In New America Media, Valeria Fernandez writes about efforts to revive Mexican midwifery in Arizona:

Marinah Valenzuela Farrell is one of only a few licensed midwives in Arizona. Though it isn’t a profitable venture, helping mothers bring their newborn children into this world is for Farrell a calling deeply rooted in her native Mexican tradition.

“It is really hard to be a midwife,” said the 41-year-old. “You don’t sleep, and you don’t make money. People think you’re crazy because you’re doing homebirths.”

A majority of Farrell’s clients are middle class and white, though as a Latina she aims to make midwifery accessible to low-income women in dire need of prenatal services but too afraid to seek them out in a state virulently hostile to undocumented immigrants.

“I think they don’t know that we exist,” she said. “I think the more the community knows that there’s a midwife who will come and visit them at home and do a homebirth… [attitudes] will change and shift.”

I spoke to the author while she was working on the piece, and a quote of mine is included toward the end.

In The Grio, Chika Oduah writes about black women and home birth. The article includes a video, which is a good primer of the issues at hand with home birth. It also references my Colorlines article about the possible connection between maternal health in communities of color and access to midwifery care.

What is clear from the research about this issue is that women of color are less likely to receive midwifery care, and that disparity is larger than the population numbers would suggest. I think this dynamic is complicated by global sociopolitical historical factors. For example I experienced resistance from Latina immigrant women to midwifery care because of the stigma toward parteras (midwives) in their home countries. In many places in Latin America, midwives and home birth are seen as the option used by women who can’t afford to go to hospital for birth–basically an option only for those who have no other option.

That creates class and race stigma on home birth and midwifery care.

This stigma is no accident. Global socioeconomic policy in Latin America (and I assume elsewhere as well) has long promoted hospital-based childbirth as a marker of development, and encouraged this move with foreign aid dollars and other development initiatives. The medical students I observed in Ecuador were clear that their obstetrical training and guidance came from US practice. So does the push toward hospital-based birth and away from traditional midwifery care.

We cannot ignore the fact that lack of access to emergency obstetrical care and trained birth attendants does lead to increased maternal and infant mortality. But we must also acknowledge what is lost and what new risks emerge when the model is pushed wholly toward medicalized hospital based care. Example: the United States. 98% of births happen in hospitals in the US, but our maternal and infant mortality rates are a serious concern, and lag behind 48 other countries. Clearly simply moving birth from home to hospital does not solve infant or maternal mortality.

I digress a bit, but the ultimate point is this stigma comes with immigrant women, and influences the choices they might make when it comes to maternity care in the US.

With African American folks who might not be recent immigrants, there is another factor at play. Claudia Booker was the first to make this connection for me. When hospital birth first began in the US, and for quite some time after, black women were excluded because of racism and classism. Those barriers to receiving care in the hospital created a similar race and class stigma to that I described from Latin America–meaning that women of color might also see midwifery or home birth as the thing you do when you have no other option. Hospitals are the place that people with wealth and privilege go to give birth. Why would one then choose to opt out?

When we talk about midwifery care (and doula care for that matter) needing to be accessible to communities of color–we’re not just talking about Medicaid reimbursement or even language access. It’s a much more complicated sociopolitical history that must be understood. We have to remember and learn how racism has impacted the way we give birth, the options we have, and understand the ways in which that history affects our choices today.

I often feel like discussions of the need to “educate” certain populations are condescending. It implies that we hold knowledge that the other group does not–that we know better than they do what is best for them. Really I think this kind of accessibility will be gained by listening, rather than teaching or educating. By asking the people we seek to reach what keeps them from working with us, what shapes their decisions, and then adjusting our practice accordingly.

In reality, and this is what these articles get at, what will really change the number of people of color using midwifery–it will be midwives of color. Often those from the community themselves are the best advocates and have the cultural competency necessary to serve the community effectively.

Update: Native communities and their history was very absent from this post. In that vein I’m adding a link to this guest post, Why doulas are important in Native American Communities, from Raeanne Madison, which provides some context.

