Greg Anderson

Q. You’re involved in a collaborative effort to assess the feasibility of a doula program for teen mothers in Beloit. What inspired the project?

A. It is really a culmination of my long-standing interest in infant-mother attachment and women- and family-centered birth. I teach the Psychology of Women and have been team-teaching Women’s Health with Laura Parmentier (chemistry). We’ve had birth and midwifery units in those classes. These are areas that I am passionate about.

A few years ago, I thought it was time for me to reflect on what I had been doing for the last 10-15 years. As much as I love teaching, I missed the applied work I had done as a graduate student—using the basic research of developmental science to improve the lives of children and families. I started to think about what I could do to make my research more meaningful.

I am so excited about the doula program project because it is an opportunity for me to get back into applied research while doing outreach.

Q. Doulas are trained professionals who provide non-medical emotional, physical, and guiding support to mothers before and after they give birth. Why does the Beloit community need doulas for teen mothers?

A. Most programs in the area seem to focus on facilitating teen-moms’ self-sufficiency. Establishing self-sufficiency is important, but if we focus on enhancing the emotional interconnectedness of the mother-infant relationship then the mother is going to want to improve herself.

What we’re talking about is mothering the mother. If a teen mother feels she is taken care of and her needs are being met, then that leaves her with more emotional resources to respond to her baby.

Q. Will any aspect of a doula program be directed toward teen fathers?

A. Not in the initial program. We’re calling it “Circles of Sisters,” but that is not meant to exclude men. The doula is there for the woman, but also for the whole family, whomever that may be.

Q. What might the long-term outcomes of Circles of Sisters be?

A. We’re coming at it from the angle of decreasing health disparities in terms of infant mortality and of increasing rates of breast-feeding. We also expect to see fewer repeat pregnancies among participating teens. We hope to expand the program to offer doulas to all mothers who want them.

Ultimately, we’d like to see more relationships in which infants and their mothers have clear and open communication. That kind of secure attachment is essential for a host of other healthy developmental outcomes for children later on.

Q. What will your role be once the program is implemented?

A. I view myself as a consultant. It will be a community-based program, so the doulas must come from Beloit. They will need the cultural competency, sensitivity, and know-how to establish relationships of trust and the desire to serve the community in this way.

Q. How will Beloit students be involved?

A. I hope to have students involved in multiple phases of the project. Students might help with surveys and focus groups, with transcribing and coding interviews, and with interpreting data. Alumni have provided input into the planning, and one will continue as a community taskforce member. I have a few students interested in becoming doulas themselves and this will give them an inside view on how to develop a community-based doula program.

Q. What is a good book that you recently read?

A. If I have to pick just one, it will be Meredith Small’s Our Babies, Ourselves (1998). Small is an anthropologist who talks about ethno-pediatrics and the idea that we need to think about treating children’s health in an ethnically informed or culturally sensitive way. We can think about the biological underpinnings of that mother-infant interrelationship and also how culture shapes and challenges or disrupts some of those natural propensities.

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