A few dollars can help folks in MA get the services they need

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Eastern Massachusetts Abortion Fund Triathlon logo, slogan

Tonight is one event in a season of incredible grassroots fundraising around the country on behalf of abortion funds who raise money to help folks pay for the procedures they need when their health care won’t cover it. Just like doula care is about unconditional and nonjudgemental support for pregnant and parenting people, the work of abortion funds is also that.

Supporting abortion funds is a really easy way to directly impact one persons ability to make decisions about their life and their pregnancy. Most of these funds are volunteer run, which means the majority of every $1 donated goes directly into the hands of someone in need of a procedure. It’s a direct response to the class inequality inherent in our medical system. No one should have to carry a pregnancy to term simply because they cannot afford an abortion.

While there are many great groups fundraising, and I suggest checking out your local one, I’m making a pitch on behalf of the group in Eastern Massachusetts. Tonight is their annual fundraiser which brings in a huge amount of the money they use each year to help folks in the area get the medical care they need and cannot afford. But understandably because of what has transpired this past week in Boston, when they would have been doing a major push in their fundraising, they are still $14,000 away from reaching their fundraising goal.

Do you have a few dollars to support this amazing group of volunteers?

I’m actually headed to Boston right now to be at the event as an honored guest, so it’s important to me to share the love with them. I’ll be presenting brief remarks, and honored to be able to bring doula work into that space.

If you’re in the area, come out! It should be a good time.

If you’re not able to attend, consider donating even a few dollars to support their work and help them meet their goal. Thanks!

Is finding a job as a doula difficult?

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Continuing my tradition of posting answers I get via email here, I recently got a question from an inspiring doula wanting to know about what education background she might need, and if it would be difficult to find a job as a doula.

My answer:

Thanks for your email. Doula work can be really rewarding!

In terms of your questions, it’s not a traditional profession like others you might know about. While there are many doulas who do that work professionally, there is no formal education requirement (meaning a college or master’s degree or some sort). Instead, people of all education backgrounds participate in doula trainings (usually a long weekend) and then decide if they want to pursue certification as doulas (not required).

The jobs, then, are also less formalized. With few exceptions, most doulas work independently and find clients directly. Kind of like a massage therapist might. Those doulas build their own client base through marketing and word of mouth, and work on a fee for service basis (aka you charge people directly for your services, anywhere from $300-$3000 per birth, depending on experience, location, etc).

So the job search is a very different process.

I hope that helps! If you’re interested in doula work, I’d recommend signing up for a training and there you will learn a lot more about how it works.

The whole idea of being a self-employed doula, I’ve noticed, is really new for a lot of people. If you’re going to live off your doula work it really will require a lot of self-motivation and some business savvy. You also have to figure out how to get your own health insurance, and paying taxes is more complicated when you are self-employed. It’s a lot to learn! I’m only just now starting to hear about more formal full-time jobs as doulas, in hospitals or with agencies.

If you want to read more about my musings on the future of the doula movement and institutionalization, read this column.

Are you a doula trainer? Get a free review copy of The Radical Doula Guide

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I heart doulas sign

It’s been eight months since I published The Radical Doula Guide, and it’s been an incredible whirlwind. I’ve been totally blown away by the support and enthusiasm for the book. I’ve sold close to 900 copies in those eight months. Way more than I ever would have dreamed! So thank you.

I still have more copies available (get yours here), so I’m starting to reach out to doula trainers. My hope is that the book will become recommended (or required!) reading for doula trainings, as a way to get these issues further integrated into the training of new doulas. Are you a doula trainer? If so, and you think you might be interested in listing The Radical Doula Guide as recommended reading for your trainings, email me and I’ll send you a free review copy. I have a limited number available for this purpose, so email me soon. Send me your mailing address and a little bit about your work as a doula trainer, as well as links to any websites about your trainings. RadicaldoulaATgmailDOTcom.

Thanks!