We are in search of a DONA-certified Doula in the Twin Cities, MN who is familiar with/ connected to indigenous birthing and parenting knowledge/ practices from throughout Africa (preferably West Africa) OR South Asia (preferably South India). My partner is English-speaking but grew up throughout the African continent. He would benefit from working with someone who understands his concerns and the disconnects between between (West) African and U.S. conceptualizations of perinatal health and wellness for both mothers and babies. I am South Indian but, having grown up in the U.S., am more accustomed to translating/ negotiating between the two worldviews. At a minimum, we would like to work with a woman of color or indigenous woman who honors the knowledge/ practice of traditional birthing attendants. We are due in late August and are currently planning a hospital birth (water labor and water birth if the hospital completes its setup in time) with a midwife.

Please contact me at shan0133@umn.edu with details about your background/ availability/ expectations/ etc. Thanks!

The United States spending more money per capita than any other country in the world on health care, but we rank behind 40 other countries when it comes to maternal mortality. Ina May Gaskin, in her new book (review to come!) says that women today are two times more likely to die from childbirth than their mothers were.

A report recently released by the New York City Department of Health examining maternal mortality in the city between 2001 and 2005 found striking disparities for women like Eady: black, non-Hispanic women were more than seven times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white, non-Hispanic women. Such disparities recur nationally. In a March 2010 report entitled “Deadly Deliveries,” Amnesty International explained, “African-American women are nearly four times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than white women. These rates and disparities have not improved in more than 20 years.”

But as Rita Henley Jensen explains, the New York report also points to something more than the usual indicators for maternal mortality—poverty, lack of prenatal care and preexisting conditions. Maternal mortality is not just restricted to women of color; we’re actually seeing a rise in maternal and fetal mortality rates overall. California has reported a near tripling of their maternal mortality rate in just the 10 years between 1996 and 2006. The U.S. ranks behind 40 other countries in terms of maternal mortality rates, despite spending the most money per capita on health care.

So how have we created the world’s most expensive maternity care system while still putting women and babies at risk? The answer lies in two of our culture’s biggest influences: money and technology. And now, even as Republican legislators aim to gut the Medicaid program that millions of women depend upon, a movement is growing to make maternity care both cheaper and safer by giving poor women greater access to home births.

I have to say I didn’t like the title of the piece (determined by the editors) because it isn’t just about home birth–it’s about normalizing midwifery care, and particularly expanding access to out of hospital birth, which includes birth centers as well as hospitals. It also includes midwife-provided prenatal care, even if women eventually birth in hospitals.

Home birth is still a dirty word in this country. It’s considered backwards, it’s considered unsafe, it’s considered what someone does when they have no option. This ideology is part of a calculated campaign on behalf of doctors to convince women to give birth with them in the hospital, something that actually killed more women than home births in the initial decades of hospital birth.

Home birth isn’t the problem, and never has been. The problem is making sure all women have access to skilled attendants who know how to care for pregnant women, know how to detect problems, know when to transport to a hospital or when someone might need an obstetrician–someone who is trained specifically to deal with the minority of cases that need specialized medical attention.

Women in the United States are dying in spite of having access to hospital-based maternity care (98%).

That means that women in the US are dying because of hospital-based maternity care.

Either that care is inadequate (like Akira Eady, who I wrote about in the piece, who died from a complication after being released from the hospital postpartum ), or it’s simply too reliant on interventions and surgeries that are harmful. A 33% c-section rate is simply too high. Mothers are dying because they are getting too many surgeries, too many interventions, too many inductions.

We know clearly what isn’t working. The status quo. The 98% hospital birth, the only 9% midwifery care. My article tries to explain how we got here, and what might just help us go in a different direction–back toward patient-centered care that minimizes the use of technology rather than emphasizing it. That only employs tools like c-section when they are really necessary, not just when they are convenient or used to preemptively prevent litigation.

I can’t say definitively that a move back to midwifery care (or home birth) would eliminate disparities. It probably wouldn’t–because racism and classism still exist and still effect our health outcomes. But out-of-hospital midwifery care has some pretty amazing successes both in the US and abroad in terms of reducing maternal mortality. Let’s give it a shot–see if we might not be able to improve these statistics instead of seeing them get worse and worse and worse.

