Doula co-ordinator steps down.
January is a month for fresh starts, time for wiping the 2005 slate clean. St. Vincent Regional Medical Center has its clean slate. SFR has learned that the hospital and Karen Woods-the embattled co-ordinator of its doula services program-parted ways around the time that allegations against Woods were made public in November [Outtakes, Nov. 16: "
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***image1***In November 2004, lawyer Shannon Broderick Bulman sent a letter of complaint to the St. Vincent administration on behalf of 13 childbirth professionals. The letter alleged Woods had created a hostile work environment that had led many local doulas-who assist mothers before, during and after their pregnancies-to leave the hospital's program and the profession altogether.
The letter was written-according to those, like Elizabeth Rose and Emilee Holt, who signed it-out of frustration over the hospital's seeming unwillingness to address a series of ongoing complaints. When the allegations came to light, hospital Spokesman Arturo Delgado said that an internal investigation found no cause for punitive action. Delgado also provided a letter supporting Woods, which was signed by 11 of the hospital's pediatricians.
When asked for comment on the reported departure of Woods, Delgado declined, saying he could not confirm or deny that Woods was no longer a St. Vincent employee.
Leave that up to Woods.
"It was a mutual decision based on the contract ending, period," Woods says. "I have nothing negative to say about the hospital. I worked with the finest people imaginable and I'm grateful for all the years that I worked there."
Woods declined further comment.
When told that Woods had confirmed her departure, Delgado acknowledged that the hospital's doula services are still operating but that an interim director won't be named until the hospital has a chance to reassess the program.
Whatever the circumstances of her departure, the move is being viewed with cautious optimism by many in the local doula community.
"It's a huge relief for me personally and I think for a lot of other people as well," Rose says. "I'm very grateful that the community has an opportunity to restore balance to a situation that has been chaotic for a lot of people for a long time."
Rose, Holt and others who voiced complaints about Woods' behavior insist their decision to speak out was not meant as an indictment of the hospital's program.
"It really has the potential to be fantastic," Holt says. Holt also says the decision to voice the complaints had nothing to do with a personal vendetta against Woods, but was about the larger issue of the hospital not addressing the situation.
"I'm hoping, if there is any lingering animosity, that everyone can handle it like adults," Rose says. "I'm hopeful that there can be a forum, a way that professionals who have been divided by this situation can come together, heal together and move forward."
