Open Arms Perinatal Services is the Sunday cause of the month for October.  The mission of Open Arms is providing community-based support during pregnancy, birth, and early parenting to nurture strong foundations that last a lifetime.

Since 1997, they have served over 5,200 families with community-based support, completely free of charge. Through prenatal education, continuous doula support through labor, lactation guidance, support groups, and home visits, they establish supportive networks from pregnancy up to a child’s second birthday.

The United States has extremely poor maternal and infant health outcomes compared to other Global North nations, especially for Black, Indigenous, Latine, and other birthing people of color. Research has shown that doulas improve birth outcomes and one-on-one continuous doula support for low-risk patients in spontaneous labor is endorsed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). 

As mentioned above, Infant mortality for Black, Brown and Indigenous people is higher and in our area data shows many of the deaths are concentrated in areas of South King County. Open Arms Perinatal Services are provided free of charge to birthing people living within King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties.

Our funds will be used for programs to support their community and culturally matched doula, lactation and childbirth education services. That includes Doula support which is offered in 9 different languages.

This organization was nominated by EUUC committee Advocates For Women. 

As always, thank you for your generous donations.

If you have an organization that you wish to nominate for Sunday cause of the month, we invite you to fill out the online Sunday Cause nomination form.