CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Kajarra Caldwell is picking up food, books and other necessities at a pantry at the Ada Jenkins Center in Davidson, North Carolina for a pregnant client. 

What You Need To Know

  • Research shows moms-to-be have better birth outcomes when they have doulas
  • A professional doula provides support before, during and after birth

  • Kajarra Caldwell is a doula and a senior perinatal community health partner for CityBlock Health

  • She goes above and beyond to help low income women as they navigate motherhood

“Before I come to pantries, I always ask members a little more about themselves. I like to surprise them with the simple things such as books. She loves books, so she’s going to be amazed when she sees the books,” Caldwell said.  

Caldwell works as a doula and Senior Perinatal Community Health Partner for CityBlock Health. She says this role aligns with her passion. “Just wanting to help people. I’ve been helping people since I was a youngster,” Caldwell said. 

She helps pregnant women in several ways, both virtually or in person, before, during and after birth to meet the needs of women. This includes attending appointments, educating them about the birthing process, lactation and postpartum depression, and helping with their nutrition. 

“It’s important that moms are eating nutritionally during their pregnancy. Sometimes members are high risk, so they can’t work, so it puts pressure on the families that we serve because we cater to low-income families, and this is just a blessing to them,” Caldwell said. 

She says low-income mothers are a group that needs more support from everyone.  

“I think that we need to start paying attention to our mothers or our pregnant individuals or women that just had a baby and ask them, ‘What do you need? How can I better assist you?’” Caldwell said. 

The client she’s picking up and dropping off food for today doesn’t have transportation. Caldwell assists in any area necessary because addressing their most basic needs is important.  

“The first time I went to her, she literally had nothing,” Caldwell said. “They deserve to be able to eat what they like and what they want.”  

After spending a decade working in mental health, she felt called to this work because she saw the impacts of when a pregnant woman wasn’t able to feed her baby and ran out of formula. 

“She called a system that she thought she could call when she needed help for the formula and the system came and they took her baby,” Caldwell said. “It made me think, what could I have done in that situation to help the member?”

So she made a promise to never see that happen again and fulfills that goal in her role.