July 7, 2010
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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Posted by radicaldoula
June 23, 2009
From Lisa Rosenzweig, a doctoral candidate in Clinical Psychology:
Research Opportunity for Women who have Miscarried
Everyone has a unique experience with miscarriage and unfortunately, little is known about women’s experiences of support and how this may affect responses to miscarriage, and so I invite you to participate in my dissertation research study examining women’s experiences following a miscarriage. Although there is no direct benefit to you, survey results may help healthcare providers better understand and meet the needs of women following miscarriage. This online survey takes approximately 15-20 minutes and is open to women who have miscarried a wanted pregnancy in the previous 6 months who are 18 years of age or older, living in the United States, and involved in a relationship with a significant other. Participants are eligible for a raffle for a $50 American Express gift certificate. For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Lisa Rosenzweig
Teachers College
lsr2106@columbia.edu
Link to the survey here!
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Posted by radicaldoula
April 6, 2009
I got an email recently from a WNYC (NYC public radio) analyst about their new Public Insight Network. This seems like their attempt to really tap into citizen journalism and the expertise of the general public.
Housing. Transportation. Crime. Politics. The latest news from your borough – or your block. Whatever’s on your mind, WNYC needs your knowledge and experience to help our news programs stay connected to the issues that concern you. The Public Insight Network is a group of people from all walks of life who inform our news coverage.
You can help make our news coverage even stronger by joining WNYC’s Public Insight Network.
Or, you can share what you know about a subject we’re looking into:
- Are you in favor of the plan to repeal the Rockefeller Drug Laws?
- What special New York place would you landmark?
- What’s driving the home birth movement in New York?
- What’s news in your borough?
- Are we a “nation of cowards” when it comes to talking about race?
- What’s your personal connection to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict?
We promise that access to personal information shared with us will be restricted to a small group of journalists. The journalists may work for WNYC or for national programs like Marketplace and American RadioWorks. That means no spam, no marketing and no requests for donations as a result of signing up.
Here’s How It Works
As we look into various subjects, we will e-mail you and ask you to tell us about your experiences. If we’re looking into a medical issue, we’ll seek insight from doctors, nurses and patients who have direct experience with that issue. If we’re looking into education, we’ll talk to teachers and administrators as well as parents with school-age children. Your work, education and life experience, even your hobbies, give you knowledge and insight.
One of our Producers will pass on this knowledge to our reporters and editors. Network sources may reveal new angles on the stories we’re covering or may provide us with entirely new ideas. Reporters may follow up with you for quotes and comments for broadcast or online discussions.
As a Public Insight Network source, you can expect to receive an e-mail no more than once a month. If you don’t have knowledge about a particular topic, we’ll ask you to forward the message on to someone who does or simply delete it.
You can sign up here.
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Posted by radicaldoula
February 19, 2009
Hi ya’ll!
Welcome to the second to last stop on the virtual yes means yes tour. Be sure to check out the grande finale conversation at Feministe tomorrow.
If you haven’t heard about the book yet you should check it out. I have a piece about sexual violence against immigrant women in the book and there is a lot of really great content.
Today I have an interview with Hazel/Cedar Troost, another contributor to the book.
About Hazel/Cedar Troost:
Cedar/Hazel Troost is a trans and polyamorous femme living in Chicago, practicing explicit verbal consent, and passionate about ending trans misogyny. Ze is a former member of the University of Minnesota Transgender Commission, co-organizer of the 2007 Twin Cities Trans March, and the original author of the Cisgender Privilege Checklist currently residing at T-Vox—but hir real love is gardening.
You can also check out Hazel/Cedar’s blog here.
I asked to interview Hazel/Cedar because I thought hir post about consensual touch and body autonomy had some interesting connections the birth activist movement. We got a chance to gchat briefly. Here is an exerpt from our convo:
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Posted by radicaldoula
January 15, 2009
I have a piece in the new anthology, Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape. My piece is called “When Sexual Autonomy Isn’t Enough: Sexual Violence Against Immigrant Women in the US.”
More about the anthology to come, but if you happen to be in Philly, you should come to our reading tonight! I will be there along with the editors Jessica Valenti and Jaclyn Friedman.
