I recently got an email from a reader about her reflections on activism after Dr. Tiller's death. Here is her email:
Hi, Miriam, Among my many reactions to Dr. George Tiller's murder is a desire to put my money where my mouth is (so to speak) with regards to my support for choice in reproductive health. I'm contacting my local Planned Parenthood about volunteering in whatever ways they need. But for me "pro-choice" is about more than access to abortion. My local birthing center just shut down (to the disappointment of one of my best friends, who's seven months pregnant). I'm really interested in becoming a doula and/or midwife, but I have very little medical training. Would you consider doing a post about why and how you became a doula, and how that work intersects with your support for abortion rights? I'm really interested in hearing about your experiences.
I left her name out of it for privacy reasons, but she's right on target. For me being pro-choice has always been about more than just access to abortion and I think a broader focus on the many phases on people's reproductive lives is a great response to anti-choice hate and violence.
I'm a doula. I've been a doula for four years now, practicing on and off, only as a volunteer. You can read more about this at my other blog, Radical Doula. I went back and found my very first guestblog that I wrote for Feministing, right when I started calling myself a radical doula. Here is what I wrote:
During the pre-conference training organized by Be Present, Inc, I stood up and introduced myself as a radical doula. This was a designation that I came to assume for myself through an understanding that my beliefs (which seemed to me completely logical and altogether natural) placed me apart from a large part of what I have come to call the "birth activist" community (midwives, doulas and advocates who work toward changing the standards of care for birthing women in the US). This conference highlighted many of the ways my politics are a seeming contradiction: I'm a doula and I'm a pro-choice abortion advocate. I'm a doula and I'm a lesbian. I'm a doula and I may never have children. I'm a doula and I'm Latina. I'm doula and I'm not entirely comfortable with the gender/sex binary.What was so groundbreaking about this conference was that it brought together two of my worlds, the birth activists (midwives, doulas, academics) and the pro-choice activists (policy people, advocates, organizers). I can see now how these two groups, the former of which dedicates its time to supporting women as they bring children into the world, and the latter that fights for women's rights to not bring children into the world, don't necessarily go together. The irony is that I never understood the contradictions that exist between the them until Lynn Paltrow pointed it out to me precisely because the two are really good about not mentioning the others issues. The midwifery conferences I have been to in the past never mentioned the issue of abortion allowing me to erroneously assume that they were all pro-choice just like me. Likewise, the pro-choice conferences rarely mentioned the issues that face birthing women so focused as they are on the rights of women fighting not to birth. So congratulations NAPW, you succeeded in beginning a dialogue between the two movements (as stilted and precarious as it may have been at times) even just by creating a space where that dialogue was possible.
What this conference made entirely clear to me (and maybe what I already understood from my own dual roles) is that the activists from these two camps need to be in the same room, if not simply because the people whom we are fighting are one and the same. The people who want to take away women's rights to abortion, contraception, and comprehensive sex education are the same ones who aren't afraid to forcibly subject women to c-sections, limit the scope of women's choices about how they birth or place the rights of an unborn fetus above the rights of a woman. So let's keep the conversation going, and focus on how we can protect women's choices throughout all the phases of their lives.
I think in time's like these, when the lines between our movements are being drawn so starkly, that it's even more important to reemphasize these connections.
In that vein, there is an amazing project in NYC that I was part of the early stages of that is looking for applicants! It's called the Doula Project.
Details after the jump.
The Doula Project is a pro-choice New York City-based organization that was started in 2008 to provide services to lower-income individuals across the spectrum of pregnancy. It was founded by pro-choice doulas and reproductive justice activists, two of whom currently serve as the Project Co-Coordinators. The Project is a volunteer led and run organization that trains and manages its own doula base. We currently have 3 programs that serve the greater NYC area:1. To provide doula care to people facing abortion, miscarriage, and stillbirth (in partnership with Bellevue Hospital). You do not have to be a birth doula to serve as an abortion doula. We train our own volunteers on this component of care.
2. To provide doula care to people choosing adoption (in partnership with Spence Chapin Adoption Agency). Please be a trained birth doula to apply. We do not require a lot of experience, only a formal training with an established doula certifying program.
