This is a series highlighting folks who identify as Radical Doulas. Are you interested in being part of the series? Go here to provide your responses to the profile questions and I’ll include you!
About Latrice: I am a mother of 3 expecting my 4th child in December. We live in Boynton Beach. I aspire to travel long term very soon with my family. I am very critical of the status quo. I seek to find the truth and inform and inspire people through education. I aspire to be a published writer in the next 3 years. I also am very passionate about helping mothers help other mothers, and would love to be the UN Ambassador of Maternal Health one day!
What inspired you to become a doula?
I became a doula because I believe in women. I believe in mothers and I firmly believe that the only way to strengthen goodness in the world is to support, uplift and inspire mothers. Mothers represent the me, the future of our planet.
Why do you identify with the term radical doula?
I identify with that term because I have recently made the connection between the disempowerment of women during the birth process and accordingly in life. Women have been sold the story that we are passive participants in our births and that is NOT the way it should be. I believe that the decline in midwifery is directly correlated to war and violence in the world. I believe in radical change in the way we look at, speak of and treat birth. I am strongly interested in Africa as a region for the upliftment of birthing mothers. Africa represents to me ground zero of humanity and ironically, ground zero of the worst places on the planet to birth. Sad but true.
What is your doula philosophy and how does it fit into your broader political beliefs?
My philosophy is that the more women know, the more empowered they are to ask questions and hold health care providers accountable. Women will be the catalyst for changing birth from a capitalist venture to a sacred experience worthy of respect.
What is your favorite thing about being a doula?
It is like meeting God. Attending birth is a divine gift. Fragile and powerful, urgent and timely. Birth is magical.
If you could change one thing about the experience of pregnancy and birth, what would it be?
It would be that women are afraid. Afraid and fractured from an experience that should be life alteringly beautiful and unforgettable. No woman should ever have to birth alone or fearfully. That is changeable. NOW.
Radical Doula 