I heart the Birth Attendants, who run this Prison Doula Project. I also love this video because it shares the stories of these doulas and the women they work with–but it protects their anonymity using this cool form of animation. That’s a big piece of telling the stories of these incarcerated folks–you also want to respect their desire for privacy.

For more about The Birth Attendants, check out their website.

Programs that I know to be full-spectrum, meaning they include abortion doula support as part of their work, are indicated with an asterisk (*).

If you know of other volunteer doula programs, please email me (radicaldoula[At]gmail[DOT]com) with details.

California
Georgia
Illinois
Massachusetts
Michigan
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Oregon 
Pennsylvania
Texas 
Washington
Washington, DC
Wisconsin
National
Canada
International

United States:

California:

UC San Diego Medical Center: “Hearts & Hands volunteers begin by attending a one-day introductory training. Upon completion, you will work with experienced mentor doulas until you are ready to work on your own. No prior experience is required, but volunteer doulas must have the emotional and physical stamina to attend long labors.”

San Francisco General Hospital Volunteer Doula Program: “San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) is a nationally renowned public teaching hospital associated with the UCSF School of Medicine. Birthing women receive care collaboratively from doulas, nurses, midwives, andphysicians in our Certified Baby-Friendly Birthing Center. The Doula Program Coordinator, Monnie Reba Efross RN, MSN, has worked as a labor and delivery nurse at the hospital since 1979. Monthly Doula Volunteer meetings feature guest speakers and provide an opportunity to share and process experiences of birth assistance at SFGH. Our goal is to become a fully funded program. Doulas and those who want to support us are invited to participate in program projects including fundraising projects.”

Homeless Prenatal Program in San Francisco California: No info about doula program on website, for more information contact Contact Nancy Frappier, 415 546 6756, ext. 316.

CCRMC Hearts and Hands Volunteer Doula Program in Martinez, California: Hearts and Hands is a volunteer doula program out of Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in Martinez, California. Previous doula training is not necessary. Please contact Roz at roz71556[AT]hotmail[DOT]com for more information.

Pasadena/Altadena, CA:

“The Pasadena Public Health Department Maternal Child and Adolescent Health Program Caring Companions Childbirth Assistant Referral Service offers free doula support services to women who receive prenatal care at Pasadena Public Health Department prenatal clinic, and to all women in Los Angeles County who have Medi-Cal or who are low-income.

Birth and Postpartum doulas who are working towards certification, and/or birth and postpartum doulas who want their services to be accessible to a diverse, low-income population are encouraged to apply. Our doulas make a difference in the lives of African-American and Latin@/Chican@ women and babies. African-American doulas and Spanish speaking doulas are encouraged to apply; but doulas of all backgrounds are welcome. Most clients deliver at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena.

To obtain an application and for further information, contact The Maternal Child and Adolescent Health Program at 626-744-6092 or e-mail: gperry-williams@cityofpasadena.net”

Sutter Davis Hospital in Davis, CA: When requested by the expectant mother, Sutter Davis Hospital offers a special program to provide continuous physical, emotional and informational support to mothers during the childbirth process. The Sutter Davis Doula Program is administered by volunteer doulas trained in the physiological and emotional aspects of childbirth. For more information, or to enroll in the class, contact our doula coordinators, , Jennifer Anderson, RN, and Jill Judd, RN, at SDHDoula@sutterhealth.org. They will respond to your inquiries via email.

Welcome Home Doula Services in Yolo, Sacramento & Solano Counties: “Welcome Home Doula Services instituted an Apprentice Program in February 2011, with the goal of training aspiring doulas, providing educational outreach in local communities, and providing services to women who otherwise would likely be unable to access doula support. If you choose to have an Apprentice attend your birth in addition to Madeleine Shernock, you would receive Low-Cost services, as well as the benefit of having two skilled Birth Doulas rather than one. Following the birth, we would ask that you fill out an additional evaluation of the Apprentice’s performance as your Birth Doula.” Details here.

