Senate committee hears overview of pregnancy, postpartum and parenting supports for women at Coffee Creek

Lawmakers in the Senate Committee on Early Childhood and Behavioral Health heard April 22 about programs intended to support pregnant and parenting people who are incarcerated at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville.

Heidi Stewart, deputy director for the Oregon Department of Corrections and acting health services administrator, told the committee the department provides several on-site supports at Coffee Creek, including expanded visiting opportunities for mothers and infants after delivery, an on-site Early Head Start program that can enroll eight children and operates seven hours per week, breastfeeding education and pumping supplies with milk pickups coordinated through the Northwest Mothers Milk Bank, a family advocate position that helps women navigate child welfare cases and arrange visits, and an evidence-based cognitive behavioral parenting program developed with the Oregon Social Learning Center.

"We want to make sure that we help facilitate the connections and provide resources to moms who live at Coffee Creek, and who have children and who wanna be a part of their children's lives," Stewart said.

Stewart told senators that Coffee Creek currently has one OBGYN on staff; she offered to provide caseload and program participation numbers to the committee after the hearing.

Representatives of the Oregon Prison Birth Project (prison doula program), the OSTAR Initiative and academic research partners described how doula services and enhanced perinatal programming operate in prisons nationwide and in Oregon. Rebecca Schleifer, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, said a federally funded multisite study is tracking enhanced perinatal programs across eight state prisons and that at least 22 U.S. jurisdictions now operate programs beyond standard medical care — services that can include one-on-one doula support, postpartum lactation help and group prenatal education.

Alicia Roach, program manager of the Oregon Prison Birth Project, described the local program's work at Coffee Creek: doulas provide prenatal groups and one-on-one visits, attend births to provide emotional and physical support, assist with preparing mothers for separation after discharge, and take photographs and other steps to "memorialize" births. Roach said the program had assisted four births so far in Oregon, including a twin birth in January, and that doulas continue to provide support through the baby’s first year when possible.

"We support pregnant and birthing people from prenatally up until baby's first birthday," Roach said.

Speakers described mental-health needs after birth and said doulas and related programs often identify postpartum disorders that extend beyond the first year, including presentations described as postpartum rage or postpartum psychosis. Erica Garrity, a founder of the Minnesota Prison Doula Project and executive director of the OSTAR Initiative, and Rebecca Schleifer both said programs are adapting to provide more sustained perinatal mental-health supports.

The Family Preservation Project (FPP), a community nonprofit that partners with DOC, presented evaluation findings and program metrics. Jessica Katz, FPP’s founding director, said the organization has scaled services to include an intensive family reunification program, a family resource center and an alumni association. Katz reported that, in a recent reporting period, the intensive program provided services to 13 mothers, 37 children and 37 caregivers; the Family Resource Center averages about 80 mothers and 415 children served per month (about 352 minors), facilitates roughly 300 calls or emails between mothers and children per month, and mails about 15 letters or packages monthly.

An FPP pilot evaluation conducted with Trauma Informed Oregon surveyed 113 participants and found modest improvements on several measures: a 16 percent increase in parenting self-efficacy, an 8 percent increase in coping confidence, a 6 percent increase in perceived family support, an 18 percent increase in awareness of how incarceration affects children, and a 3 percent reduction in parenting stress.

Multiple alumni and youth advisory council members gave in-person testimony describing the program's role in reestablishing parent–child contact and supporting reunification. Kendra Stidham, an FPP alumna, described being reunited with her daughter after supervised visits and said the program helped the pair "heal alongside each other." Her daughter, Celine Lasky, spoke as a founding member of the Youth Advisory Council about being denied knowledge of her mother's incarceration before FPP support and about using her experience to advocate for other youth.

Deputy Director Stewart told the committee that women are not restrained during labor and delivery at hospital births. Committee members asked staff for follow-up information on participation rates, waiting lists for Early Head Start, OBGYN caseloads and other program statistics; Stewart said she would provide those numbers to the committee.

No formal policy vote was taken on the perinatal programs during the informational session.