The latest: UnitedHealthcare recently announced it would allow coverage of doula care in employer-sponsored plans nationwide — a significant move into the private insurance space.

• Improving outcomes for birthing people and infants also reduces the total cost of giving birth on the health care system, UHC tells Axios.

Reality check: A doula isn't a midwife.

• Midwives perform medical tasks like cervical checks and delivering babies.
• Doulas offer continuous nonmedical support — affirmations, position changes, advocacy in the hospital — before, during and after birth, says Nicole Sessions, an experienced doula and maternal mental health researcher.

What they're saying: As awareness of doulas has increased, now "many people expect us to be in the room" for a delivery, Sessions tells Axios. "There's a lot more camaraderie" among hospital staff.

Zoom out: Doula care has become a key tool for addressing the disproportionately high rate of maternal death among Black women.

• Sessions argues that “culturally competent,” community-based doulas — people who share a patient’s race, neighborhood or life experience — can better build trust and advocate in the room, especially when Black doulas are supporting Black pregnant people.