A pregnancy help organization in Northwest Iowa provides wholistic healthcare for women, including free and low-cost doula services for those experiencing unplanned pregnancies and financial hardship, alleviating a burden during their time of need.
“Our goal through Guiding Star centers is to establish this movement of women's healthcare centers that truly honor women's minds bodies and spirits,” said Kaleigh Van Middendorp, executive director of Guiding Star Siouxland. “The Guiding Star project is a national movement of women's healthcare centers.”
Guiding Star Siouxland offers natural fertility and family planning, pregnancy and childbirth services, breastfeeding and postpartum services, and family life services.
Van Middendorp and her team use the Creighton Model FertilityCare System, which educates women about their cycle and fertility so they can understand how their body works in approaching natural family planning. They also help women going through menopause.
“Our goal through guiding star centers is to establish this movement of women's healthcare centers that truly honor women's minds bodies and spirits,” she said.
Guiding Star Siouxland, located in Sioux Center, Iowa, also assists women who experience unplanned pregnancies.
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“There's a place and a time for that crisis intervention that pregnancy clinics do so well,” she said. “We do have free pregnancy tests and referrals to medical providers who are life-affirming and specifically say they want to support women through unplanned pregnancies.”
Van Middendorp and her staff assisted nine women who experienced unexpected pregnancies in 2022 and seriously considered abortion as their option.
“We want to support those women to the best of our abilities,” Van Middendorp said.
Making doula services available
One way Guiding Star Siouxland offers support is by offering free and low-cost doula services through the Labor of Love program.
Doulas provide physical and emotional support through labor, along with information on what to expect and what to do. Services include two prenatal and postpartum appointments. The doula is on-call from 38 weeks to 42 weeks, until the woman delivers her baby.
Applicants submit a statement of financial need for the Labor of Love program.
“They fill out a form that asks for their name and the reason why they're interested in having a doula because that's important to us,” she said.
The typical cost of a certified doula is $700 and the fee for Guiding Start’s interns is $500, the fees including a consultation to ensure a good fit between client and doula.
Guiding Star Siouxland asks women if they can contribute at all financially towards the program and services, as a way of fostering their personal investment in taking part.
“We like to try to get women to participate,” said Van Middendorp, “even if it's just five or 10 dollars, so that they have that investment.”
“Any of our moms experiencing an unplanned pregnancy or financial hardship are able to apply for that program,” she said.
Other programs and services
Additionally, Guiding Star Siouxland offers educational programs to pre-teen girls and is seeing positive results.
“We started an education program for girls nine to 13-years-old with The Cycle Show,” Van Middendorp said, “educating them about the beauty of their creation, the beauty of their fertility, in the hopes that the more education women receive, the better they can value and protect and respect themselves, their bodies, their fertility,”
“We see the good consequence of that,” she told Pregnancy Help News. “We can see that we're decreasing those unplanned pregnancies.”
Guiding Star Siouxland
Through such education and services Van Middendorp said she hopes that the community of Sioux Center and the surrounding area will also experience “decreasing violence against women, decreasing breastfeeding struggles and birth trauma, and postpartum depression.”
“It’s a cascade of improvement that we see,” she said. “And that's really our goal throughout the Guiding Star project.”
“A lot of it is just listening to the client,” said Van Middendorp.
She and her staff also serve women who have experienced abortion.
“We serve all women,” she said. “We offer post-abortion support, and we have programs we can refer them to as well in addition to that lay counseling that we do in that post-abortion time.”
“There's a lot we talk about,” Van Middendorp said, “what things look like post-abortion for them, what recovery would look like mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and we say, ‘We want to support you no matter what your choice is, and we want you to come back and receive quality care if you do choose abortion.’”
None of the nine abortion-minded clients served at Guiding Star Siouxland this year chose abortion, Van Middendorp added.
“Thankfully and glory to God, we've not had any of those nine women this year choose to go through with an abortion,” she said.
History and future
Guiding Star Siouxland began in 2016; two other such centers are located in other towns in Iowa. Minnesota, Texas, Florida, and Tennessee also have Guiding Star facilities.
The organization’s services are comprehensive in the offerings for women and families.
“We have women that come to us for fertility education so wanting to know about natural family planning methods,” Van Middendorp said. “And couples come to us through infertility. We serve families through miscarriage and infant loss pregnant clients.”
After having virtual services for a few years, the center re-opened in spring 2022, and continues to add in-person services including in-house ultrasound. Guiding Star Siouxland has an ultrasound machine and seeks a nurse manager.
Women find Guiding Star Siouxland in a variety of ways, including online, but referral by other people, including healthcare professionals, is the primary source of client traffic, Van Middendorp said.
“Friends know that we've provided that support,” she said. “We have churches that refer clients to us, local healthcare providers, and we have two local hospitals in our community.”
A health center is really close by and provides a lot of referrals, she said. In addition, they have service partners, such as chiropractors, physical therapists, photographers, and massage therapists.
“All sorts of different people give out our information to their pregnant clients,” said Van Middendorp.
As a new year approaches, Van Middendorp said Guiding Star Siouxland has one major goal: to begin offering ultrasounds once again.
She knows that image is valuable in helping undecided clients choose life for their unborn child, as she has witnessed hearts change when pregnant mom meets her little one on the ultrasound screen.
“It's crucial for us in this next year to get our ultrasound up and running again and really be that full medical clinic,” she said. “That's our goal in the future.”
