Radical Doula

This is a series highlighting folks who identify as Radical Doulas. Are you interested in being part of the series? Email me.

Britta Conner is a lightworker, birth activist, lactivist, and doula.  She is experienced in many forms of energy healing.  She is the proud mama of two children, soon to be more through adoption.  Britta has lived in many places, and currently calls Hinesville, GA her home.  Due to the mobile nature of her life you can follow her on her website http://www.barefootzoning.com

RD: What inspired you to become a Doula?

BC: I was a young mother, having my first baby at 22 years old. I didn’t take any child birth education classes because I didn’t trust them to teach me what I needed to know. I didn’t have faith in my doctor, but since he was the professional and had done it hundreds of times I thought he knew more than I did. I went into birth with the idea that my body could do it and I would figure it out on the fly. This was completely misguided, I was uninformed and was setting myself up for failure. I was induced, the first intervention of many, and my son was eventually born by cesarean. We both came out of the surgery alive, but I had complications and didn’t heal completely for 8 months. After this horrific experience I opted for an elective cesarean for the birth of my daughter. Several years later, during some inspired internet surfing I came across a doula. I began to read about it and I happened to meet a doula and over the next year I decided to take the training myself. During the three day class I cried a lot, and re-opened those old wounds and began the healing process. I left the training feeling more whole, empowered and excited to bring knowledge and hope to other women. Modern birth has become a medical procedure instead of a beautiful journey. I want to help women experience the journey.

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I had the opportunity to connect with Monica when I was in Iowa last Spring during the Feministing College Tour. In short, she’s awesome. An amazing academic, activist and doula. I’m psyched she agreed to be part of the series!

This is a series highlighting folks who identify as Radical Doulas. Are you interested in being part of the series? Email me.

Monica Brasile has been a Certified Childbirth Educator and Doula since 1996, and is a founder and steering committee member of Friends of Iowa Midwives, a statewide grassroots organization working to increase access to midwifery care in Iowa. She is a PhD Candidate and Graduate Instructor in the department of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Iowa, and has taught several courses on women’s health and activism, including Feminism and Social Change and Issues in Reproductive Justice. She lives in Iowa City with her partner and teenage son. Her website is www.mapleseedbirth.com.

RD: What inspired you to become a doula?

MB: When I gave birth to my son at home, I was 19 and single. The loving, respectful care I received from my midwife was a welcome respite from the highly charged atmosphere of welfare reform anxiety that surrounded young single moms in the early 1990s. For me, giving birth was a hugely transformative, empowering, and positive experience. That experience gave me a passion for helping others arrive on the other side of birth feeling confident, strong, and supported, rather than violated, afraid, and alone. I am a doula because I believe that all women deserve to be trusted, listened to, and cared for respectfully. I believe that all women deserve access to information and the opportunity to make informed choices about pregnancy, birth, and parenting.

RD: What is your doula philosophy and how does it fit into your broader political beliefs?

MB: Because I believe that women should be the ones to decide what happens to their bodies, I work as a doula to help women to be at the center of the birth experience. I am committed to providing evidence-based, mother-friendly, non-judgmental birth services, with the belief that each birth is different and each family’s needs are unique. I believe that informed childbirth is an important facet of reproductive choice. By supporting women as a doula, I am supporting their reproductive autonomy. As a feminist, I see childbirth as an issue of reproductive and social justice, and I am interested in challenging ways in which birthing choices are often constrained by larger structural issues like poverty, racism, homophobia, access to health care, and the legal status of midwifery.

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This is a series highlighting folks who identify as Radical Doulas. Are you interested in being part of the series? Email me.

Stephanie Dank helps run the Harmony House, a medicinal herb cooperative in Lincoln, NE, working to build community around sustainable farming practices and healing holistically.  She is a full-time student, stay-at-home-mom, radical doula, and evolving herbalist, focusing much of her work in reclaiming the Wise Women Tradition of folk medicine and traditional midwifery/womancare.  She lives with a wild man she calls her partner, several hens, and a delightful, hilarious gift of a baby.  She likes to play the frame drum and take several deep breaths at a time.

What inspired you to become a doula?

