Walmart expands health care coverage for employees

Change to affect workers who want doulas during pregnancy

NEW YORK — Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, is expanding nationwide its health care coverage next month for employees who want to enlist the services of a doula, a person trained to assist women during pregnancies.

The coverage was first offered to Walmart employees in Georgia in 2021, and then last year the Bentonville, Arkansas-based discounter offered the same benefit to employees in Louisiana, Indiana and Illinois. The exception is Hawaii, which has its own set of health benefits, Walmart said.

Walmart said the program, which kicks off nationwide Nov. 1, is meant to address racial inequities in health care and improve the maternal and infant health of its workers and their babies, especially in areas where access to care may be limited. Doulas are trained experts that must receive credentials from either the National Black Doulas Association or DONA International.

“As things evolve and we’ve come out of COVID, we continue to see the gaps where maternal care is not always available or there needs to be additional support,” said Lisa Woods, Walmart’s vice president, physical and emotional well-being.

Woods declined to specify the number of Walmart employees who have taken part in the program so far, noting the biggest challenge was educating employees on what doulas actually do. It plans to better publicize the offering and include the expanded coverage in this year’s annual health insurance enrollment materials.

The expansion of the doula benefits comes as a new collection of reports from the March of Dimes, a nonprofit organization committed to ending preventable maternal health risks and death, shows that more than 5.6 million women live in counties with limited or no access to maternity care services, pushing families to find new ways to get needed care. The loss of obstetric units in hospitals was responsible for decreased maternity care access in nearly 1 in 10 counties across the U.S, according to the report.

Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancyrelated cause than white women, largely due to differences in the quality of health care, underlying chronic conditions and structural racism, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Employing a doula as a part of a birthing team decreases cesarian sections by 50%, shortens the time of labor by 25% and decreases the need for other medical interventions by more than half, according to the National Black Doulas Association.

Employees on Walmart’s medical plan can receive assistance from a doula with coverage of up to $1,000 per pregnancy. The company already has in place a “Life with Baby” program, which offers nocost resources like oneon-one coaching from a nurse, tools to track daily progress and gifts for new babies.

Other major U.S. companies are also offering full or partial doula services for employees, including CVS Health and Microsoft.

Tracy Collins, president and founder of the National Black Doulas Association, noted Walmart’s move to expand the program nationwide could help increase momentum for the use of doula services to help address racial inequities in maternal care.

“I am seeing major corporations take an interest in wanting to align with the (National Black Doulas Association) for the look of supporting a Black business or a Black and brown company, but they don’t follow suit,” Collins said.