I cannot separate myself from the reasons I do my work.  My passion became my profession 21 years ago when I took my DONA International Birth Doula Training.  And I cannot separate myself from the growth I am committed to as a human being while I am here. With honesty about what it is like to care about women and their families – including my own family, I feel torn among the vast majority of my colleagues who came to this work because we CARE.

It is not simple. It is messy and confusing. So as I watched the CNN feature, This Is Birth with Lisa Ling, these are the things that stuck out to me:

“Herein lies the absolute failure of modern midwifery….white midwifery has been thriving…” (and access to midwifery for the many who experience terrible disparity in health care options and horrible health outcomes continues to be significantly limited throughout the country).

So I cannot help but look at this through the lens of the doula profession and worry about who we are leaving on the sidelines. Who will not be able to ever afford the services – which research shows improves outcomes – unless/until we have insurance reimbursement.

Or… we allow ourselves to sit in the messy middle and be creative and let doulas have autonomy over their businesses in exactly the same way women should have autonomy over their bodies.
And we do it without judging each other.  Period.

Again, it is not simple. It is messy and confusing. And, unfortunately, it has become polarizing.  And like this year’s Presidential Election…polarized camps make for great banter and ratings and interestingly, “free” exposure and advertising while leaving the families without resources – who most need the support and care – to fall through the cracks.