3. To provide doula care on a case by case basis to lower-income individuals who are not affiliated with either of our partner organizations. Please be a trained birth doula to apply. We do not require a lot of experience, only a formal training with an established doula certifying program.We are recruiting doulas for all components of our mission, though priority is given to those who are interested in being both Birth and Abortion Doulas. While you are not required to serve as a doula for all components, you are expected to support the mission and values of the entire project and the work each individual doula engages in. We encourage you to apply for all components of our work!
It's an AMAZING project and if you are in NYC you should definitely check it out and consider getting involved. More information here on their website.
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Great Post! I recently started nursing school and have a friend in my program who became a doula through an online program that was only about 8 months long. She was able to assist with several births before our nursing program started and she absolutely loved it.
i just finished a doula training course and was surprised when my assumptions about who would be involved were proven of base. I sometimes forget that i have really managed to insulate myself with people who have much the same beliefs i do about women's rights, the construction of gender and all that rigamarole. I am totally pro-choice and my interest in being a doula fell into perfect alignment with that in my mind. The friend who requested I be her labor support and initiated the whole thing is also a feminist of my ilk and i just came at it from that angle. To see some (very nice) squares and religious conservatives in the room made me feel so much more radical than i typically do day to day, and it made me sort of uncomfortable to think that they might not hold my same values as far as reproductive freedom and justice. I appreciated all the women in the class wanting to help other women, and they genuinely did, but it sort of bent my mind that helping women have freedom to choose their own birth experiences wouldn't translate into helping women choose whether or not to be pregnant in the first place! The course was so focused on making educated choices about birth and it really amazed me to have everyone so focused on empowering women, but i had to fight off the squckies every time the teachers refferred to the fetuses as "babies"! Weird crossing of two worlds that I hadn't expected.
Thank you for posting this! I'm the person who wrote you, and I appreciate you sharing your experiences so much. Since writing you I've learned a lot about the doula training process in my state, and that there are only two doulas (!) practicing in my city. I need to do some more serious thinking about whether I can commit to being a doula, but it feels like a better idea every day.
I recently started working in a midwifery clinic as an office administrator. While I'm not actively working with the clients, I see their files and hear their stories everyday. Through this experience it's become very clear to me that women's reproductive health is an all-encompassing spectrum, one where women must be entitled to make choices for themselves and their bodies, and families.
I'm lucky enough to live in a Canadian province where both midwifery and abortions are legal - and paid for by our Health Care plans. This allows the midwives at my clinic to do outreach work to women with complex social lives - ones who are street involved, substance using, or have mental health issues, in addition to the rest of their case load. Because they're able to dedicate more time to these clients, they have the ability to create a deeper, healthier connection with many of the clients that a regular OB.
Through my experience working with these cases, as well as discussions with the Midwives, I've become increasingly clear of my pro-choice stance. One of the more recent conversations I've had with a client was with a young single mother who gave birth just 6 months ago. There was an absolute desperation in her voice when she thought of having another child. Another client, living with the effects of fetal alcohol exposure herself, decided to terminate after understanding the full affects of her own substance abuse during pregnancy.
I see now the complex situations which can lead a woman to terminate her pregnancy. These situations cannot be simplified or generalized in anyway. And it is only for a woman to make her own decisions.
Many people don't understand the connection between doula care and abortion services, but it's all about maintaining choices in women's reproductive health care. I am both a doula and an abortion counselor, and I see no conflict of interest in my work!
I blogged about this just last night:
http://a-mom-is-born.blogspot.com
I am both a doula and an abortion counselor, and find that many people don't understand how I can be both. But I see no conflict of interests - it is about maintaining the quality of women's care by ensuring choices.
I just blogged about this today:
http://a-mom-is-born.blogspot.com
I am both a doula and an abortion counselor, and find that many people don't understand how I can be both. But I see no conflict of interests - it is about maintaining the quality of women's care by ensuring choices.
I just blogged about this today:
http://a-mom-is-born.blogspot.com
(computer wigged...sorry for the repeat posts)