Radical Doula Profiles: Elyana

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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!

elyana

Elyana can be described using the words activist, feminist, radical, compassionate, creative and connected. She brings her diverse background and skills in herbal medicine, communication, sex education, earth-based ritual, counseling and more to her doula practice. She has worked in many different contexts as an ally for folks all along the spectrum. Email her at bayarearadicaldoula@gmail.com or visit her website.

What inspired you to become a doula?

Sexuality has been a main thread in my life for as long as I can remember. I consider sexuality to be at the foundation of what makes a culture thrive and struggle. I am committed to the movement towards freedom to express our sexuality and reproductive rights in diverse and varied ways. A big focus in my life is to weave an understand of systems oppression and participate in the stories of liberating ourselves from these systems.

My work as a doula began long before I attended any training or births. Being a caregiver is part of my identity, a role that I play with my friends, family and community.

Why do you identify with the term radical doula?

I identify as a radical doula because of my commitment to an anti-oppressive practice including people of all colors, gender identity, sexual orientation, class and other marginalized groups. For me, bringing “radical” into the doula world entails bringing an analysis of current systems affecting reproductive health & justice and working to engage more authentic and empowering ways of birth, abortion and everything in between.

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

For thousands of years traditional cultures around the world have guided new mothers in their experience of childbirth — primarily in a context of home and community. Interventions were rarely used, and contrary to popular belief, most births which happened naturally this way, resulted in healthy mothers and healthy babies. In today’s world we are exposed to the medical industrial complex and all the images and messages about birth that come along with that. This becomes a problem, not because of the services that hospitals offer, but because of the all too common infringement on a persons right to choose how they birth their child. I am not here to promote any particular choice to be made. My foundational belief is that people have the right to choose: if, how, where and with whom they will birth their child. Much of the birthing experience cannot be controlled, (which can be a scary or exciting thing) so it is important that we a re empowered to make informed and consensual decisions. My views, as described above, are founded in a radical analysis of the modern capitalist industrial complex and all the ways it affects peoples lives. Birth is unfortunately just one of many examples of places that our patriarchal culture has invaded and robbed us of our rights. My guiding philosophy in working with folks is in discovering what a sense of safety looks like for them and reclaiming this connection to comfort and support that has been principle in the childbearing process for all of time.

What’s the goal of the doula movement?

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In my latest column for RH Reality Check I muse about the question of the goal of the doula movement.

I felt a bit nervous putting this one out there because it touches on issues of money, sustainability, access to our services for those who need it most, and how institutional affiliation impacts the ability to make change.

When I talk about these issues I’m very conscious of the fact that I don’t make a living as a doula. While a few of the things I do that relate to doula work–publishing the Radical Doula Guide, writing my column for RH Reality Check, the occasional speaking gig–brings in some modest income (we’re talking under a few thousand dollars per year), the bulk of my pay-the-rent money comes from non-doula related work (primarily my work with non-profit orgs as communications consultant). So, I know that all of my commentary on these issues comes from the position of someone outside the doula work is my living community.

And I want to make clear that I find nothing wrong with doula work as a profession, it’s just not the path I’ve chosen for myself or my work, for many mostly personal and logistical reasons.

So, the column:

There is no easy answer to the question of where the doula movement is headed. It’s clear to me that doulas provide an important and potentially transformative intervention for our maternal health system. But it’s also clear to me that institutionalization and professionalization threaten the very model we’ve developed, a model that, because it is outside the medical system, allows us to shift the dynamic and improve outcomes.

An alternative that I think may be more feasible is working to bring the doula model of care to existing participants in the health-care system. How could the doula model transform the way current providers, like doctors and nurses, care for their patients? Rather than creating a vast doula profession, could we transform maternity care by turning everyone into doulas? Could family members, for example, be trained or shown how to provide the kind of support that doulas provide?

