Shout Your Birth

19/04/2023

This will hopefully be my last post on this topic because I am hoping that the judge rules in favor of returning Mila home on their hearing date on April 20.

I think any midwife should be deeply outraged about this issue. Please read this article in The 19th (link in my Stories/Highlights).

Reporter Candace Norwood describes the nuance of the pier structures at play here: “two systemic realities in the United States: the policing of Black families by child welfare systems and the disregard of midwifery expertise by many doctors.”

Please read, share and take action today to bring Mila home.

11/04/2023

🚨Help save Mila Jackson and bring her home TODAY 🆘

➡️Follow/donate to
➡️Hold accountable

—————————
📞 Call Dallas CPS 800-720-7777
📞 Baylor Scott & White 866-218-6919 (Dr Bhatt’s employer)
________________
Call Legislators:

📞 Mayor Rachel Proctor: 972-230-9646
📞 Rep. Carl Sherman: 512-463-0953
📞 Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett: 214-922-8885
📞 Attorney General Ken Paxton: 800-252-8011

This is an outrage and this family deserves justice and to have their daughter safe at home with them. Please help spread the word.

05/04/2023

Ugandan healers and midwives successfully performed C-sections before it was common in Europe in which both he mother and baby both survived the procedure.

https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/health-verify/african-healers-midwives-performed-cesarean-c-section-birth-in-uganda-robert-felkin/536-7f7e5d0d-4dd2-4d24-821f-935858174e15

In 1879, British explorer R.W. Felkin witnessed Ugandan healers and midwives performing a cesarean section. The mother and baby both survived the procedure.

30/03/2023

We honor transgender people who birth for International Transgender Day of Visibility.

We use gender neutral “birthing people” when referring to the whole group of humans who give birth. This term does not strip away power from women or the feminine divine, but makes space to include all gender non-conforming and transgender human beings.

It’s our mission to demystify birth for hope and healing and to combat against racism, misogyny, discrimination and bigotry in all aspects of reproductive care.

🌈 Do you have a birth story to share? Record your birth story voicemail through the link in our bio; we would be honored to hear from you.

📸: shared by by

29/03/2023

This is 9 years old and nothing has changed, except our maternal mortality rate has INCREASED to 32.9 out of 100k births (compared to 17 of 100k at the time this film was produced)

How did the C-section become America’s most common major surgery? Chileshe Nkonde-Price, a cardiologist at the University of Pennsylvania, wants to avoid an unnecessary Cesarean.

26/03/2023

💬👇Are you a doula or do you offer resources for doula services? Please comment below so we can help amplify your work!

During we honor and celebrate the incredible work of doulas.

📣Did you hire a doula? We’d love to hear about your experience!

21/03/2023

The power of as told by and photo by . So beautiful we just had to share.

How did you transform and what did you learn about yourself and your relationship to pain after giving birth? We believe that telling our raw birth stories is an act of resistance and strength and we’d love to hear yours!

🎤Record your raw, unfiltered, optimally anonymous birth story with us in the link in our bio (be it beautiful or traumatic, we want to hear it!).

                       

17/03/2023

I was terrified of the pain of childbirth 👀 when I was pregnant with my second child. I wanted to experience a birth free of medical interventions and my plan was to birth at home, but I felt scared. Even though I’d already given birth unmedicated once before, midway through my third trimester I started obsessing over the fear of the pain. I was older than my first birth after all, and reading (too much, perhaps?) about all the complications that could arise. Even though I was taking all the right steps for a safe birth, I was so scared of my ability to endure the pain of a medication-free birth a second time.

Then a friend lent me her copy of Ina May Gaskin’s Spiritual Midwifery. This book was a great energetic reset for me, reminding me of the power of my body— it’s power, innate wisdom and strength. What touched me most about this book was the simple retelling of various birth stories; it’s incredibly powerful to read and hear real, raw birth stories as a reminder of the waves and stages of labor. Something about those stories helped me resonate and connect with the resilience of birthing people.

And in the end I had a beautiful birth and really ✨did have the strength✨ to ride the waves of labor after all. I whispered “Open, open, open. Down, down, down” to myself as a mantra to focus on.

Did you have a mantra or another method for managing pain in labor? I’d love to know in the comments below!

                       

15/03/2023

Join the campaign to establish March 14 at Black Midwives Day! Sign the Black Midwives Day petition at the link in bio at or . We honor and thank Black midwives for their past, present and future contributions to in the U.S. and beyond.

08/03/2023

Power unmatched ✨

06/03/2023

Trigger warning: stillbirth

Black women are 2x more likely to experience stillbirth in the U.S. according to a new report by .

Follow and support organizations like who are leading the charge to improve maternal health.

Do you have a birth story to share? We’d love to hear from you; tap the link in our bio to record your anonymous birth story voicemail.

Source: “She Says Doctors Ignored Her Concerns About Her Pregnancy. For Many Black Women, It’s a Familiar Story."
https://www.propublica.org/article/stillbirths-pregnancy-mothers-parents-racial-disparities

                       

26/01/2023

I started a newsletter!

The topic of birth is the sad sister-companion to abortion in that it is wrought with problems stemming from systemic racism, bigotry, misogyny, and the degradation of women when it comes to their health choices.

At the heart of the abortion debate and our maternal mortality problem is the utter disrespect of women, especially Black and Indigenous women. In a country so devoted to “supporting life” we certainly haven’t prioritized our maternal mortality and infant birth problems. But I hope this newsletter helps to move the needle.

📧 Subscribe link in bio

14/04/2022

Black women are nearly three times more likely to die after childbirth than white women. Serena Williams was almost one of them. Here, in her own words, she tells her story.

11/01/2022

UNTIE THE BONDS OF TRAUMA & Free movie viewing

Most people are just guessing at how to be present with trauma and how to respond and relate to someone in a way that is helpful. You have immense power to untie the bonds of trauma. Let us show you how!

You won’t have to guess anymore. For Professionals and Individuals (Moms, Dads, Family Members).

First of a series.

This day’s event includes a paid all day recorded lecture series and
a free movie viewing on January 15, 2022.

9:00 am FREE online viewing of "Birth in Pieces" movie which is part of the entire day's event.

Here is the link to sign up! https://bit.ly/3EOlPLm

Then
• 10:00 am Discussion of the film with Kathleen Kendall-Tackett and Kate White
• 11:00 am Kathleen Kendall-Tacket: Birth Trauma: Causes and Consequences of Birth-Related PTSD
• 12:30 pm Kate White: "I Had A Baby:" A Three-Fold Path to Heal Birth Trauma
• 2:30 pm Kimberly Ann Johnson: Call of the Wild: Healing Birth through a Real World Understanding of the Nervous System
• 3:45 pm Molly Caro May: The Reparative Possibility in a Birth Story

Register here:
https://prenatal-and-perinatal-healing-online-learning.teachable.com/p/birth-in-pieces

05/05/2021

Support if you can 🖤🖤🖤

Every donation will support the Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery, in honor of International Day of the Midwife.

14/04/2021

💙💙💙

17/02/2021

She almost died after giving birth because, as is the case for many Black women, white doctors and nurses downplayed and dismissed her excruciating postpartum pain.

Her personal experience is part of why she's running to the nation's first Black woman governor