Just got an email from an awesome woman in St. Louis, Missouri who is looking for a radical doula. She is a self-professed sex positive feminist law student (sweet! we need more sex positive feminist lawyers) and here is what she had to say about her experience trying to find a doula so far:

I was talking to a doula that my doctor recommended but as soon as I mentioned a possible orgasmic birth she issued a nervous laugh and I knew something just didn’t feel right.  I want to bring my vibrator, massagers and/or sex toys with me to the hospital and really need a doula, but one who won’t be judgmental about my open sexuality. 

Rock on! I wish I was in St. Louis. So, if you are in a doula in the St. Louis area, or know someone who is, either post your contact info in the comments or email me at radicaldoula@gmail.com and I will pass the info along to her!

For previous posts on orgasmic birth, go here. For previous posts on other women looking for radical doulas, here.

PS If you are a woman having trouble finding a doula who is as progressive as you’d like, please email me! I would love to use this site as a way to connect like-minded moms and doulas.

Penny Simkin, doula, childbirth educator and big deal birth activist, is getting some much deserved press in the Seattle Times, for all the amazing work she has done for change in childbirth.

Known as the mother of the doula movement, Simkin has trained thousands of these caregivers to provide physical and emotional support for women during birth — the only intervention scientifically shown to decrease time in labor (by 25 percent) as well as to reduce Cesarean-section rates by a third.

“Birth never changes,” Simkin says. “But the way we manage it and the way we think of it has. Right now, we’re in a culture of fear around birth.”

Read the piece to learn more about Penny and her impressive career.

She was a born teacher, delved into research, spoke at conferences, and attended many students’ births as a doula before the role had that name. She invented a “birth bar” and birth sling to help women squat and lean during labor; codified birth plans to give women more control over the process; co-authored several books; edited a journal of current scientific literature about birth; pioneered pregnancy-care techniques and counseling for survivors of sexual abuse.

PS. She even went to my alma mater!

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.

Thanks to Doulicia, I just stumbled upon a new blog, written by a male doula named Matt. I wanted to give him a shout out, and refer you all over to read his thoughts if you are interested. I think being a male doula (and a gay male one at that) deserves a radical doula mention.

I have thought often about this idea of male doulas and midwives, particularly because of my own thoughts about the gender binary. The argument among the doula and midwifery community that doulas can connect with women simply by being women themselves has always troubled me, as it implies some sort of intrinsic female-connection. What does that imply about women’s brains?

I think being a doula is about listening, and connecting with someone, and learning what kind of support they need. Just like I don’t think you need to be a mother to be a doula (I know some people would disagree), I don’t think you need to identify as a woman. Each person has to choose a doula they feel comfortable with, and with whom they can connect.

Keep on trucking Matt.

Since I started this blog, I have gotten quite a few emails/comments from doulas from around the United States who have connected with the issues that I cover here, and particularly with the concept of Radical Doula. These have been some of the most moving and inspirational things that have come out of having this blog, and I wanted to share some of their stories with you all. Here are a few exerpts from their comments and emails (I will leave these excerpts anonymous, as I want to respect the privacy of these awesome doulas):

I am a doula living and working in Montreal (Quebec). My doula heart sighed a huge sigh of relief when i stumbled upon your blog. I have been a doula for two years and i still can’t find a place for myself within the ‘doula’ community. I feel unseen and isolated. I am struggling to find a doula ‘partner’ because though I know a lot of doulas, i can’t find one with politics that i can relate to. I have not met any doulas that were careful and knowing about transsexuality, class struggles, queerness, racism, and citizenship privilege. Right now i am trying to do more birthing work with women stuck in the immigration detention just outside of montreal. It is hard for me to access into those detention centers, so far i have only been able to assist at one birth. The other issue is (as i was saying earlier…) it is hard for me to find doulas that I trust to work with in those situations. I have never been more aware of my white privilege than at that birth. All this to say that i am finding the doula world lonely. There’s no way i’m the only doula that feels so deeply glad to know that you are there.

