For sisters Hallie Greider and Jordan Saalfrank, childbirth educators and doulas, for every birth in which they assist or expectant parent they encounter, the birth matters. So Birth Matters is a fitting name for a new Fort Wayne organization they founded.

“Birth Matters' mission is about empowering families with complete education, meaning that it includes all the risks, benefits, choices of pregnancy and raising toddlers,” said Saalfrank, who has a master's degree in social work and runs the Doula Network of Fort Wayne.

A doula offers physical and emotional support and education throughout pregnancy, labor, delivery and postpartum.

A certified childbirth educator, Greider said parents-to-be are bombarded with advice from family, friends, neighbors, the doctor and sometimes even strangers. It can be overwhelming. The birth plan parents make — with a goal of smooth, controlled labor and no complications — “doesn't necessarily happen, but being involved and making decisions along the way as things unfold is important,” Greider said.

Fort Wayne residents Marta and Jason Lane sought out a childbirth education class before the birth of their second daughter in October. With the birth of their first daughter, now 2 1/2 , the couple didn't take a class, but wish they had.

“I worked really hard on my breathing, and my husband was supportive, but it really didn't work for me,” Marta Lane said of her first labor and delivery.

The second time around, the couple started with a childbirth-education class in a hospital, “but I wasn't really satisfied.” Much of the information focused on what hospital staff would expect of parents, even what was not acceptable, she said.

Shortly after starting the hospital class, they heard about Birth Matters. The Lanes had already chosen Saalfrank as their doula.

“They showed us a lot of videos of women in labor and that there are a lot of different ways of how women cope with labor. They tell you about different ways to emotionally cope with labor,” Lane said.

Some of the techniques she learned made a “night-and-day difference” in her birthing experiences, Lane said, included squatting on her hands and knees during strong contractions, doing repetitive actions during intense labor and using low, deep vocalizations.

“I really believe in the vocalizations. It worked for me,” Lane said, noting many women fear that making sounds during labor will be embarrassing or inappropriate. “What I most took away from the Birth Matters classes is to be free and comfortable and don't let someone tell you, ‘That won't work.'”

Greider and Saalfrank are applying for nonprofit status for Birth Matters. They hope to find a permanent home where they can teach not only childbirth education, but also newborn care, breastfeeding and sibling preparation. Currently classes are offered at several locations in the community.

As the organization grows, the goal is to add, with the help of others trained in their fields, infant massage, yoga and baby sign language. Another possibility is hypno-birthing, self-hypnosis tools the laboring mom can use.

Saalfrank delivered her three children in a hospital. Greider had her first child in a birthing center in New York City, where she then lived, and three home births in New York.

“We don't have an agenda, a specific type of birth we'd like parents to have. We present research- and evidence-based options,” Saalfrank said. Referrals come from doctors and from others who have taken their classes.

“A woman will always remember how she was made to feel at her birth … and that parlays into how you go into becoming a parent,” Greider said. “Seeing the experiences as medical — that's important.” But most extraordinary is “seeing beyond the medical, to see the emotional, the spiritual, to see something deeper.”