I think doula work is valuable and important, and I also don’t believe the essence of doula work—non-judgmental and unconditional support for pregnant and parenting people—needs to be locked away in a system that says only a certain amount of training, certificates, or other paperwork bestows upon someone the right to provide this support. We run the risk of replicating the model we’re trying to revolutionize. And I don’t think that is where real social change happens.

Read the full thing for my whole analysis, including one example of a midwife bringing doula-like training to existing members of the broader health care network.

I would love to hear from you, fellow doulas, what do you think is the goal of our movement? How do you think we’ll get there?

Radical Doula Profiles: Venus Zephyr

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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!

Venus Zephyr

Venus Zephyr is a birth and post partum doula,community herbalist, plant spirit practitioner, herbal re-sourceress, mother of Sela Jade, Artist, Activist and Community Organizer. She has studied plant medicine with teachers, healers and root doctors, and has learned the ancient art of spiritual plant bathing from Rocio Alarcon(Ecuador), Rosita Arvigo(Belize), Grandmother Dona Enriqueta(Mexico) and Pam Montgomery(Vermont). A graduate of Blazing Star Herbal School, Partner Earth Education Center in the modalities of advanced western herbalism and plant spirit healing. Venus has attended families as a post partum doula for the past 7 years and most recently completed in 2011 a birth doula training with Michelle L’Esperance of Warm Welcome Birth Services. Contact her at boneflowerbotanikals@gmail.com or soulflowerbirth@gmail.com.

What inspired you to become a doula?

Birth is such a magickal, empowering and pivitol piece of a woman’s herstory! I am constantly amazed at how many womyn don’t know that they actually have choices about how they give birth, where they give birth and that YES, their bodies can do it too, they are resilient and they have the absolute right to birth exactly anyway they chose. It is actually a deep blessing to assist someone in labor and in their tender pregnancy and post partum times. It is a mystery how any of us find the strength and get to the other side of being mothers, and I remember so clearly how literally AWE-some it was for me, I knew about half way into my birth that I needed to help womyn do this too. I’m not sure I know another way to be than care taker and birth steward of life, babies, creations and in the role of impeccable discovering. BirthWork fills that place in me that knows we are all Holy-and Whole, and of course Ah-mazing Goddesses.

Why do you identify with the term radical doula?

In general I would call myself radical, but defining myself as a radical doula comes from the not so radical idea that birth is something that simply happens if we allow the space and opening for it. In our culture however that truth is radical, because it isn’t what we’re taught, shown or led to believe in just about every forum, television, media, even childbirth education. The idea of being radical isn’t so much a way to define my style but more a way to get in touch with very simple truths about birth that are very much hidden and shrouded in main stream American culture. I believe in the fact that all women should be allowed to have the birth they envision and that all women have the right to birth support, education and attendance regardless of their background, race, or socio economic status. I am committed to providing doula care to all women.

Continue reading →

Radical Doula Profiles: adrienne maree brown

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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 adrienne: adrienne maree is a doula, writer, facilitator and artist living in detroit, mi. adriennemaree@gmail.com.

What inspired you to become a doula?

my sister started having babies in natural ways and the beauty and power of it blew my mind. at the same time folks were asking me to doula for them. i thought as a non-parent i couldn’t do it. then i was the first responder to a woman attacked behind my home and in sitting with her til the ambulance came it clicked for me: being with people through these moments of transition simply requires being deeply present to what is, and expanding their capacity to be present. so i apprenticed with an experienced doula and have been doing doula work ever since.

Why do you identify with the term radical doula?

i believe in what humans can do, in the power of our bodies and our communities to create and sustain life. too many of the institutional processes around reproduction and parenting are disempowering, unsacred, not aligned with the miraculous gift we have. so i see part of my work as a way to intervene in social systems that are losing humanity, and reclaim humanity one person at a time.

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

i believe everyone (all economic backgrounds, gender identities, abilities, races, everyone) going through any of the processes related to reproduction and parenting – trying to get pregnant, adopting, abortion, giving birth, unintended pregnancy loss, post-partum time, etc – should have support and access to determining how to go through the process with health, dignity and – where appropriate – joy.

