Edina-based Welcome Baby Care Tackles the Fourth Trimester

Living in the womb is a lot like spending time on a Minnesota lake on a perfect June summer evening. The constant water and wave motion lulls us to sleep, abetted by the soothing comfort of darkness and warm temperatures. It’s an all-inclusive nine-month stay. Yet in the beginning we are never told that this paradise is temporary, that soon we will have to “pack our bags” and enter the real world. Birth, with the maternity ward’s bright lights, medical instruments clanking and erratic movement of doctors and nurses, is probably like going from that calm, Lake Wobegon-like environment to New York City in the blink of an eye. Is it any wonder that babies cry immediately after they’re born? The first three months after birth are often referred to as the “fourth” trimester of pregnancy, and with good reason. Once out of the hospital, our new home is still a foreign land.  We become homesick for the constant “water aerobics” inside Mom’s tummy. The sound of screaming siblings, barking dogs and all that light stresses us out. And Mom, after being the perfect host to her baby for nine months, faces physical and psychological changes of her own.  Her experience is also a foreign land. If mom and baby feel like foreigners, then a postpartum doula plays the role of the goodwill ambassador. Welcome Baby Care, an Edina-based postpartum doula company, is a business that employs such “ambassadors.” Owner and founder Carey Lindeman explains that, while some people may be familiar with the role of the traditional doula—one who assists the mother during pregnancy and birth—a postpartum doula specifically helps a family during that fourth trimester. “We nurture, educate, problem-solve and will adapt to whatever need a family may have,” says Lindeman, “We consider ourselves a bridge from them having a baby to becoming a family.” In the past, when a baby was born, a grandmother or aunt would frequently stay with the family until the mother had adapted to her new role. But in today’s world, dominated by busy schedules, it is less common for extended family to come and help when a baby is born. Lindeman believes that this lack of support might be a part of the reason the postpartum depression rate is so high in the United States. “Just as a new baby needs to be taken care of, new parents also need to be taken care of,” says Lindeman.    Perhaps that combination of caring for the parents in conjunction with the hands-on teaching of caring for a newborn makes Welcome Baby Care a more attractive option than extended family.  After Ilene and Patrick Moore had twins in August, 2012, they ran into challenges with their well-intending extended family. “For the first five days we had four people over the age of 70 helping us,” Ilene Moore recalls. “Our doula could tell that our extended family was more of a drain on my energy than a help. “Not only did she do everything that she could to physically help us, but she helped our entire family bond.” Prices for in-home doula care vary, depending on whether a family is looking for hourly, full-day or overnight help. While $500 for an overnight might seem expensive, there are bonuses that quickly add up. When Anne Halvorson and her husband had their first baby in April, 2012, they set up a budget of $1,500 for three overnight stays. The savings of time was priceless in Halvorson’s case. “My husband is a musician, and we needed to travel three weeks after the birth of our baby,” Halvorson explains. “Without that 24-hour help we never would have been able to do it.”  While both Halvorson and Moore had lactation consultations set up for them, they were able to cancel these services because their doula was able to help them learn how to breastfeed. After her maternity leave was over, Ilene Moore returned to her career as a pediatrician.  Her twins weren’t sleeping through the night, but she needed to function at work the next day.  Irene and Patrick’s doula made it possible for their family to enjoy what otherwise would have been a time filled with chronic sleep deprivation, stress and irritability. “Here we are six months into it and I’m not resentful of my children because they suck so much of my energy,” explains Patrick Moore. “With Welcome Baby Care I am able to be at my best with my babies, and bond in a way that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible.”