The gentlebirth.org website is provided courtesy of
Ronnie Falcao, LM MS, a homebirth midwife in Mountain View, CA

Doula Participating in Study at Kaiser

Several of you had questions regarding the study that I am participating in at Kaiser, so I thought that it would be appropriate to answer them all collectively on the lists.

Kaiser started the study two years ago at the San Francisco, Oakland and Santa Rosa hospitals, although there may be more involved that I don't know about. They started the study to see if doulas really do help laboring women. (Hmmmmm, ya think? ) Marshal Klaus is the project's consultant. ( I get to meet him and his wife on the 17th....wheeeeeee!) For the majority of the study, the doulas were enlisted on an on-call basis and were not required to be on site. It has only been in the last two months - November and December - that it has changed to the doulas being on-site. They changed this because when the doulas were strictly on-call they weren't getting called much. " out of sight, out of mind. " I was enlisted the end of October and started in November of this year, the last year of the study. I was told by one of the program coordinators that so far the very early results of the study were not too good. ( I wonder if that has to do with the fact that in the first 22 months of a two year study the doulas weren't even getting called that much....? ) However, the end results are not expected to be available until at least the middle if next year, probably later.

The study focuses on first time moms who are less than 5 cm when admitted, over 13 years of age, baby is vertex, they are bwtn 38 and 41 weeks and are not induced.

I don't know what the next step is after the results are in. I would think that if positive, that Kaiser would institute some sort of volunteer program, with maybe the possibility of paid doulas ( the doulas who have been recruited for the last two months of the study are getting paid a $40 stipend per shift, not per birth. Another change in the last 2 months....They weren't getting any money before) If the results are negative....who knows? Another study perhaps, with the doulas on site for the full two years, or however long? Or maybe they'll scrap the the whole thing due to inconclusive evidence. All this remains to be seen. However, I will gladly keep anyone interested updated!

I've been told by R.N.s, project coordinators, and others that the only reason Kaiser is doing this study is to see whether or not it would be cost effective for the hospitals, and quite frankly I can believe this. But better to get in through the back door than not to get in at all!