When I started teaching workshops on positive menstruation I became a sort of agent for women to have access to all sorts of zines and alternative media about women’s health.  And so when I became pregnant, it was natural for me to seek out all of the empowering information out there about birth.  I soon found out that as easy as it was for me to find as somebody already tapped in, it wasn’t as accessible for most pregnant people.  I wanted to become a doula to help others have access to information that could empower their experiences.  Also, birth rights are extremely restricted here in Nebraska, so I want to help broaden the spectrum of options.  I had an doula-attended, drug-free hospital birth.  I’m proof that it can be done with the right support.

Why do you identify with the term radical doula?

Birth is a feminist issue, and it’s a radical feminist issue in that it often gets left out of the mainline feminist discussion, not to mention the reproductive rights debate.  I definitely see myself as an agent of change on the political front by working to empower women to be in control of their own experience.  There needs to be more birth workers out there that align themselves with some sort of intent, because the landscape of this work is in need of a lot of change.  There are doulas that stay neutral and accessible to people who are turned off by attaching ideology to their birth experience, and that’s totally fine.  My community doesn’t need another doula like that.  I’ve had to come to the decision to be out with my intent whether it works against me sometimes or not.

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This is a series highlighting folks who identify as Radical Doulas. Are you interested in being part of the series? Email me.

Kristen Ethier is a radical feminist, queer reproductive justice activist & proud doula. She recently started her very own practice called Kaleidoscope Doula Care and is getting her roots as a new-to-Chicago doula. She is proud to offer doula support for all pregnancy options including birth, abortion and adoption as well as care for all families and pregnant people. She really loves working with teens & LGBTQ pregnant people & if you are in Chicago, she wants to be your doula! She can be reached at kaleidoscopedoula@gmail.com. Also, check out her website at www.kaleidoscopedoula.com.

RD: What inspired you to become a doula?

KE: I was initially inspired to become a doula when I was working in abortion care. This may seem like an unlikely place to start, but being in the room and, essentially acting as a doula for women having abortions was incredibly powerful and struck a chord for me. After this initial inspiration, I went on to work with teen mothers and not altogether surprisingly, heard not only from the mothers but also from health care providers who admit to not sharing the full range of options with teen mothers due to their age, low income status, etc. Since then, I have never looked back. I see being a doula as a radical political act and am constantly inspired by the small moments of liberation that are felt when people are able to make empowered decisions about their bodies.

RD: Why do you identify with the term radical doula?

KE: My identities as a radical feminist, queer, reproductive & social justice activist constantly inform my life and work. Like many repro-justice activists, I began with a focus on abortion & sexual health but have expanded this lens to include work around the barriers and injustices that pregnant people face, especially around decisions to give birth. Becoming a doula has allowed me to bring these perspectives together. I named my practice “Kaleidoscope Doula Care” reflecting my commitment to providing doula care across the spectrum of pregnancy, including abortion and birth, as well as to providing safe & unconditionally supportive care to all families and pregnant people, especially to teens & young people, and to queer, gender non-conforming and transgender folks.

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This is a series highlighting folks who identify as Radical Doulas. Are you interested in being part of the series? Email me.

Valerie Wetlaufer is a birth doula, poet and doctoral fellow in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Utah. You can find out more about her at her business website Blooming Within and her personal website.

RD: What inspired you to become a doula?

VW: I’ve always been fascinated with pregnancy and birth as well as the full spectrum of women’s reproductive health, but I didn’t seriously consider becoming a doula myself until I met my ex-wife, also a doula. She got me over my remaining fears of pregnacy and my fascination grew into activism. Since I am not in a position to parent right now, I love that being a doula allows me to contribute to motherhood in a meaningful way.

RD: Why do you identify with the term radical doula?

VW: When we were starting the process of trying to conceive, I was frustrated as the potential non-bio mom, at the heteronormativity of pregnancy and birth-related information. It didn’t feel like there was a place for me. I was also surprised that, while our friends and family were supportive of our potential parenthood, they were extremely against our plans for a natural homebirth. That seemed so strange to me, that the most natural part of a process that would begin with artificial insemination was the part that everyone reacted against as “so radical.” I started to see birth as a great way to connect parents who give birth across the spectrum of genders and sexualities. Initially, I hoped to work especially with the queer community, but I live in Salt Lake City right now, so, interestingly enough, my clients are mostly LDS. A lesbian doula in SLC is most definitely radical, since family is predominantly the purview of the Church.

