Growing Forward Together is helping expand trauma-informed support for mothers across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

With support from the Superior Health Foundation, partners across the region brought the Survivor Moms’ Companion (SMC) program to the U.P., training doulas and community health workers to better support pregnant and postpartum women who may be survivors of trauma.

Doulas from across the U.P. gather following an SMC Tutor Training at Lake Superior State University

Read the Superior Health Foundation Q1 2026 Newsletter

From the newsletter:

“For many pregnant and postpartum women, the challenges of new parenthood are compounded by unresolved trauma from earlier in life. Growing Forward Together (GFT) is working to address that gap.

With support from a Superior Health Foundation grant, they built a regional collaborative with Doulas of Marquette, Postpartum Healing Lodge, UP Health Consortium, and the Perinatal Quality Collaborative Region 1 to bring the Survivor Moms’ Companion™ (SMC), an evidence-based program, to the U.P.

Over the grant period, 14 doulas and community health workers across six U.P. counties became certified SMC tutors. Six completed additional trauma-informed care training, and a continuing education course developed through the project is now available for free to nurses region-wide. The collaborative also partnered with Postpartum Healing Lodge to ensure Indigenous birth workers could deliver SMC in culturally responsive ways.

More than 575 women in the U.P. may be survivors of childhood maltreatment and sexual trauma and the providers trained through this grant are positioned and ready to reach them.”