Bay Area Doula Project in Northern California*: “We are an emerging group of doulas in the Bay Area who are committed to supporting pregnant women who are choosing abortion, and other pregnancy outcomes. Most of us are birth doulas, many of us are postpartum doulas as well. All of us are abortion doulas. We trust women to make their own decisions regarding their pregnancies, and offer unconditional support to women in need.”

LA Doula Project*: email info@ladolaproject.org.

Georgia:

The Doula Project Atlanta*: “The Doula Project Atlanta is a pro-choice, Atlanta –based organization currently under construction. It was founded by a prochoice reproductive justice advocate, who currently serves as Project Coordinator. The project is a volunteer led and run organization that trains and manages its own abortion doula base. We intend to provide multiple services to the community, included, but not limited to: Doula care to people facing abortion, miscarriage, or stillbirth; Doula care to people choosing adoption; Doula care on a case-by-case basis to lower-income individuals; Outreach initiatives to the community, schools, and the surrounding areas.” Email thedoulaproject[AT]gmail[DOT]com for more information.

Illinois:

Chicago Volunteer Doulas: “We are about 90 doulas strong and currently work with low-income moms at four of the city’s hospital based midwifery programs. Many of the doulas in the group are more newly trained and looking for certification births, and many of us also have been doing the work for a while and are committed to volunteering for the long run. We provide both on-call services for women who may not have considered a doula before birth, as well as more traditional match-ups with mamas where we establish a longer term relationship including prenatals and postpartum follow up.” More information on their website.

Chicago Doula Circle*: “The mission of Chicago Doula Circle is to increase access and provide emotional, physical, physical and educational support to people during their abortion experiences.” More information here.

Massachusetts:

Birth Sisters Program at Boston Medical Center (Boston, MA): “The Birth Sisters Program is an innovative multi-cultural doula service that offers women “sister-like” support during pregnancy, childbirth and the post-partum period.” See the website for contact information.

Freedom Doula Project* (Boston, MA): Freedom Doula Project is a Boston-based organization that provides emotional, physical, and informational support to people across the spectrum of pregnancy. This includes abortion, unintended pregnancy loss, adoption, and birth. Contact us at freedomdoulas@gmail.com or www.freedomdoulas.org

Bay State Green River Doula Project (Springfield, MA): “In cooperation with the midwives at Baystate Midwifery and Women’s Health, Nancy Madru and other members of the Green River Doula Network are taking part in a volunteer doula effort at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. Baystate Midwifery serves a primarily low-income clientele from many cultures and walks of life, and our goal is to provide doula support to as many of these women as possible.”

The Prison Birth Project (Western MA): “The Prison Birth Project is an organization focused on reproductive justice, working to provide support, education and advocacy to women and girls at the intersection of the criminal justice system and motherhood.”

Michigan:

Doulas Care (Ann Arbor, MI): “Doulas Care is a 501c3 non-profit organization working to improve maternal and infant health outcomes and reduce health disparities by matching qualified volunteer doulas with pregnant women and adolescents who have limited resources.  Qualifying low-income women receive these services for free.  We also offer affordable birth services for $350 and postpartum services on a sliding scale for families outside the range of our free services.  As special mentors, doulas provide educational, emotional, physical, and logistical support to women and their families. Doulas Care also helps the volunteers by providing the opportunity to gain hands-on experience soon after training and opens a professional pathway in the field of maternal and infant health.”

New York:

The Doula Project*: An NYC-based organization that provides compassionate care and emotional, physical, and informational support to women and people across the spectrum of pregnancy. The Doula Project works to create a society in which all pregnant women and people have access to the care and support they need during their pregnancies and the ability to make healthy decisions for themselves, whether they face birth, miscarriage, stillbirth, fetal anomaly, or abortion.

The Institute for Family Health: “A non-profit organization of community health centers around New York City and upstate New York.  Our patient population is extremely diverse in age range, ethnicity, demographics, and socio-economic status.  However, many of our patients are on Medicaid or public assistance.  Our prenatal care is located at Philips Family Practice on east 16^th street.  The prenatal patients are seen by a team of two family practice residents and one family practice attending who see them through their prenatal care and attend their delivery at Beth Israel.  Patients have the option of being seen individually or participating in our Centering Pregnancy Group Prenatal care.

