Long before “doula” became a household word, Jodi Graves was already doing the work, and she has not stopped since.
In 1999, when Jodi Graves first became a certified doula, she spent most of her time answering a simple question: what is a doula? The word barely existed in the American mainstream. Birth support outside of hospital nursing staff was a fringe concept, and the idea of hiring a trained professional to guide a family through labor and postpartum recovery was, for most people, entirely foreign.
More than 27 years later, Graves does not spend much time explaining the word anymore. She is too busy running Michigan’s largest doula agency.
Graves is the CEO and founder of Michigan Family Doulas, the most established maternal support agency in the state, as well as Michigan Family Nannies. She also practices as a functional nutritionist, helping women support hormones, metabolism, and nervous system health. She is an elite certified postpartum and infant care doula, a certified birth doula, a certified Newborn Care Specialist, and a trained doula educator through Prodoula, one of the field’s leading certification bodies. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and two Master of Science degrees, in Naturopathy and Clinical Nutrition. She is a member of the International Cesarean Awareness Network and a vocal supporter of Every Mother Counts.
It is an impressive list. But Graves did not build it from ambition alone. She built it from pain.
A Mission Rooted in Personal Experience
Graves came to this work because of what happened to her. Her own experiences with birth and postpartum recovery in the United States were deeply difficult. She does not offer graphic detail, but the lesson she took from those years is clear: it did not have to be that way, and for the families she serves, it will not be.
“My goal is and has always been to help just one family not go through what I went through,” Graves says. “Every day I set out to just help one family feel supported, cared for, and heard.”
That singular focus, one family at a time, is what has quietly built something substantial. Michigan Family Doulas is now the largest agency of its kind in the state, serving clients across Metro Detroit and beyond, with a clientele that Graves describes as highly educated, research-driven women who know exactly what they want and are unwilling to compromise on the care of their families.
The Bigger Fight
Graves is not shy about the scale of the problem she is working against. The United States has the worst maternal health outcomes of any industrialized nation, a fact that has worsened in recent years. For Graves, this is not a statistic. It is the backdrop of every client she has ever served.
“The fight for change around maternal mental and physical health, both in birth and in postpartum recovery, is still one of the biggest challenges I face,” she says. “The US has the worst maternal outcomes of all the industrialized nations, and it is only getting worse.”
The answer, in Graves’ view, is not systemic reform alone, though she supports that too. It is presence. It is a trained, experienced professional in the room, at the bedside, and in the home during the weeks that follow delivery, when mothers are most vulnerable and most often overlooked.
What 27 Years Looks Like
Staying focused for 27+ years in any industry is difficult. In a field that spent its early years fighting for legitimacy, it requires something more. Graves credits her longevity to a clarity of purpose she has never allowed to drift.
“I got really specific with my purpose and who I wanted to help,” she says. “I dialed in very clearly the women and families I wanted to serve on their journey to motherhood and beyond. If you lose focus, it will be easy for the naysayers, those who do not understand what you are doing, to take you off your path.”
Looking ahead, Graves plans to double the size of Michigan Family Doulas within the next two years, with an eye toward expanding services to other states and eventually other countries within five. Her nutrition services are available to all women who are healing from birth, struggling in perimenopause or on the other side of menopause.
Her mother, she notes with a laugh, still calls MFD the “little babysitting business.”
Jodi Graves is working on changing her mind.
