Still Listening: Okkanti Partners to Support Maternal Health Innovation Workforce Research in Wisconsin

Some research begins with a hypothesis. This one began with conversations, over coffee, at trainings, at retreats and in community spaces, spanning more than two decades and centered on what, in the early years, was work that few understood. As doulas, midwives, educators, postpartum specialists, how do we create and sustain our practices, without burning out? How do we solve for childcare, on-call lifestyles, and precarious income? How do we make ‘doulawork’ work?

At Okkanti, we've been gathering data on the maternal health workforce since 2021 — tracking how doulas and perinatal providers manage client load, income stability, and career longevity in a field that has historically lacked the infrastructure to support them. That work has always been grounded in the practitioner's experience. It still is.

Now, we're deepening that commitment.

We're honored to be partnering with Culture x Design and Wisconsin's Maternal Health Innovation (MHI) Program — a statewide initiative led by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services — to contribute to a formal workforce assessment that will be publicly available and will directly inform state-level strategies for building a stronger, more sustainable maternal health system.

The gap in doula workforce research.

Okkanti founder Karen Laing has been examining workforce burnout in the perinatal field throughout her career — from her early work with the National Association of Postpartum Care Services (NAPCS) where she worked with early leaders in establishing National Certification Standards for postpartum doula professionals, through founding Birthways, one of North America's early doula organizations in 1997, and launching Okkanti - a mission-driven solution designed to improve doula earnings,

The questions driving this research aren't new. How do skilled doulas manage the gap between their availability and their actual client load? How do they navigate the feast-or-famine cycle that characterizes so much of independent practice? How do they step away — take real time off, avoid burnout, sustain a career — when their clients don't schedule their labors around a vacation calendar?

What is new is the opportunity to bring these questions to scale, with the backing of a statewide initiative and a partner in Culture x Design with deep expertise in equity-centered community engagement.

The insights gathered will identify shared and unique needs across Wisconsin's maternal health workforce, align existing efforts, and help shape future workforce strategies across rural, urban, and community-based environments.

We're still listening — and we want to hear from you

We are currently completing listening sessions with perinatal providers across Wisconsin. We're interested in speaking with:

• Full spectrum doulas

• Birth doulas

• Postpartum doulas

• Midwives

• Lactation consultants

• Childbirth educators

• Other pregnancy and parenting support professionals

We have a limited number of $50 gift certificates available for providers who participate in a listening session, offered in partnership with Culture x Design as part of Wisconsin's MHI research initiative.

If you'd like to share how you're making doula work work — the real version, not the polished one — we want to hear from you.

👉 Send your submission and we’ll send you a link to schedule a time that works for your schedule.

Not sure if you qualify? Reach out directly and we'll let you know if there's still a slot available.

A special invitation for trainers and agency leaders

If you train doulas, run an agency, or work within an organization focused on building and retaining perinatal providers, we're especially interested in connecting with you.

One of the most persistent gaps in maternal health workforce data is what happens after training. How many providers are still practicing at six months? At twelve? At eighteen? What supports help emerging doulas find consistent, sustainable work — and what's missing when they don't?

We're actively seeking organizational partners willing to help us track the trajectory of emerging providers over time. If you're in a position to support that kind of longitudinal view — whether you run a training program, a doula collective, or an agency — we'd love to talk.

Reach out to learn more about our research partnership opportunities.