Retail Notebook: Making the birth less of a pain

Like a lot of expectant parents, Kristina Peterson and Ian McAllister left nothing to chance.

They took a childbirth class, learned infant CPR, lined up a birth doula as a support person for Peterson, bought lactation supplies and joined a parents group.

As her due date loomed, Peterson tried pregnancy massage to ease her aching back, and McAllister even took a class on how to introduce the baby to the family dog.

		Karen Ducey / P-I
	Lucas Saunders, 10 1/2 weeks, does a little stretching beside his mother, Karen Saunders, left, in a "Mom and Baby" yoga class at Gracewinds Perinatal Services in Ballard. Gracewinds offers a range of classes and services in one place for pregnant women and new mothers.

Their to-do list could have sent them scurrying all over town. Instead, they enjoyed one-stop shopping at Gracewinds Perinatal Services, whose personal, homey approach has earned a heap of awards for founder and CEO Christine Wallace.

"I was finding that pregnant women were having to go all over, looking for these services," said Wallace, a certified medical assistant and mother of five. "I thought, 'That's silly. Why not have one place where women can find all these services?' "

Gracewinds started small in late 2002 -- just six practitioners operating out of a renovated tavern in Ballard. But the business, which promises "a community of support under one roof," soon needed a larger roof for its rapidly expanding community.

Gracewinds recently doubled in size, to 3,200 square feet, after moving into an adjacent space vacated by a violin maker. The sprawling warren now includes five treatment rooms, a library, yoga and photography studios, and a retail space called The Peapod Book and Birth Store, which opened a year ago.

Meanwhile, Wallace keeps dreaming up new ventures. The company's non-profit arm, the Gracewinds Global Breast Milk Initiative, recently joined with a Kenyan group to work toward creating a mother-child clinic.

Wallace also started a publishing company, Braxton- Hicks, to produce "The Pocket Doula: A Labor Partner's Guide to Surviving Childbirth." She said her labor guide has sold nearly 15,000 copies and is used by hospitals nationally.

Meanwhile, Gracewinds' staff has grown to 35 practitioners, mostly subcontractors, who provide services from acupuncture to prenatal counseling. They also run one of the city's busiest lactation clinics.

Gracewinds is not a birth center, and it employs no medical doctors, but it does rent space to a couple of midwives. In less than five years, it has served more than 2,300 clients.

		Karen Ducey / P-I
	Christine Wallace, owner of Gracewinds Perinatal Services, is expanding her multifaceted mommy business to include a coffee shop and used children's bookstore, which opens at the end of June.

Wallace, 45, a speech and set-design major, worked in theater for more than 15 years (the Gracewinds murals are her handiwork) before switching to the medical field in 1994.

She is a licensed massage therapist, certified childbirth educator and labor doula (a supportive companion to the laboring mother) who has attended more than 85 births.

Warm and down-to-earth, with wavy auburn hair and a wide smile, Wallace took a careful, considered approach to launching her business.

The first year, she focused on informing doctors and hospitals of Gracewinds' existence. She won trust by explaining that she wasn't advocating for any particular childbirth or prenatal camp.

"We weren't there for one extreme or the other," she said. "We were there to provide the information, the education, the sense of community."

Word spread quickly, Wallace said, and by the second year Gracewinds' client base "exploded."

Since then, the for-profit center has added services to keep new parents coming back. The tiny Peapod Book and Birth Store, which specializes in products recommended by local medical providers, has become an important leg of the business.

		Seattle P-I

"Thirty percent of our gross revenue this year is from the store," Wallace said, "and it's only a year old."

Popular products include nursing bras, high-powered breast pumps, herbal sitz baths and ergonomic or ethnically inspired baby slings.

One Saturday a month, Peapod has a baby-sling open house to show customers how to use such exotic products as the Ella Roo (six yards of woven Guatemalan cloth, $54), the stretchy-knit Moby Wrap ($39.99) and the Korean-style Baby Hawk ($74).

Adjacent to the retail store, Candice Schuchardt runs a related business, The Velveteen Child, a cozy shop that sells used children's books.

Besides being a book lover, Schuchardt is a labor-delivery nurse and a certified lactation consultant. She called Gracewinds "a one-of-a-kind venture ... like finding an oasis for a pregnant or new mom."

Starting within the next week, the bookshop also will house China Cat Coffee and Tea, a beverage and pastry cart owned by Wallace and her oldest son. Four cafe tables already are set up for socializing.

"There aren't a lot of coffee shops," Wallace said, "where moms can meet and feel their kids can sit on the floor and play."

Peterson dropped by recently to say hi to Wallace, who had been her doula at daughter Solveig's birth two weeks earlier.

"We've made lots of friends here," Peterson said, snuggling her slinged newborn while her husband and their 3-year-old son, Anders, sat on the floor reading together.

Most Gracewinds parents are professionals in their 30s and 40s -- people who are used to networking. Friendships form quickly and sometimes blossom into business ties.

Wallace's own marketer, graphic designer and attorney are former clients.

As a result, Gracewinds has become a networking hub for female business owners. Several months ago, Wallace co-founded Northwest Enterprising Moms, a dues-paying group that has 40 members so far. Mom-owned businesses account for more than a quarter of Peapod's products.

"There's a lot of wheeling and dealing that goes along with these women," Wallace said, "because that's where they're coming from anyway."

Wallace, who recently became a grandmother, has the same work-family juggling act as her clients.

She has two sons, ages 18 and 26, and three daughters -- 15-year-old twins and an 8-year-old.

Wallace has taken on a big job, but her efforts haven't gone unnoticed. Last year Gracewinds won the "Mayor's Small Business" award and HomeStreet Bank's "Great Business, Great Neighbor" award.

This year Wallace won the "Women in Business Trailblazer" award from the National Association of Women Business Owners and Wells Fargo.

She also was the state and regional winner of the Small Business Administration's "Women in Business Champion" award.

"We're overwhelmed," Wallace said. "It kind of shows we're doing the right thing, though. I've had great advisers. As someone who had no business experience, the one thing I did right is bring in the people who knew what they were doing."

A consultant from the Small Business Administration helped her pace the company's growth and manage finances.

"Fortunately," Wallace said, "I can tell you we've always been in the black."

Profits have doubled in the past year.

This year Wallace plans to chart a course for expansion -- initially throughout the Puget Sound region and Portland.

In 10 or 15 years, she hopes to have Gracewinds communities operating throughout the country, each with its own spin.

Gracewinds will always include the core services, she said, "but wherever we go, we're going to make it what that community needs."

IF YOU GO

Gracewinds Perinatal Services, 1421 N.W. 70th St., 206-781-9871. gracewindsperinatal.com