A message for lawmakers

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This poem really hit me hard. What a true message, what an amazing reveal of the emptiness of all of these rules, that say you can’t do this, or you must do that, but leave pregnant and parenting people high and dry in the times that really matter.

I’m struck these days by just how political this whole business of reproduction is. It’s always been this way, but this is the first time in my short political memory that it has been so wholly the focus of political attention. How many hours, how many millions of dollars have gone into this project? This nasty project of turning bodies into politics and health into controversy.

In my post from yesterday I talked about how no person should be criminalized for failing to guarantee a healthy pregnancy outcome. When I say “criminalized” I don’t just mean going to jail, I also mean subjected to demeaning and non-medically based practices and procedures. What are these rules if not punishment?

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the decision that gave single women access to contraception. Maybe when we realize that it was only 40 years ago that we gained the right to control our fertility regardless of marital status, we’ll understand why we’re fighting these battles today.

Take one step today to stop the state from criminalizing pregnant women

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I know we all work on many important issues, but this one is really important, and deserves five minutes of your time and attention.

Bei Bei Shuai.

While the details of her case are super important, the reason this deserves your attention right now is that these cases set a really dangerous precedent of punishing women who fail to guarantee a healthy pregnancy outcome. (h/t to Lynn Paltrow)

Now as birth activists we know how dangerous this is, and how it can (and is) being used against women who try to refuse c-sections and other maternity related care. NO ONE can guarantee a healthy pregnancy outcome. It’s impossible. This is about fighting for autonomy in health care, and to prevent the state from criminalizing pregnant women.

Here is Bei Bei’s story:

In 2010, Bei Bei Shuai, a pregnant woman living in Indiana became so depressed that she attempted to end her own life. With help from friends who intervened, however, she survived. Although Ms. Shuai did everything she could, including undergoing cesarean surgery, to ensure that her baby survived, her newborn died shortly after birth.

Ms. Shuai was arrested for the crime of murder (defined to include viable fetuses) and feticide (defined to include ending a human pregnancy at any stage). The sentence for murder can be the death penalty or 45 years-to-life. The sentence for attempted feticide is up to 20 years. Both of these kinds of laws are promoted and supported by “pro-life” organizations.

Bei Bei’s own mental health struggles add another layer of questions of disability rights to this case.

Criminalizing pregnant women does nothing but harm. Bei Bei should not be in prison. No pregnant woman should go to prison because of the outcome of her pregnancy. Ever.

Sign this petition in support of Bei Bei. This is seriously scary shit people.

Via National Advocates for Pregnant Women

The California Pregnant and Parenting Youth Guide

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I’ve written before about the problem with teen pregnancy programming that relies on stigma.

Cover of new guide called "California Pregnant and Parenting Youth Guide"

Well here is an amazing alternative that shows what a true educational tool that provides resources looks like, the California Pregnant and Parenting Youth Guide.

Awesome! The guide is online and available in downloadable form. It’s in Spanish and English. It talks about options for pregnant teens (like abortion and adoption) without any of the scary shaming stuff about how if you choose to have a child it will end up in prison because you are a teen. It talks about resources, insurance programs, how crisis pregnancy centers are anti-choice. It talks about immigration! It’s written at a level teens can understand. It talks about legal rights for teens and parents, issues with custody, tips for parenting. There are cartoons!

Okay, obviously I’m super psyched about this. Cause I am. This is what all teens need. Keep your stigma, and provide resources instead.

The only criticism I can provide is that they don’t talk about birth options in terms of doulas or midwives. But otherwise? Incredible.

You can view the guide and download it here.

Florida becomes the first Southeastern state to pass anti-shackling legislation

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Last week, a bill banning the shackling of incarcerated women during childbirth passed through the Florida legislature.

