Jami Bess

Open Arms Perinatal Services is an innovative nonprofit dedicated to providing strong community-based support for birthing people through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. We have provided services to pregnant people and their families in the Puget Sound area since 1997. The time around the birth of a baby is a transformational time for parents and is a tremendous opportunity to support families in getting the best start in life. Through doula care and lactation peer support, we achieve better health outcomes, strengthen parent-baby bonding and increase parental self-advocacy skills. Open Arms’ unique services include home visits beginning during pregnancy, attendance at the birth of the baby, and ongoing support. We provide referrals and early parenting education up to two years after a baby is born. We also provide home visits by trained counselors to support lactation. In all of our services, we carefully match clients to care providers from the same community whenever possible, and we have the capacity to work with clients in nine different languages. Our work is foundational for maternal-infant health and early learning efforts. Open Arms serves about 500 families each year, supporting and caring for families with low income at a pivotal time when the positive impact is most profound.