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This is a series highlighting folks who identify as Radical Doulas. Are you interested in being part of the series? Email me.

Lauren Guy-McAlpin is a DONA-trained birth doula pursuing certification. Originally from Atlanta, Lauren moved to Greensboro, North Carolina at 18 to study dance at UNC-Greensboro, where she also earned a degree in Women’s and Gender Studies in 2008. In addition to doula’ing, Lauren is a longtime reproductive justice advocate, writer, and blogger for ChoiceUSA. She is the co-founder and project coordinator of CPC Watch, a web-based pregnancy options resource that focuses primarily on “crisis pregnancy centers” that give women false and misleading information about abortion, contraception, and sexuality. Lauren is also in the process of developing a full-spectrum doula collective to serve NC Triad women undergoing abortion, miscarriage, and birthing for adoption. You can contact her at spectrumdoulas@gmail.com.

What inspired you to become a doula?

Unlike many doulas, the decision to become a doula came to me before I ever experienced pregnancy and childbirth myself. About a year ago, when soul-searching for a career path, I realized doula work was my calling. It happened quite organically; I’ve identified as a feminist since middle school and have been a committed reproductive rights activist since early college. For me, doula’ing is merely turning those activities inward, to take my passion from the public sphere of politics and social justice to the private sector of the birthing room.

Why do you identify with the term radical doula?

I just love the word radical! Sociopolitical implications aside, radical means “at the roots.” Giving birth is, in essence, one of the most radical things the female body is capable of. Meaning of course, if women are not free to make informed decisions regarding if, when, where, how, and with whom they give birth, they are not and cannot ever be completely liberated from the shackles of patriarchal restriction.

Politically speaking, I suppose I fall squarely in the “radical” category. While this term has become loaded with negative connotations over the years, I see nothing wrong with advocating for radical change where radical change is needed. Consider, for example, how the Roe v. Wade decision did anything but allow women to take charge of our reproductive lives: the legal framework for abortion was indeed secured, but we continue to see financial, legislative, and cultural barriers to abortion (and contraception, birthing options, etc), especially when it comes to women of color and working class women. We see this trend in all matters reproductive, from abortion rights to the right to have children, from access to contraception to the right to birth where and how we please.

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This is a series highlighting folks who identify as Radical Doulas. Are you interested in being part of the series? Email me.

Alison (Ali) Ojanen-Goldsmith is the Lead Coordinator of Full Spectrum Doulas in Seattle, WA where she is working to expand the doula model of care to people experiencing the full spectrum of pregnancy outcomes, including abortion and adoption.  She also owns and operates Healthy Family, Healthy World and provides a range of services that support and advocate for healthy women, families and communities including eco-healthy postpartum doula services.  Prior to moving to Seattle and expanding her scope and impact to the grassroots level, she served as Programs and Policy Associate at Reproductive Health Technologies Project (RHTP) in Washington, DC and as a public policy researcher for NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin.

What inspired you to become a doula?

I became a full spectrum doula to provide unwavering, nonjudgmental and hands-on support to women through all of their reproductive decisions, whether that be birthing at home, having an abortion or providing a child through surrogacy or adoption and every circumstance in between. A broader goal of my doula work is to empower women to trust in themselves and each other and to develop their own sense of what it means to be a women’s health advocate.

What is your doula philosophy and how does it fit into your broader political beliefs?

I believe that with knowledge, empowerment and natural intuition women are the ones that make the best decisions for themselves.   It is imperative that our voices be heard, especially in the predominantly patriarchal medical environments in which most women face making their reproductive decisions.

As a reproductive justice advocate, I work to challenge and change the systems of power that continue to subjugate women and deny them the social, economic, cultural and educational opportunities to fully realize their reproductive goals.  Through my doula work, I hope to contribute to this change from the bottom up by supporting and empowering one woman at a time.

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