11/17/2020
There is no separation between birth and justice. Every step towards justice, towards liberation, begins with the ways our bodies give life. Birth work is preparing for labor, having conversations about postpartum expectations, and finding the best positions for managing contractions. But it is so much more. When you serve, and you do serve, people on such an intimate level, with a level of care that touches the human spirit above all else, you are fundamentally responsible for holding the dignity of human life and the trauma of generational pain in your hands. When we assume our job as birth workers is to only deal with helping someone get through labor, we are not doing enough. Birthing people, specifically birthing people of color, are dying at an extreme rate, and lay support persons ie doulas who are not aware of the systemic trauma and racism in the medical industrial complex, as well as the ways that other groups have been marginalized by our heteronormative and white supremacist culture are contributing to that systemic harm. Birth is the conception of life. It is the moment where revolution occurs in its purest form, and it is our job to protect that. Even when it does not feel good.
