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 Alex: I’m a doula and childbirth educator located in Phoenix, AZ. I was trained in March 2020 and certified in March 2021 through a local birth center. I’m passionate about providing inclusive and safe spaces for pregnant people in my community.

You can find more about me at alexbarrdoula.com or on Instagram.

What inspired you to become a doula?
I became a doula because there is a persistent lack of support for people in general, but specifically in the birth experience. The transition to pregnant person and the transition to parenthood is not treated with any of the care, love, or support needed to sustain us. I felt that becoming a doula and childbirth educator was a way to provide that community support that is so desperately needed.

Why do you identify with the term radical doula?
As I’ve dived into the birth work community there aren’t very many people providing inclusive practices and support.I’ve made it my goal to make my practices trauma informed, inclusive in language, and focused on people that don’t ‘fit’ in the typical idea of birthing person.

What is your doula philosophy and how does it fit into your broader political beliefs?
My doula philosophy is all about community support. I provide the support, I connect pregnant people together, I provide resources so my clients feel supported even after they’re no longer working with me. This fits into my belief about helping the people who need it the most helps everyone around us, we all rise together.

What is your favorite thing about being a doula?
I love seeing people come into themselves in pregnancy and birth, whether that’s standing up for themselves, getting the birth they desired, or simply asking for the help they need.

If you could change one thing about the experience of pregnancy and birth, what would it be?
I would change the community around it. So many people walk into pregnancy, birth, and parenthood alone and unsupported in their choices.

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 Karma: Karma is a Traditional Birth Attendant and a Guide for women to reclaim and cultivate their personal power. Her work is to be with women and mothers that are navigating their life by offering support, care, nourishment, love and healing through: herbal medicine; prenatal, birth, spontaneous or intentional pregnancy release and postpartum support; bodywork; coaching; pelvic health education; sister circles, online courses and more.

She’s continuing to grow her community of like-minded women all over Vancouver Island, Canada and you can contact her through instagram, through her website: SacredBEarthkeeping.com or through email: SacredBEarthkeeping@hotmail.com

What inspired you to become a doula?

This is my life’s work as I’m passionate about women reclaiming and cultivating the power that has been taken from them and the best place to start is with mothers birthing our new generations.

Why do you identify with the term radical doula?

I identify with this term, but more so Traditional Birth attendant or Traditional Midwife because I do my work completely outside of patriarchal influence. I guide women to live their life in that way and to recognize the benefit of self responsibility. There is no one on earth that knows more about a woman’s body or what is needed for her birth process than that woman herself. I’m educating women to know that their body isn’t broken and that they can absolutely birth their baby on their own terms.

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

MY philosophy is that the female body isn’t inherently broken and birth isn’t inherently a medical event. Every woman had within her the power to safely birth her baby where and whenever she wants to with whomever she wants present.

What is your favorite thing about being a doula?

I love seeing women connect to and fully understand the power within themselves and when its not suppressed they literally can do anything.

If you could change one thing about the experience of pregnancy and birth, what would it be?

I would change the fact that women are so reliant on the industrialized medical system to “save” them, which only leaves them with the trauma of birth violence and OB or medical Midwife betrayal.