The volunteer doula program is essentially a matching program, where patients pick a volunteer doula from the list or from one of our meet the doula nights, and are matched together.  Most of the doulas have little to no experience, but all have been through the doula training course.  Once the patient is matched, it is up to her and her doula to come to a mutual agreement regarding when and where they will meet, who the backup doula will be, how long the doula will stay, how many meetings they will have, and if any fee is expected.” For more information contact prenatalcoordinator@gmail.com, or call 212-206-5226.

North Carolina:

UNC BirthPartners (Chapel Hill, NC): A hospital based volunteer doula program in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Note: I volunteered with this program in 2005 and had a good experience.

YWCA Greensboro Doula Program: The YWCA’s Doula Program is for adult females interested in becoming a certified labor coach.  As a part of the certification process, doula trainees provide emotional support and comfort during childbirth, help with breastfeeding plus assistance with child-mother bonding to teen moms in TPMP.  Call the TPMP office at 273-3461 ext. 117 for additional information.

Open Umbrella Collective*: Provides free abortion/post abortion doula services, a sliding fee scale (no one is turned away for inability to pay), “accurate and reliable information regarding family planning, reproductive health, birth, miscarriage, stillbirth, fetal anomaly, abortion and post abortion.”

Spectrum Doula Collective in Piedmont Triad, NC*: “The Spectrum Doula Collective is a central-NC based project that aims to provide compassionate care to any person experiencing any pregnancy outcome. We are committed to helping facilitate the pregnant person’s process as defined by them through our continued emotional, physical, and informational support.” Check out more here.

Ohio:

Cleveland Birthing Project: We are a community based volunteer organization started in Sacremento CA. We provide any pregnant woman with a sister friend. Our mothers receive free classes in Childbirth prep, breastfeeding, money management, education and beyond, female health, child health, parenting on a budget, and finding the job for you and keeping it. We provide our mothers with insightful guidance, and evidence based information in a timely manner. Our mothers benefit from blessingways, baby showers, and one year birthday parties. For more information, contact clevelandbirthingproject@gmail.com.

Oregon:

PDX Doulas in Portland Oregon: Note from member: The website is out-of-date: we are no longer a funded organization. We work as volunteers at Oregon Health Sciences University’s hospital, doing 1 24-hour shift or 2 12-hour shifts a month, right now on weekends only (although we’re hoping to expand). The nurses decide when to call us based on some vague criteria — do they want a natural birth? Are they unaccompanied? — and we go!

International Center for Traditional Childbearing-Full Circle Doula Volunteer Program: They have a volunteer doula program based at Legacy Hospital in Portland. ICTC focuses on working with underrepresented women, particularly African Americans. Contact them for more info!


Pennsylvania:

Philadelphia Alliance for Labor Support (PALS): “A group of labor and delivery doulas committed to improving birth experiences and outcomes in the Philadelphia area, as well as promoting the development of new and experienced doulas.  We provide trained labor and birth support people (doulas), free of charge, to people who would otherwise be unable to access doula care. We provide subsidized DONA International certified training, twice a year, to those interested in becoming doulas.Our monthly meetings serve as a support network, resource, and forum and are open to anyone interested in empowering and supporting people through the most positive birth experience possible.” Note: I trained with this group in 2005 and had a great experience.

Philadelphia Advocates for Reproductive Justice*: “The Philly Collaborative for Reproductive Justice & Support (PCRJS) consists of compassionate, social justice-minded folks who are interested in providing support to women across the full spectrum of pregnancy and advocating for reproductive justice in its many forms.”

Texas:

Project HAPPY in Dallas: A community based doula organization that provides “Full-Circle” doulas to pregnant adolescents and adult women regardless of economic status.

Giving Austin Labor Support in Austin: GALS is a volunteer program intended to provide emotional and physical support to women during their birth experience.

Washington:

Birth Attendants: A doula program based in Olympia Washington that provides support to incarcerated pregnant and postpartum women.

