPD with a prior pregnancy and was at risk for developing it again with this child. I needed help and reaching out to do it was not easy for me, but I am so thankful I did! Krista made it possible to care for myself and my other child while attending to the baby and some house work. I loved having her help and needed it!”

“Working with Rosetta as my postpartum doula was so pivotal in shaping a positive 4th trimester experience. My husband and I had recently purchased our home and were new to the area and so my entire support system was hours away. The first day that Rosetta came to our home it was like having a close friend or family member come over to help. She immediately felt so familiar and put our new-parent minds at ease. Not only that, but she continued to check on me regularly to see how I was doing and provided endless resources that I still use to this day. Rosetta offers whatever support you need all the while making you feel like old friends. Anyone would be lucky to have Rosetta as their doula!”

Press Releases & Online Presence:

https://vimeo.com/918432707
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https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/2023/04/07/cape-cod-resources-postpartum-depression-new-parents-mental-health-moms/70083711007/

https://www.capecodhealth.org/medical-services/womens-health/pregnancy-birth/having-a-baby-can-be-overwhelming/

https://www.boston.com/news/health/2023/08/15/ag-campbell-is-devoting-1-5-million-to-culturally-competent-maternal-health-care-heres-what-that-means/

http://www.sandwichpartnership.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/SPF-Newsletter-2022-febraury.pdf

https://capecodchildrensplace.com/wp-content/uploads/MDTF-Minutes-3-24-21.pdf

https://barnstable.ma.networkofcare.org/content/client/1190/maternalbrochure.pdf

https://www.falmouthma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_05042021-12640

https://capecodchildrensplace.com/wp-content/uploads/CCH-FY22-PP-Home-Visit-Flyer-4.png
Video: History of the project, with original founders, published summer  2021