Becoming a doula is not for everyone, and our goal for this scholarship is to train up doulas who will be actively doing this work to support Medicaid beneficiaries. Before applying, please consider:

• Full-time doula work is usually considered 4 clients per month, although some doulas do extend to support 5 clients in a very busy month. Some doulas also work part-time, taking on 1 or 2 clients each month.

• Doula are on call 24/7 for their clients and need to be able to leave to attend on births at all hours and sometimes with short notice. That means you may need to leave another job or school, or miss a test, appointment, family celebration, or other important event. If you have children, you'll also need childcare available on short notice. The work requires physical stamina as births often happen overnight and are sometimes very long — 24 hours or more. You could choose to partner with another doula to reduce some of these demands (sharing call time or trading off at long births).

• Michigan Medicaid reimburses $1,500 per birth and $100 per visit (birth doulas typically attend 3-6 visits)

• Most doulas are self-employed and do Medicaid billing themselves (we'll point you in the right direction on how to do this). We will provide you with support to be added to the MDHHS Doula Registry for Medicaid, but you will be responsible for accrediting with health plans and for learning how to bill or for hiring a professional biller. We'll connect you with as many resources as we can, but if you want to bill Medicaid, you'll need to figure out the sometimes complicated billing process.

• If you receive a scholarship, you must be available to attend and complete the entire training, you cannot miss any hours of the workshop. If you are not able to clear four days for training, it may not be the right time in life to become a doula.

• This training is meant to bring new doulas into the workforce. If you've already taken a birth doula training on the MDHHS approved list (check the list), you are not eligible to take this training. Also, each approved scholarship recipient can attend only one MDHHS-sponsored training. If you apply for trainings through multiple training organizations, know that you can only be approved for and attend ONE of those doula workshops.

• Participants will receive training at no cost and also are eligible for a stipend upon completion of training and post-training requirements, which will include approximately four hours of recorded content, MDHHS Doula Registry approval, and becoming a Medicaid-enrolled doula provider.