University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle: Founded in 2005, UWMC Doula Care seeks to increase the availability of free labor support for women, as well as to create partnerships between doulas, doctors, nurses and hospital staff. (Note: Couldn’t find info on the web, but I did find this document from the Seattle Midwifery School about the program) For more info:
uwdoulas@gmail.com

Open Arms Perinatal Services (Seattle Washington): “Open Arms has provided birth doula services to women and their families in the Puget Sound area since 1997. We offer services to pregnant women who would otherwise find themselves alone or with little support.” They also fundraise to pay their doulas. More information on their website here and on my post about them here.

Full Spectrum Doulas*: “Full Spectrum Doulas is a growing collective of doulas and reproductive justice advocates who are working throughout the Pacific Northwest to bring the doula model of care to people across the full spectrum of pregnancy experiences, including abortion, adoption, surrogacy, miscarriage and stillbirth.”

Washington DC:

DC Doulas for Choice: ”We are a group of pro-choice doulas who believe that people seeking abortions may desire and benefit from the same type of patient-centered, non-judgmental physical and emotional support  that doulas traditionally provide to people during labor and during birth. We are committed to providing free doula services to people in the District of Columbia (and surrounding area) who are seeking abortions for any reason. In particular, we seek to recognize the multiple barriers to quality reproductive health services facing people of all backgrounds, but especially people of color, low-income people, youth, and LGBT-identified people. Please email dcdoulasforchoice@gmail.com to learn more about our availability and services.”

Family Health and Birth Center in Washington DC: This birth center located in Northeast DC has a volunteer doula program associated with it. The doulas work with the midwives at the freestanding birth center and also at a nearby hospital. More information on their website here, or you can email them at Doulas[AT]yourfhbc[DOT]org. Also check out Katie’s guest post about the program.

Wisconsin:

Small Miracles in Madison, Wisconsin: Contact number on website can be used to get in touch with the director–leave name, number, email and indicate that you are interested in becoming a doula.  Note: the area code is 608.  This program only provides doulas for women who live in the Madison area.  Volunteering through this organization does require previous doula training and/or experience.  Will provide mentors to new doulas who have been through training.

Bami-Ondaadiziike Birth Doula Project in Northern Wisconsin: “The Bami-Ondaadiziike Birth Doula Project was born in 2006 through a grant with the Red Cliff Community Health Center’s Honoring Our Children Program under the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe. We are a group of professionally trained and dedicated volunteer doulas who provide physical, emotional, and mental support for pregnant women and their families in the Chequamegon Bay area. If you would like to be connected with a doula or would like more information please call our referral line to leave a message and our referral coordinator will get back to you as soon as possible. 715-331-9337″

National:

Operation Special Delivery: “Provides trained volunteer doulas for pregnant women whose husbands or partners have been severely injured or who have lost their lives due to the current war on terror, or who will be deployed at the time that they are due to give birth.”

Canada:

Volunteer Doula Program, Single Parents Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia: They offer Prenatal Education and Support, the Volunteer Doula Program (free Doula training & by donation Doula services), Support to New Moms and Infants, Programs for Parents, Wellness (including Fitness, Infant Massage, Parent Massage), etc. They also help families connect with other resources in the city. Contact nsdoulaassoc@gmail.com or doula.spc@ns.sympatico.ca. 

Vancouver Youth Pregnancy & Parenting Program: The Youth Pregnancy & Parenting Program (YPPP) provides young mothers (up to age 22) complete prenatal and postnatal care. Volunteer Doulas, are a component of the overall program. They attend group sessions with the YPPP participants. Doulas must be “on Call” 24/7 until the birth of the participant’s child. Ensure attendance throughout labour, delivery and the immediate postpartum.

Montreal Birth Companions: “The purpose of the Montreal Birth Companions is twofold: to provide low-income or otherwise disadvantaged women with free doula services and to train “peer doulas” within the ethnically or culturally isolated areas of our city to provide doula support for the women in their communities.”

