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!
Natasha Crouch is a certifying doula working with Full Spectrum Doulas and Birth Arts International in Seattle Washington. She has a background in sexual education, women’s & men’s empowerment and a passion for helping women and families feel safe and strong in the decisions regarding their bodies and minds. She can be contacted through her website.
What inspired you to become a doula?
There are layers of things that inspired me to walk this path, when I was 16 I had a late term miscarriage and had an incredibly impossible time finding information or support for myself – or later for and with other women going through the complex emotions of a miscarriage or abortion. I held hands of very amazing friends during their labor and discovered that there was a gap in the professional care provided by hospitals. Wanting to help fill that gap is what really lead me here, for the full spectrum of care – offered to all women – because care and information should not be so difficult to come by.
Why do you identify with the term radical doula?
I identify with the term because I believe care should be accessible by all people of all walks of life. I strive to work with women and families with trauma in their backgrounds, anxiety, depression and other mental complexities. I work both within my community (both LGBT and Polyamourous families) as well as outside of my family (anyone) needing non-judgmental and understanding support. My motto in life has always been that I cannot judge what I do not know – so I work to help people transition during the many walks of life. No one should ever feel alone. No one should be denied support when they need it.
What is your doula philosophy and how does it fit into your broader political beliefs?
I believe that support should be readily available as families and individuals need it, I am committed to providing evidence-based, Mother/Family-friendly, non-judgmental Full Spectrum Doula services. With the core belief that each of these essential experiences are as unique as the individual. While birth, life and death cannot be something we control – that is what makes our stories unique. That uniqueness is what defines and excites the world. Providing support and education through birth, miscarriage, abortion, adoption and any other major transition is a gigantic passion of mine.
Politically I feel the same; we should not allow others to take away our power, we should not step on the heads of our fellow humans in order to gain our own prosperity. Unity and strength in community is what keeps us whole and gives us strength. Information and Education gives us the power of choice and choice is one of the most essential keys to life. To take away someones choice and make them feel powerless – is a deep and terrible crime.
What is your favorite thing about being a doula?
This varies, I love the moment in birth when the family becomes a family – that moment of understanding on a primal level that life has happened and that that moment brings unity to the individuals in the room. The primal strength of a mother embracing herself and finding peace and wisdom in the birth space – that deep trust that can happen in a safe and ideal birth setting.
Overall though – its seeing the moment when the peace that trusting ‘your’ body, ‘your’ decisions and the moment – when I see that in a room with a woman/mother/family – no matter what the path is – that’s the most amazing thing in the world.
If you could change one thing about the experience of pregnancy and birth, what would it be?
I would remove the fear and dis-information, I would push more medical facilities and popular media sources to not rely on fear mongering and judgement to inform people – but allow the space for people to be fully informed and the empowerment to make their own decisions and not feel as though they had no control.
Radical Doula 