I am an RN that also became a doula and a childbirth educator. I did a ton of volunteering with clinics and I did OB nursing for 3 years in a hospital. I have worked in both home and birthing clinics and I much prefer home births. I had my first son when I was 18 in a typical hospital nightmare and had my second son at home in 2002, at 25. I had come a long way. I went to nursing school and received my BSN with the intention of going into midwifery school. The problem was, I was extremely radical and political. At my junior year, the university here in Missouri shut down it’s midwifery program due to pressure from the med school. There are no more Nurse Midwives here, they were all shut out. I became very involved in the politics of birthing. I was involved with the birthing center here that was run by a doctor, who has been mercilessly persecuted. I worked in the ER for the money, thinking that I could do nursey things and not feel bad about these skills, unlike OB. Because of my woman’s health experience, I started getting all of the rapes and the domestic violence. I had also done a lot of volunteer work in this area. I have become extremely angry since I began this journey. I have always loved pregnant woman, ever since I was little. But I have been so political as well. I have taught classes, spoken at medical tribunals, etc, etc…I feel so powerless. I am now in law school and about to finish my first year. I love law, and I will value what power it may afford me. However, after all this debt, will I be happy? Shouldn’t I be a midwife? Isn’t that where my heart lies? I don’t think that I could be happy with midwifery in the united states as it is now and I want to fight for it to become elevated to where it should be. I despise doctors and this is a major problem. You can imagine how hard it is to work as a nurse now, not even a primary caregiver, while going to law school. It is infuriating. I really don’t know what compelled me to write you. I guess it is just nice to hear about someone else that is as political as I am.

I came across your blog through Google and when I read this post I was so moved. I’m studying to become a doula and lactation consultant and I intend to work with women who struggle with drug and alcohol addiction, woman who are incarcerated, young single mothers and women who are or have been in abusive relationships simply because I see a greater need in these women. I feel my efforts can best be used to aid women such as these rather than women who might have more intact support systems. I have seen firsthand how these women can fall between the cracks and their children fall with them. I know that when I am done training and begin to gain experience I will be providing them with the care and support they need to feel empowered and capable. Much of what you said resonates with me… I’ll be proud to some day consider myself a radical doula!

*waves* Radical doula here. I was previously in Wisconsin and now am in the boonies of Minnesota! I just discovered your blog from feministing, but I’ll be sure to check it out with regularity. I am currently childless, bisexual, married, and a steadfast radical I hope there’s even more of us out there!!

I am so happy you put this up! I too am a radical doula/midwife in training. I work in a county hospital in the midwest with all-low-income mothers, 99% of whom are of color. Latina, East African, West African, incarcerated mothers, addicts and well, all the other low-income moms of color who are deemed difficult, at risk, and less than, for more reasons than any of us can or should count. Though I work with some other amazing doulas I am frequently ( read:always) the only woman of color ( I am African American) in the room, let alone the bi, pro-choice woman in the room. I have one child and another on the way and as my journey of motherhood and birth professional continues I find my self though personally further from the place in my life where I might need to utilize my choice to terminate a pregnancy, more deeply pro-choice than ever before in my life, the idea that anyone would have to embark on this journey from government coercion, makes me dizzy with outrage. More deeply though I find that the link between the anti-choice anti-birth trends so insulting. For me the deep intuitive understanding of the conciousness of my baby as he approaches his birth clarifies for me that only women understand the choices they make, that they HAVE to make and to remove this from them in any aspect of their reproductive lives seems to fly in the face the precious gifts of sentience and spirit and the amazing power which we have.

Thanks to all the radical doulas out there who are doing such amazing work and inspire me to keep going with this and my own doula projects. Some day we are going to have to have a radical doula convening!

Just wanted to point you all to the comment made by fellow radical doula/midwife Rebecca. Click on the Radical doula??? page above, or click here (scroll to bottom).

Thanks Rebecca! It’s great to here from other radical women out there, and I appreciate your comment about how your own birthing experience has changed your ideas about birth and your doula work. I, being childless (with no current plans for motherhood), think about this issue alot and try to approach my ideas about birth with a openness and flexibility that reflects my understanding that my ideas are not the only ideas. I can only work from what my own lived experience has taught me, while appreciating the lived experiences of others, and attempting to facilitate an open dialogue for these issues.

Are you a radical doula or midwife? Post something and let me know you’re out there!

So I am starting a series called “Kick ass radical doulas.” Periodically I will highlight awesome doula programs or doulas that I learn about or meet, particularly ones that focus on providing doula services to communities of women who REALLY need the support. Like my first group, who works with incarcerated women.

So I’m inaugurating this series with a shout-out to the Birth Attendents, an amazing group of super-radical doulas who provide support to incarcerated women giving birth in Western Washington State. I have had the pleasure of meeting some of these awesome doulas, and I think they typify what it means to be a radical doula. The work they do with incarcerated women (who regularly are shackled during labor and delivery) is truly inspiring. I have the particular pleasure to befriend Christy Hall, who is an awesome radical doula, and was actually the person I had some of my original conversations with about radical doulas.  Meet these awesome women here.

Not only do they run this Prison Doula Project, they also have a community education project:

Our community education project links our vital work inside prisons to the greater issues surrounding incarceration and works toward creating pathways of knowledge for western Washington communities about incarceration and its effects.

Rock on. Want to support these awesome doulas and their work? Then give them some money. Or volunteer.

If you have know any doulas or doula programs that you think I should highlight for this series, email me at radicaldoula@gmail.com.