International:

Yayasan Bumi Sehat (Bali, Indonesia): “A by-donation clinic located right outside of Ubud, Bali, Indonesia that provides holistic midwifery services to those in need. Suharto’s (dictator in Indonesia from 60s-90s) brutal family planning laws under the New Order helped to create a birthing culture in Indonesia that leaves much to be desired (c-section rates are ~80%, almost all contraceptives prescribed are controlled by doctors, such as IUDs, universal AIDS precautions are not followed, etc.) Additionally, hospital costs are out of reach for many women, so they cannot even access that care. All of this contributes to why hemorrhaging after childbirth is the leading cause of death for women in Bali.

YBS was started by a Filipino-American midwife, Robin Lim, over fifteen years ago. They have volunteers and interns from all over the world, and are truly a worthy organization. I think that they want volunteers to speak basic Indonesian, but its a pretty simple language to learn (it took me about two months to get to a conversational level, and about a year to feel completely comfortable). I can’t say enough good things about Robin and YBS.”

This page is a work in progress–please email me (radicaldoula[At]gmail[DOT]com) if you know of other volunteer programs or training organizations!

Do you know of other programs I should feature here at radical doula? If so leave them in comments or send them to me via email. International programs welcome.

Family Health and Birth Center in Washington DC: This birth center has a volunteer doula program associated with it. The website doesn’t have information, but you can email me to get contact information.

Philadelphia Alliance for Labor Support (PALS): Their website seems to be down, but this was the organization I trained with, and they have an on-call volunteer doula system for two Philly hospitals.

UNC BirthPartners: A hospital based volunteer doula program in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Birth Attendants: A doula program based in Olympia Washington that provides support to incarcerated pregnant and postpartum women.

Operation Special Delivery: “Provides trained volunteer doulas for pregnant women whose husbands or partners have been severely injured or who have lost their lives due to the current war on terror, or who will be deployed at the time that they are due to give birth.”

The Doula Project: An NYC-based organization that provides compassionate care and emotional, physical, and informational support to women and people across the spectrum of pregnancy. The Doula Project works to create a society in which all pregnant women and people have access to the care and support they need during their pregnancies and the ability to make healthy decisions for themselves, whether they face birth, miscarriage, stillbirth, fetal anomaly, or abortion.

YWCA Greensboro Doula Program: The YWCA’s Doula Program is for adult females interested in becoming a certified labor coach.  As a part of the certification process, doula trainees provide emotional support and comfort during childbirth, help with breastfeeding plus assistance with child-mother bonding to teen moms in TPMP.  Call the TPMP office at 273-3461 ext. 117 for additional information.

Vancouver Youth Pregnancy & Parenting Program: The Youth Pregnancy & Parenting Program (YPPP) provides young mothers (up to age 22) complete prenatal and postnatal care. Volunteer Doulas, are a component of the overall program. They attend group sessions with the YPPP participants. Doulas must be “on Call” 24/7 until the birth of the participant’s child. Ensure attendance throughout labour, delivery and the immediate postpartum.

Prison Birth Project: Based in Western Massachusetts, the Prison Birth Project is an organization focused on reproductive justice, working to provide education, support and resources about pregnancy birth and mothering to incarcerated women. Note: The organizers want to specify they are especially looking for experienced birth doulas for this project, but folks with less experience can provide other types of support to the project. You can contact them here.

Do you know of other programs I should feature here at radical doula? If so leave them in comments or send them to me via email. International programs welcome.

Yesterday, a victory from the folks at the National Advocates for Pregnant Women.

This case is pretty horrific. You can see more about Nelson’s story in the RH Reality Check video above. More info:

On Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit (the federal level appellate court that reviews decisions from federal district courts in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Minnesota, and Arkansas) issued the long-awaited decision in Nelson v. Norris. In this case, Shawanna Nelson argued that being forced to go through the final stages of labor with both legs shackled to her hospital bed was cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the 8th Amendment to the Constitution. She argued that she should be allowed to sue the director of the prison and the guard who repeatedly re-shackled her legs to the bed. Ms. Nelson, an African-American woman, was incarcerated for non-violent offenses of credit card fraud and “hot checks.”

