Doula program births conflicts at St. Vincent.
Elizabeth Rose is a slave to her profession.
***image1***Then again, hers is a career where servitude literally goes with the job title. Rose is a doula. Back in ancient Greece the term described the most important female slave in a household. Today being a doula is a vocation-a person hired by pregnant mothers to provide comfort and support during the birthing process.
But in not-so-ancient Santa Fe, the local doula community has been shackled by conflict.
The conflict surrounds Karen Woods, co-ordinator of doula services at St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, whom several doulas allege has created a hostile work environment through a pattern of unprofessional behavior.
Woods did not return several calls seeking response to this story.
All interview requests to St. Vincent personnel were forwarded to spokesman Arturo Delgado, who says the hospital has found no merit to the allegations against Woods.
Those allegations, according to a letter written last year by lawyer Shannon Broderick Bulman on behalf of more than a dozen people, have lead to numerous doulas leaving St. Vincent's program.
Rose left her private doula practice, she says, "in part because I didn't feel safe attending births at the hospital. I was both unwilling to compromise my personal and professional integrity by being affiliated in any way with [Woods] and I was unwilling to place myself or my clients in harm's way by attending hospital-based births."
Denise McAdams, a registered nurse, childbirth educator and lactation consultant, worked on a per diem basis in the Women's Services department at St. V. for several years before she resigned about a month ago to care for her ailing father. Before her resignation, McAdams says her relationship with Woods disintegrated rapidly.
"I couldn't even work the same shift she was working because she was so rude," McAdams says. "I just couldn't deal with her hostility."
McAdams also was an eyewitness to what she says was a vicious verbal attack on doula Karolyn Wilson after a training workshop in May, 2002.
Wilson was part of the first doula program at St. Vincent, but dropped out to become certified through Doulas Of North America (DONA).Wilson says she wrote a formal letter of complaint to the hospital but never heard back. Two and a half years after the incident, Wilson says Woods called her on New Year's Eve 2004 to apologize.
"To be fair, I got a very nice apology from Karen," Wilson says. "It was very sincere. But then the same thing started up again soon after."
The complaints against Woods are not solely from colleagues. Little more than a year ago, Elizabeth Wilds-then Elizabeth Curtis-came to St. Vincent in preparation of the birth of her third child. Wilds says things turned ugly when Woods disapproved of Wilds' appointed advocate, doula-in-training Lorrie Wilms.
"She tried to create a rift between [Wilms and me] for no apparent reason," Wilds says. "I just found this person-Ms. Woods-to be very unprofessional and very reactive. I'm a pretty easygoing person, but I'm not apathetic. I'm not a doormat."
Wilds decided to transfer her care to the hospital in Española.
"The atmosphere at St. Vincent's turned me off," Wilds says. "It wasn't something I wanted to be a part of. I didn't want two people in conflict with me during the birth. I didn't want that tension."
As it happens, when Wilds went into labor she didn't have time to make the 30-minute drive to Española and delivered Conlan (now 13 months) with the aid of her now 6-year-old daughter, a neighbor who couldn't speak English and a 911 operator. "I delivered while I was on the phone with 911," Wilds laughs. "I wasn't really thinking about Karen Woods and St. Vincent's Hospital at the time."
But others were. By that time, a group of concerned childbirth professionals and former patients had begun meeting to address the situation, which led to the consultation with lawyer Bulman.
On Nov. 17, 2004, Bulman drafted a letter to St. Vincent CEO Alex Valdez-which was signed by Rose, Wilson, McAdams, Wilds and nine other childbirth professionals and former patients-detailing the concerns about Woods.
"We hoped the hospital would take it more seriously if we ran it through a lawyer," McAdams says. "They acted like they did but really the hospital has just kind of shrugged it off."
McAdams says she received a call from the Human Resources Department, but despite calling back five or six times, she was never contacted again.
"Our Human Resources Department looked into the allegations," spokesman Delgado says. "Any violation that is reported is reviewed. In this case, we found that there were no violations."
Delgado also supplied a letter from Childbirth Enhancement Foundation, which runs St. Vincent's doula training program, stating there was no further need to investigate Woods and that it "stands behind" her work. Delgado also supplied a letter in support of Woods signed by 11 of the hospital's pediatricians.
Although most of the players in the saga are health care professionals associated in one way or the other with the hospital, Peggy O'Mara, publisher and editor of Mothering Magazine, was one of the people on whose behalf the letter requesting the investigation of Woods was written. O'Mara acknowledges she hasn't had much direct interaction with Woods, but says the totality of the situation concerned her.
"At first, I thought it was probably just a personal thing," O'Mara says. "But then I heard about the situation from another doula who was completely independent from Elizabeth. Then I began hearing it from mothers as well. It wasn't just coming from a select group of people, I heard about it a number of times over a long period of time...I'm an international advocate for natural birth and mothering. I got involved [in the Bulman letter] because I was growing increasingly alarmed about the things that I was hearing. I was really concerned for the wellbeing of the mothers."
