The demographics of our nation are changing. Experts estimate that roughly 20 million people in the U.S. (about 1 in 15) speak and understand little if any English. A majority of these people speak Spanish as their first language. Effective communication is the cornerstone of quality patient care. When patients and nurses cannot talk with one another about needs, symptoms, medications, treatments and response to interventions the result is poor nursing care. Healthcare providers throughout the nation struggle to meet the needs of Limited English Proficiency (LEP) patients, both to insure the quality of care and also to comply with federal and regulatory mandates to do so. As budgets continue to tighten, providing interpretive services becomes one more expense on an already burdened system. Even so, it is a necessary expense because language barriers have been found to complicate many aspects of patient care including access to care, patient satisfaction, comprehension, adherence to prescribed medical regimes and length of stay. Because of the increasing Hispanic population seen in this inner city maternity center and the urgent and delicate nature of childbirth and mother/baby care, it was felt that dedicated interpreters were needed on the maternity unit. However, the budgetary concern of what the interpreter should do when they were not needed for interpreting became a roadblock to hiring these interpreters. There are several models for providing interpreters in the medical setting. Most healthcare institutions use a combination of different models. Luz de mi Vida is a unique model that provides expanded training to Spanish language interpreters. The program strives to not only bridge the communication gap, but also to train interpreters in the sensitive skills of labor support, lactation support, perinatal bereavement care and postpartum education. By investing in this additional training the interpreter/doula becomes an integral part of the healthcare team. This training enables them to provide specialized support to any patient regardless of whether they speak English or Spanish. Additionally, they become familiar with the vocabulary of maternity care, the most common needs and concerns of maternity patients and their families and also the most common needs of the unit staff. Development of these maternity support skills has had an added benefit of enticing these interpreter/doulas to pursue education in nursing and possibly become bilingual nurses. Staff familiarity with the interpreter/doulas generates trust that interpretations are accurate and partnering in care leads to sharing of knowledge. The interpreter/doula teaches the staff how to say key words and phrases in Spanish, in turn, the nurses and midwives teach and demonstrate ‘tricks of the trade' so vital to the art of maternity care. As the emerging field of medical interpreting develops, Luz de mi Vida is a unique program that offers many advantages to providing quality interpretive services, and quality patient care. As a long-term strategy for dealing with the language issue, it may also be a way to recruit and train native speakers to become part of the licensed healthcare team.