The idea of shackling any person during labor is abominable, but in this case the one argument for the practice is bunk. The only argument I can think of (which I definitely don’t agree with) is that an incarcerated person could be “dangerous” and therefore need to be restrained, even while giving birth. It’s ludicrous for even the most “violent” of criminals, let alone a woman like Nelson, who was incarcerated for CREDIT CARD FRAUD. Absurd.

Luckily, she won her case this week. Unfortunately, the case wasn’t even about the practice of shackling, but about her right to sue the guard. Legal craziness.

In this historic federal court decision, the Court held that the guard was not immune from (protected from) suit because it has been clearly established by the decisions of the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts that shackling pregnant women in labor violates that 8th Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The Court suggested that the corrections officers should have known that the medical risks of shackling were “obvious” and that “the shackles interfered with Nelson’s medical care, could be an obstacle in the event of a medical emergency, and caused unnecessary suffering at a time when Nelson would have likely been physically unable to flee because of the pain she was undergoing and the powerful contractions she was experiencing as her body worked to give birth.”

It’s a big win, giving both incarcerated women a vehicle through which they can fight back against these policies. But it was a struggle, which you can read more about on the NAPW release.

That this decision is “historic,” and that five of the eleven circuit court judges dissented, makes clear both how far we have come and how far we still have to go to ensure the civil and human rights of all pregnant women (the dissent in Friday’s opinion saw no “clearly established” constitutional violations in shackling Ms. Nelson during labor.)

Related:

New York signs anti-shackling law

Great article on the practice of shackling incarcerated pregnant women

Latina immigrant who was shackled during labor now faces deportation

Woman gives birth in jail cell

Great piece about the Birth Attendants and prison doulas

Kick-ass Radical Doulas: The Prison Doula Project

In Pascagoula, Mississippi, in November 2008, Cirila Baltazar Cruz gave birth to a baby girl. Soon after, her daughter was taken away from her because she could not communicate with the hospital attendants.

Far away from her native Oaxaca, Mexico, she did not understand the Puerto Rican interpreter assigned to her. Cirila speaks Chatino, an indigenous Mexican language spoken by about 50,000 people. A social worker called in by hospital authorities deemed the new mother negligent and unfit to raise the baby, stating as reasons that she was an “illegal immigrant” and that she did not speak English.

…

Baltazar Cruz is up for deportation, while her daughter is reported to be with an affluent Ocean Springs couple.

The way immigrant women are abused in this country is incredible and so saddening. Not being able to communicate with the hospital staff is the HOSPITAL’s issue, not the mother’s.

The doulas, members of an Olympia-based doula group called The Birth Attendants, work with the entire prison population as well as the prison’s Residential Parenting Program, which helps pregnant inmates and new mothers maneuver their way through childbirth and beyond.

“We’re not there to pass judgment,” but to educate, said doula Zimryah Barnes, who is part of the prison-doula project. “We don’t deny anybody support who requests it.”

Barnes and other members of The Birth Attendants have become a familiar resource around the prison since they brought the concept to prison officials in 2002. Barnes said the program is based on a similar one in prisons in the United Kingdom.

The doulas offer one-on-one counseling sessions and courses on sex education and family planning. Some doulas even are present when inmates travel to a Tacoma hospital to deliver their babies. Many of those inmates are allowed to raise their children inside the prison as long as they follow strict behavior guidelines.

Read the rest of the piece here. Yay Birth Attendants! Luckily I have heard rumblings of a few other projects like this one cropping up, which is really important. I also learned recently that while the United States only accounts for 5% of the world’s population, we are responsible for 25% of the world’s prison population. Scary.

Thanks to Feministing reader Amanda for the link

The first group that I highlighted back when I started the blog, the The Birth Attendents: Prison Doula Project, is turning five this year. If you’re in Olympia, Washington definitely go to the party and meet the awesome women. But if not, you can buy a ticket as an out of town supporter. I highly recommend it! They are an awesome group of doulas.

You can find more information about the event on their website. Happy Birthday Prison Doula Project! Keep up the amazing work.