What is your favorite thing about being a doula?

so far, it’s the opportunity to witness transformation. i get to be close to folks at one of the most important moments of their lives, and reflect all the strength i see in them – it’s healing for me.

If you could change one thing about birth, what would it be?

that the default would be natural births at home. that hospitals, c-sections, and medical interventions would be seen as rare aspects of births only turned to for emergencies.

Philly: Radical Doulas & Reproductive Justice event on Wednesday March 27

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I’m heading out this week to do two speaking events, so if you’re in the Philly area, you should join!

I love any and all opportunity to talk about the activism I’m involved in, and I’m beyond pleased that doula work is gaining enough prominence that I get more and more requests to come speak about it.

On Wednesday I’ll be speaking at the University of Pennsylvania, hosted by groups primarily in the Nursing School. Major thanks to Ryan Pryor who organized the event! I’ll be talking about doulas, reproductive justice and community-based interventions to health care. I’m jazzed to be speaking to future health care professionals–a group that has the power to really change our health care system.

Details:

Radical Doulas & Reproductive Justice: Community-based health

Miriam Zoila Perez will talk about her work as a full-spectrum doula, writer and activist. There is a growing movement of doulas working to improve pregnant people’s health care experiences through one-on-one emotional, physical and informational suport. How are doulas changing health care experiences? How can providers collaborate with doulas? Miriam will discuss this important and growing movement, and it’s many connections to health care activist work. 

Event co-hosted by Nurses PUSH, Nursing Students for Choice, Med Students for Choice, LGBTPM+, GAPSA, Nursing Student Services and Penn LGBT Center.

Wednesday March 27th, 12pm-1pm, Claire M. Fagin Hall, University of Pennsylvannia

Facebook event here.

In the evening there will also be a get together, for those who can’t make the event and folks who want to talk more. Details: New Deck Tavern on 34th and Sansom (3408 Sansom St  Philadelphia, PA 19104), 7:30-9:30pm

On Thursday I’ll be speaking at the Queer and Trans Conference at Swarthmore College, my alma mater! I’ll be hosting a workshop about Queering Reproductive Justice.

I’ll have Radical Doula Guides with me for sale at both events. Hope to see you there Philly!

DC Doulas for Choice recruiting new volunteers

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An opportunity to get involved with a full-spectrum doula group in the Washington, DC metro area. About DCDC:

The DC Doulas for Choice Collective is a DC-based, volunteer-led-and-run, pro-choice organization that seeks to provide doula care to people across the full spectrum of reproductive health, pregnancy, and choice.

The Collective began in 2011 with a group of pro-choice birth doulas and reproductive justice advocates 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 birth.

The training will be June 1. More info about the training and how to apply is here.

Radical Doula Profiles: Jessie Bryer

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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!

Photo of radical doula Jessie BryerJessie Bryer is a mom of 2, family studies major and doula willing to provide full-spectrum support to women in the Yuma, Arizona area. Find her at: https://www.facebook.com/jessie.bryerdoula, or email her at yumadoula@gmail.com.

What inspired you to become a doula?

My own birth experiences and the privilege of witnessing a friend’s birth motivated me to share my experience and help other women.

Why do you identify with the term radical doula?

Because I am willing to provide my support where it is needed, regardless of the circumstances. I am liberal and pro-choice.

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

I think that we are natural beings and that pregnancy, birth, and lactation are natural processes. I believe strongly in a woman’s autonomy and her right to make choices regarding her body and her reproductive function. All women should have access to good quality, safe medical procedures whether they are seeking abortion, birthing at home, refusing procedures or in need of contraception and I support anyone who needs me.

What is your favorite thing about being a doula?

My favorite part of being a doula is helping people and knowing that they felt braver, stronger, and empowered by my presence.

If you could change one thing about birth, what would it be?

I would take the fear that women feel during labor away.