The Miami-based group Mobile Midwife did a lot of advocacy to get the bill through all it’s phases of votes and committees, and the co-director Jamarah Abdullah Amani has a piece in the Huffington Post about the practice of shackling:

As a Black woman, this both infuriates and saddens me. As a midwife, health educator and mother of three, I have given birth, as well as helped many families welcome their babies into loving arms. It baffles me that we, as a society, allow the horrific practice of shackling to continue without more outrage. Anyone who has had a baby, or has been a witness to the experience, knows that in labor and birth, we must walk through the fire of who we are to become who we will be as mothers and parents. This journey is challenging and fulfilling, scary and exhilarating. It means different things to different families, but what it should not signify is torture and humiliation.

Although the passage of this bill in Florida was a definite win, the fight continues in the rest of the states where no such bans exist:

As we, birth activists, kept late nights and early mornings working on this bill from Miami, Fl, a colleague who is also one of my dearest friends, Paris Hatcher, Executive Director of SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW, was working on a similar bill in Atlanta, Ga. It became kind of a race between the two of us to see which of our states could secure this basic human right for women first. Of course, we had hoped that both of our bills would pass this session.

Florida’s bill is now set to become law this week, while Georgia’s bill is still struggling to get out of committee. “We are excited about this victory in Florida and the potential this action means for Georgia,” states Hatcher. “But what is truly exciting is building a regional movement for Reproductive Justice based on principles of relationship building and amplifying the voices of those who are often forgotten in public policy.”

Although it’s unfortunate that it takes such a horrific practice to get positive support for a birth and reproductive justice issue, I’m beyond delighted to have wins to celebrate in today’s political climate.

Radical Doula Profiles: Lyssa Kaehler

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This is a series highlighting folks who identify as Radical Doulas. Are you interested in being part of the series? Email me.

Lyssa smiling with glasses holding baby.

About Lyssa: Lyssa Kaehler (CD)DONA has been assisting at births since 2010.  She has awesome tattoos and an irreverent sense of humor, and can help you make it through your birth with your soul and perineum intact.  In her spare time she enjoys making faces at babies and doing fix-it work around her house.

RD: What inspired you to become a Doula?

LK: I felt a calling to work with birth while I was in school studying psychology…funny how callings hit while you’re busy doing something else! It just felt like this was the life I was meant to be living. My eventual goal is to be a homebirth midwife, but some birth community friends advised that I become a doula first and get some real life experience before diving into midwifery school.

RD: Why do you identify with the term radical doula?
LK: Honestly, I wish I didn’t have to.  Is it so radical to believe that every person should be treated with respect, no matter what they’re going through? On the other hand, I think I’m pretty rad.   When I’m not at births, you might find me roaring around town on my motorcycle, kicking ass in martial arts,  herding chickens through my yard, or dressing up in strange costumes for science fiction conventions.  I’m your basic superhero ninja biker doula.

RD: What is your Doula philosophy and how does it fit into your broader political beliefs?

LK: I feel like all women deserve to be treated with respect and to have their body’s processes honored at whatever phase of life she is in or what she chooses to do with it…but that’s not what happens here. What I want for all the women that I work with is to feel that they were truly informed and in control of decisions made, and comfortable with the unfolding process even when things don’t go as planned. I hate that having a good, empowering birth is an upper class privilege in our medical system, and that poor women are just supposed to take whatever they are given and be grateful. That needs to change.

Continue reading →

Introducing: The Radical Doula Guide

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Finally I can talk about this project, which has been in the works for what feels like years!

I decided that since it’s been five years of running this blog, I’m ready to take my work to the next level. Enter: The Radical Doula Guide.

Continue reading →

Five years of Radical Doula

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Number five candle on a cupcake

Yesterday was my fifth anniversary of starting this blog, and writing the post, “a new blog is born…” I’m still embarrassed that I used a birth pun, but well, there you have it. I had so little idea what this site would become when I started it in 2007–I had so little idea what a blog was even.

The inspiration came from a conference that Lynn Paltrow and the National Advocates for Pregnant Women hosted in 2007, which brought together birth activists (doulas, midwives, consumers) and pro-choice advocates. It was groundbreaking for me and my career, and deserves credit for much of what I do now.

