Smooth Transitions® Oklahoma
Smooth Transitions® Oklahoma is a locally driven quality improvement initiative focused on strengthening the experience and outcomes of transfers from planned community birth settings to hospitals in Tulsa.
About planned community births transfer to hospital care
Inspired by a proven model developed in Washington state, this program adopts best practices to meet the unique needs of Oklahoma’s maternal health landscape. By fostering collaboration among community midwives, hospital teams, and EMS personnel, Smooth Transitions® Oklahoma promotes a shared approach to care—one that centers the dignity, safety, and preferences of birthing families throughout the transfer process.
Why Smooth Transitions Oklahoma?
During the birthing process, a person or newborn may need to transfer to a higher level of care for various reasons. These transitions – whether from home or birth centers to hospitals, between hospitals, or among providers – can be complex and deeply impactful.
Smooth Transitions® Oklahoma is dedicated to improving communications, guidelines, and follow-up during these transfers to enhance the quality of care, elevate the patient experience, and strengthen professional collaboration. By fostering trust and efficiency across all care settings, we help ensure that every transition is as seamless and supportive as possible.
Why Smooth Transitions® Oklahoma?
Smooth Transitions® Oklahoma brings together community midwives, doulas, hospital teams, and EMS personnel to create a unified approach to care - one that honors the dignity, safety, and preferences of birthing families during planned transfers from community to hospital settings.
Our Goals
Building a collaborative care model that puts birthing families first and strengthens trust between community midwives and clinical providers.
Enhance whole-person safety
Establish system-wide guidelines to enhance whole-person safety (including emotional, psychological, social, cultural, spiritual, and physical processes and outcomes) and efficiency during transfers.
Collect and analyze outcome data
Collect and analyze transfer outcome data to drive quality improvement in maternal and newborn care.
Enhance the patient experience
Enhance the patient experience through better communication and support during transfers.
Foster stronger collaboration
Foster stronger collaboration between community -based midwives, EMS, hospital teams, and doulas for integrated, patient-centered care.
Participating Hospitals
The following hospitals are participants in the Smooth Transitions Oklahoma initiative. Each facility is committed to improving maternal care through developing shared transfer protocols, conducting quarterly Perinatal Transfer Committee meetings, collaborating with community midwives to identify areas for improvement, and contributing to data collection.
Share Your Experience
Have you experienced a recent hospital transfer from a planned community birth to one of the Tulsa community hospitals. A Planned community birth refers to a birth that is intentionally arranged to take place outside of a hospital setting, typically in a home or freestanding birth center, with a community midwife.