The reading is at Robin’s Bookstore. Come check it out if you’re in town. Also, Robin’s is closing down next month (after 73 years!) so you can visit the store for one of the last times. Robin’s Bookstore, 6pm 108 S. 13th St, Philadelphia PA 19107. Hope to see you!
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Posted by radicaldoula
October 13, 2008
This is what happens when I’m sitting on a delayed train with a million and a half screaming children. I’ve wanted to get a tattoo for a while and am pretty obsessed with that part of my arm. Problem is I don’t know what I would want permanently scrawled on my skin…
On that note, I’ve been thinking about wanting a logo/banner for radical doula for a while. I unfortunately am not really an artist. If anyone is, or happens to have any inspiration for a radical doula logo/banner, email me at radicaldoulaATgmailDOTcom.
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Posted by radicaldoula
June 3, 2008
The event that I helped to organize was an apparent success! We had a good turn out, a got quite a few birthday wishes and we hopefully made good money for the DC Abortion Fund. Jill Morrison, from the National Women’s Law Center graciously put her comments into a blog post. She’s great. She spoke about the connections between abortion rights and birthing rights, and really brought it home with her discussion of two court cases (she is a lawyer, after all).
I am thrilled that the DC Abortion Fund is hosting an event to celebrate a book that enhances women’s ability to make pregnancy and birthing decisions. Let’s face it, some don’t think that abortion supporters can be all rah-rah about the childbirth thing, but we really are. But this isn’t just because we think pregnant women are incredibly gorgeous and we’re the first in line to coochie-coo. It’s because we share common goals with those who support a woman’s pregnancy and birthing choices. Sometimes it is really difficult to make the connection between abortion, pregnancy and birth, but I think one case really brings home the point.
Read the full post here.
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Posted by radicaldoula
May 30, 2008
I finally did what I’ve been meaning to do for a long time now, I’ve edited the Radical Doula??? page. I’m going to repost it here, so you can all read my new description of what this blog is all about. Things haven’t changed radically, but I’ve tweaked a few things here and there to reflect the way I talk about what it means to be a radical doula (particularly from a personal perspective). The new page is after the jump!
I’ve also updated and expanded my blog roll. I decided I wanted something more comprehensive and that actually reflects what blogs I am reading on a frequent basis. (Thanks Google Reader!) You can see that I now have broken it up into categories (look to your right!). I will try to keep it updated, but bare with me. Also, if you have a blog you think I would want to read, email it to me or link to it in the comments! I promise I will check it out, and maybe you will even make it to my google reader.
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Posted by radicaldoula
May 20, 2008
Hi everyone! I’m on a two week vacation (from my day job at least), in Seattle and San Fransisco. Hopefully it will give me some time to catch up on blogging, and make some much needed changes here at Radical Doula! Stay tuned for an overhaul of my blog roll, as well as my Radical Doula?!?! page revisited.
I’ve had this article in my drafts for a while, and while it’s a piece from last year that ran at Alternet.org I wanted to highlight it anyway.
In The Disturbing Truth About Doctors and Your Medical Safety Atul Gawande discusses the spread of disease in hospitals, partially caused by providers not washing their hands enough.
Each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, two million Americans acquire an infection while they are in the hospital. Ninety thousand die of that infection. The hardest part of the infection-control team’s job, Yokoe says, is not coping with the variety of contagions they encounter or the panic that sometimes occurs among patients and staff. Instead, their greatest difficulty is getting clinicians like me to do the one thing that consistently halts the spread of infections: wash our hands.
Those of you who know anything about the history of obstetrics in the United States are probably familiar with puerperal fever, which was a major cause of death of pregnant women when birth was first brought into the hospital. (Side note: this is a great thing to bring up as a counter to the “but so many women used to die in childbirth before hospitals argument”) Basically, doctors at the time didn’t understand bacteria and how disease was spread. They also believed that hand washing wasn’t necessary for gentlemen. This meant that doctors went from birthing mother to birthing mother without washing their hands or using gloves, and passed infections between them.
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Posted by radicaldoula
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.
