WHITE CENTER PROGRAM TO COMFORT NEW MOMS. Jeretha McKinley presented the Chicago-based "Outreach Doula Program" to a group interested in perinatal care for low-income mothers. Doulas care and comfort pregnant women and continue care, sometimes until the child is as old as two.
<b>Photo by Steve Shay</b>
The White Center residents recently were invited to Mount View Presbyterian Church to hear a presentation by Jeretha McKinley of the Chicago Health Connection to hear about the Doula Outreach Program through Open Arms Perinatal Services.
Sheila Capistany, spokesperson for Open Arms and herself a doula (from the ancient Greek word meaning "woman's servant") for 17 years, says Open Arms Perinatal Services, through their doula support program, has been providing doula support to families in the area since 1997.
The impetus for this presentation was the result of Open Arms alliance with Chicago Health Connections who pioneered the groundbreaking Outreach doula Model for women and families who need intensive support during pregnancy and early parenting.
This community has seen an influx of immigrants and refugees fleeing their homelands as the result of war and poverty. As with many of our great grandmothers and grandmothers, these women are strangers in a strange land who are na
