Who will be in the room during your labor? Your partner? Maybe your parents? As America\u2019s maternal mortality rate rises, many birthing individuals of color are choosing to have a doula by their side.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Center for Disease Control, the U.S. maternal mortality rate\u00a0in 2018 was 17.4 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. For Black women, the rates are even higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of income or education level, Black\u00a0mothers in the United States die at three to four times the rate of their\u00a0 white counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t educate ourselves out of this,\u201d says Jessica Roach, founder and executive director of the Columbus, Ohio reproductive justice organization Restoring Our Own Through Transformation (ROOTT)<\/a>. \u201cWe can\u2019t just get enough money. [Black maternal mortality] is steeped in institutional, structural racism,\u201d she told SELF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\u00a0 major areas like New York city, Black mothers are 12 times more likely to die\u2013but 60% of these deaths are preventable, especially with better health care, communication, and support.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Birth Assistants Though History<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For centuries, birthing people were supported through pregnancy and labor by skilled family members or older women in the community. In ancient Africa, midwives were revered as sacred carriers of birthing wisdom, traditions, and rituals. Their guidance welcomed new life to their villages and communities. After being stolen from their homeland, enslaved African women used their ancestral knowledge\u00a0to counsel and encourage laboring women, and often delivered babies\u2013both Black and white\u2013across plantations. Until the 1700\u2019s, \u201cgranny midwives\u201d were the sole care providers for many mothers and their new babies in the rural South.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Black midwives] were wiped out through politics and policy that demonized them as being uncultured, uneducated, unclean, and dangerous,\u201d said Nikia Grayson, Director of Midwifery at CHOICES, a Memphis Reproductive Health Center<\/a><\/u>.<\/u><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the early 1800\u2019s, male physicians had replaced granny midwives, and state laws prohibited the practice\u2013but their knowledge and historical traditions live on\u00a0though modern day birth workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A \u201cWoman Who Serves\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Derived from an ancient Greek word meaning \u201cwoman who serves,\u201d a doula is a non-clinical\u00a0professional\u00a0trained to provide physical, emotional, and educational support to parents.\u00a0\u201cA doula serves as an educator, advocate, and cheerleader for the laboring mother, while keeping the family calm,\u201d says Latham Thomas, the celebrity doula and educator behind maternity lifestyle brand, Mama Glow<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Birth doulas can offer support throughout pregnancy, working with parents to create their birth plans and preferences, provide comfort measures during labor, and advocate for care by helping their clients articulate\u00a0birthing\u00a0preferences, questions, and values to medical staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRemember that you have your own autonomy,\u201d says Kemetra King, a Certified Nurse Midwife at CHOICES. \u201cThis is your body. Whatever you want to do, that\u2019s what we support you in. We are your voice, your advocate. We listen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Doulas Help<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Doulas can help\u00a0reduce the\u00a0time spent in labor,\u00a0ease\u00a0parents\u2019 anxiety, lower the rate of medical interventions (including C-sections), and improve parent-baby bonding post-birth.\u00a0The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists\u00a0released a statement<\/a>\u00a0noting that \u201cevidence suggests that, in addition to regular nursing care, continuous one-to-one emotional support provided by support personnel, such as a doula, is associated with improved outcomes for women in labor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studies have also shown that parents who worked with a doula\u00a0\u00a0were four times less likely to have a baby with low birth weight, and two times less likely to have a birth complication\u2013something that could save Black birthing individuals.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Improving Outcomes for Black and Latinx Birthing People<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A 2006 Listening to Mothers Survey III<\/a>\u00a0 found that 1 in 5 Black and Latinx women reported poor treatment from hospital staff because of race, ethnicity, cultural background or language, compared with\u00a0 just 8 percent of white mothers.\u00a0 Another 2016 University of Virginia<\/a><\/u>\u00a0study found biological myths about black patients still persist among white medical students, such as the notions that African Americans have less sensitive nerve endings, can tolerate more pain and have thicker skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have definitely had clients hire me because they had learned of birth outcomes for women of color,\u201d says Jessica Easter, a member of the\u00a0National Black Doulas Association<\/a>\u00a0and owner of\u00a0Abounding Grace Birth Services<\/a>\u00a0in Nashville, TN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stereotypes, implicit biases, and systemic racism all contribute to the subpar treatment that many non-white birthing individuals experience during labor and delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully, a doula can encourage parents to speak up for themselves,, ask questions and examine the benefits, risks, and alternatives of any actions they take during labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 2011 and 2012, 6% of birthing parents reported using a doula\u2013up from just 3% in 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the point a woman is most vulnerable,\u201d says D\u00e1na-Ain Davis, the director of the Center for the Study of Women and Society at the City University of New York, \u201cshe has another set of ears and another voice to help get through some of the potentially traumatic decisions that have to be made.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you or will you use a doula?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who will be in the room during your labor? Your partner? Maybe your parents? As America\u2019s maternal mortality rate rises, many birthing individuals of color are choosing to have a doula by their side.\u00a0 According to the Center for Disease Control, the U.S. maternal mortality rate\u00a0in 2018 was 17.4 maternal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,108],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Copy-of-Copy-of-MMV-Header-Image.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5069"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5069"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5075,"href":"https:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5069\/revisions\/5075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}