Swedish Medical Center makes unique addition to delivery services

Swedish Medical Center is now one of 10 hospitals in the country to offer doulas as part of its labor and delivery services.

Doulas are trained professionals who stay by the mother’s side for the entire labor. They’re part of the care team but they’re not medical staff. They’re there for emotional support and they can help out by offering things like breathing techniques and physical poses to use during what can be periods of grueling physical pain and, often, much anxiety.

Jocelyn Alt is the lead doula at Swedish and says doulas improve outcomes big time.

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“One doctor who reviewed the research said that if a doula were a pharmaceutical drug, everyone would have one, based on the outcomes,” she said. Fewer C-sections is one of the improved outcomes.

Unlike a midwife or obstetrician, who deliver babies, doulas don’t have any other clients. A doula is there solely to help one woman.

Swedish now has 28 doulas on staff.

A doula helped Jack Hampson Yoke come into the world five weeks ago. His mother, Leah Hampson Yoke, thought, at first, a doula was unnecessary.

“We just felt like it was superfluous and we weren’t necessarily even planning a totally natural childbirth,” she said. “We thought that my husband would be a good birth partner and we could go with what we’ve got.”

But she changed her mind when she learned more about it. She really didn’t want a C-section, so she went with a doula and found herself grateful for that decision before she even got to the hospital.

Leah had a long early labor: three weeks long. That’s weeks with increasingly painful contractions.

“Every night I would think, ‘Oh I’m going to have a baby and then I’d go to sleep and then wake up and think, ‘Oh, I missed something!'”

She could text her doula in the middle of the night and ask questions, unlike a doctor or midwife.

When Leah and her husband did finally go to the hospital, the doula met them there. Leah had about 12 hours of painful contractions and the doula helped out the entire time.

“I don’t know if would have been able to do all the different positions and things [without her], plus just the reassurance that ‘this is normal,” she explained. “Your body is doing a really great job. Keep it up.’ I think I would have been like, ‘Am I doing things right? Is this right? I don’t know. It hurts. That’s all I know. It just hurts.'”

Melissa Cate, with Women’s Health and Pediatrics at Swedish, says the hospital has been wanting to get doulas on staff for years.

“The research that’s been done has been done over a number of years and it’s very compelling and we know that this provides a very positive impact,” she said. “It’s really critical that we start to incorporate it into more and more patients’ birth experiences so we can continue to identify what other benefits are actually occurring.”

Swedish started offering doulas about a month ago. They cost between $500 and $2,000.

Insurance does not cover it. The fact that the largest hospital in western Washington now has doulas on staff is one more step that speaks to their legitimacy. Cate hopes that will help convince insurance companies to start covering doulas because a smoother birth helps the mom, but ultimately, it helps the overall health of little babies, like five-week-old Jack.