Madeline Harris LeBlanc.
Every birth deserves a doula. So I train them, I teach the nurses and hospital teams who work beside them, and I write the books they all learn from. That is the work.
I am Executive Director and lead instructor at Mary’s Hands Network, the ICEA-approved community doula program I founded in 2023. Fifteen years in birth rooms, ten of them as a registered nurse, and a whole lot of doulas who now do this work in their own communities.
Talk topics & past engagements · Press & coverage · Full bio
She devoted her life’s work to helping people navigate the birth process … establishing Mary’s Hands Network to reshape the maternal healthcare landscape with one conviction: every birth deserves a doula. inRegister · read the feature
Cesarean and prematurity rates from Mary’s Hands Network’s own outcomes tracking, current through 2026. A rate under 15% sits inside the 10–15% range the World Health Organization considers optimal. Louisiana state cesarean average per the CDC, 2024. Featured in inRegister, September 2026.
The coating ceremony
A doula’s coat is not a costume. It is a promise.
Every cohort ends the same way. They put on the lavender jacket, they take the certificate, and they make the promise out loud in front of each other.
To show up when it is inconvenient. To hold silence when words are worse than silence. To trust the body when the room does not. To hold the client’s hand without holding their choices.
276 of them have made it so far. That is the whole method: train people well, then send them home to serve their own neighborhoods.
Rooms I have been in
A book for every room you walk into.
Six titles, from the 593-page training manual to the little one that fits in a hospital bag. Each has its own page with the why, the who-it’s-for, and where to get it.
Training Manual
Data Driven Doula
$120 · paperback
Pregnancy Guide
EVERYTHING Guide
$50 · paperback
Specialty Training
Bereavement Doula
$50 · both books
Quick Reference
The Pocket Doula
$40 · deck
50 comfort techniques. In your hand.
Take a four-minute quiz and get twelve cards picked for your birth, free. Or get the whole deck in a tin.
Birth World Weekly.
A weekly roundup of what’s happening in birth, maternal health, and newborn care. From Louisiana, to the nation, to the world. Free, never fear-based, and you can leave any time. No hard feelings.
- LouisianaWhat changed in our state this week
- NationalPolicy, research and the numbers behind it
- The workWhat it all means at the bedside
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