During that conference I introduced myself as a “radical doula.” Through that gathering I also met a few women who had small feminist blogs, as well as Jessica Valenti from Feministing. That led to a guestpost at Feministing about being a radical doula. The comments on that post inspired me to start this blog.

472 posts and 914 comments later, I feel so much gratitude for everyone who has contributed to making this community what it is. The many many readers, commenters, people who email me to say they like what I do. The 33 (!) doulas in my radical doula profile series.

I didn’t start this blog because I wanted a career as a writer or public speaker (although I’m beyond psyched that that is what occurred). I started this blog because I felt alone in the doula world. I felt alienated in the birth activist community because of my identity and my politics.

Today what I am grateful for is that I no longer feel alone. I actually feel surrounded, both online and off, with people who have a similar passion for doula work and birth activism, and have the politics to bring alongside it.

So thank you, sincerely. We’re an amazing community.

I’m using my anniversary year to get some Radical Doula related projects going that have been neglected for a long time, so stay tuned. Later this week I’ll be launching a really exciting first step.

If you want the details first, you can join my email list.

Join my email list

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A new way for you to stay in touch with my work, on and off Radical Doula. I’m launching an email list, which I will use to sparingly update folks about my work–recent articles, blog posts I want to highlight, and events. I’ll email no more than twice a month, and promise not to sell, rent or otherwise share your email.

If you’re interested, you can sign up here. I’ve got some exciting new projects in the works. Trust me, you want to be in the loop!

Note: This is distinct from the tool in the sidebar of Radical Doula that allows you to sign up for every new blog post to be emailed to you. Both are great, just different!

Updated doula trainings and volunteer programs pages

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These resources are in constant development and improvement! Thanks to everyone who has emailed with new program and training links.

I updated the Doula Trainings page recently, added a few new programs and improved the formatting. This page is just meant as a one stop quick overview of the doula training programs out there, so soon to be doulas can start their research. If you know of trainings I haven’t included, email me! Also if you have experience with one of the programs listed, and want to talk about your experience in a guest post, I’d love that. Email me.

The Volunteer Programs page is meant as a resource for doulas looking for volunteer opportunities. A few people emailed me to say they themselves offer low-fee or volunteer doula services, which is awesome, but this page is meant for volunteer programs that doulas can join in order to provide volunteer doula services.

Thanks to everyone for their help in maintaining these resources!

Aboriginal Doula Training offered in British Columbia

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Logo for Aboriginal Doula Training

Via facebook, information about an Aboriginal Doula Training in British Columbia this May.

I’m always on the look out for new doula trainings, and this one also hits a theme I think is so important–training members of marginalized communities to provide doula care to those in their own communities.

Doulas, by the way, are not a modern invention. The term “doula” used in the way we do certainly is, but the practice of trained people supporting folks during labor certainly is not. Perhaps I’m repeating myself, but before birth was the domain of doctors and hospitals, most people gave birth in their communities, with the help of family and trained support people, midwives, healers, etc.

Native and First Nations communities have experienced extreme violence in the form of genocide on behalf of North American governments, colonizers and people. This history shows up in the horrific rates of violence, maternal and fetal mortality, substance abuse, among other things. Raeanne Madison wrote about the importance of doula care in Native communities in this guest post, so I’m glad to see it being promoted (and funded) by Canadian institutions.

There was a 2010 report about the impact of doula care in First Nations communities in BC. There is even a “Aboriginal Doula Advisory Committee.” I am excited by the power of the doula model of care to allow community members to serve one another. You don’t have to be an outsider to be a doula–in fact, being a member of the community likely makes your work as a doula a thousand times better. This sums it up pretty well:

“For First Nations families, doulas have the potential to make positive contributions to situations where women are birthing away from their home communities,” NAHO said. “They can act as communicators and advocates for the birthing family, and can facilitate incorporating traditional practices into the childbirth process, if the family desires this.”

The deadline to apply for the training is February 24. All costs are covered by the program. Details here.

For a list of doula trainings, check out my resource page.