Newsroom | Collaborative Care

As pregnant women and new mothers were disproportionately experiencing poorer health and dying in her community, Infiniti Ingraham wanted help improve people’s lives.

Ingraham, an assistant director of recruitment and admissions at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas, decided to become and doula and was among the first groups of students enrolled in the school’s new birth worker training program.

Launched in 2023 to create a more diverse maternal health care workforce and increase health care access, the program at the historically Black college or university is certifying culturally aligned doulas, midwives and lactation consultants.

“If I see something is happening, specifically affecting my community, I want to figure out how to effect social change,” Ingraham says. “After doing research and seeing what was offered in the doula program, I was super excited about the opportunity to be able to be a part of that.”

The program, developed in collaboration with Health Care Service Corporation’s Texas health plan, is part of HCSC’s expanded effort to address the physical and mental health needs of pregnant women and new mothers.

HCSC launched the maternal and infant health initiative in 2023 and is expanding the effort to Illinois and New Mexico this year. It’s designed to improve outcomes for mothers and infants by increasing health care access, reducing care gaps and educating and engaging communities.

“The idea that there are that many people who could serve in that capacity, it is so optimistic for what we could change about maternal health in Texas,” says program director Amanda Masino, an associate professor of biology and Huston-Tillotson’s natural sciences chair. “The interest was so strong from the very beginning. It was really staggering.”

The program provides a broad training spectrum to prepare students for a variety of potential circumstances, she says. It also is building a maternal health research network in collaboration with the maternal health equity nonprofits Black Mamas ATX and Healing Hands Community Doula Project.

Ingraham is completing the community health worker portion of her training and plans to become a full-time doula, while specializing in prenatal yoga. “I know they had a lot of people that applied to the program, so I'm really blessed that I was selected,” she says.