ROOTS OF LABOR BIRTH COLLECTIVE - Blog

Uptima academy currently enrolling!

7/20/2023

As graduates of Uptima Academy, we are so delighted to recommend them and share their offerings with community. Info session on 7/26.

Launch Academy: 8-month entrepreneurship certificate program that supports creative and social entrepreneurs at the idea stage in starting your business and laying the foundation for your business to thrive.
Learn more: Launch Academy.

Small Business Academy. A 16-month entrepreneurship certificate program to support small businesses and cooperatives in creating plans, developing operational capacities, implementing infrastructure, accessing capital, and developing leadership capabilities to build resilient businesses.
Learn more: Small Business Academy.

Accepting applications from entrepreneurs in the Boston, Chicago, and Oakland / East Bay Metro Areas.

Applications for both program tracks due Friday, July 28th.

Healing across the Diaspora

6/16/2023

Do you know or are you a Black family who is currently pregnant, or entering postpartum? Are you a birthworker or public health professional who is interested in learning how to bridge the gap between African and African American postpartum healing traditions to support a healthy postpartum journey rooted in rest and rejuvenation?

Join us for this three day event - two virtual webinars and an in-person culmination event to uplift building community across the African Diaspora to support our community members and their families to have an optimal experience during their postpartum journey. These events are family friendly and everyone in the community is encouraged to attend!

Join us June 22nd through 24th for Three Days of Intentional Conversation and Skillshares on Supporting Black Families During Postpartum.

Day 1 (Virtual):
Setting Healthy Boundaries for Optimal Postpartum Rest and Rejuvenation

Date: June 22nd, 2023
Time: 6 PM to 7:30 PM

A webinar panel facilitated by Ajira Darch, of Roots of Labor Birth Collective with guests Victorious Wanjiro, Califa Consulting and Abby Ejigu, Abyssinia Birth Services - birthworkers from Africa and the African diaspora who will discuss how to set healthy boundaries to support postpartum and how families can activate their village to support them during those critical days and weeks after the baby comes home.

Register for Day 1

Day 2 (Virtual):
Supporting Postpartum Mental Health for Optimal Breastfeeding Success

June 23rd, 2023
Time: 12 PM to 1:30 PM

This session will be facilitated by Brandi Gates-Burgess IBCLC Breast Friends Lactation and Support Services and Lashay Crayton, LCSW. This webinar will focus on dispelling the myths and discussing the complex history of African American Breastfeeding/Chestfeeding and how important mental health is to a successful breastfeeding/chestfeeding journey.

Register for Day 2

Day 3 (In-Person):
Honoring the Black Body as Sacred Through Incorporating African Indigenous Practices

Date: June 24th, 2023
Time: 12 PM to 4 PM
Location: Oakstop Gaines Gallery, 1740 Telegraph Ave. Oakland, CA, 94612

Our final Session will be in person and facilitated by TaNefer Camara, IBCLC TLC Consulting and Maternal Healing, Asatu Hall MPH, Midwife, Luna Nueva Wellness Collective Linda Jones, Co-Founder Black Women Birthing Justice, and Brandi Gates-Burgess, IBCLC Breast Friends Lactation and Support Services. We will share traditional African indigenous postpartum practices with African American postpartum practices for a holistic approach to health and wellness for Black women and birthing people during postpartum. This session will discuss traditional foods and ancestral practices of honoring the postpartum body through the practices of waist beading, experiencing a “closing the bones” ceremony, and consuming nutritional meals rooted in foods known to support recovery for postpartum moms and birthing people. We will participate in intentional conversations around honoring the need for rest and rejuvenation.

Register for Day 3

OPEN FORUM - DOULA CIRCLE FOLLOW UP!

5/4/2023

This week's doula circle started out with an awesome discussion about the bills being highlighted in Reproductive Freedom Week - you can check out a summary a couple posts back here on the blog.

They are:

AB 583 (WICKS)   Birthing Justice for California Families Pilot Project

AB 576 (Weber)   Medication Abortion Equity Act

SB 541 (Menjivar)   Youth Health Equity + Safety Act

Then we talked about the differences in perinatal outcomes here and in other countries, as well as in the medical industrial complex vs. midwifery care. The differences are stark.

For example, Mother Health International’s Ugandan maternity clinic website states that:

‘In thirteen years of service, MHI has scaled in Atiak sub-county, providing full-spectrum reproductive healthcare to 90% of the women in the region and turning perinatal mortality rates upside down.

While the neonatal mortality rate is 54/1000 births in Northern Uganda, it has consistently been 11/1000 at the MHI birth center in Atiak.

In close to 20,000 deliveries MHI has never lost a mother.’

This seems significant because most would assume that given that this is a clinic in a rural setting in a place withouth much infrastructure or access to the latest technological toulls, the opposite would be true. And yet, in a model where an international organisation funds and supports the work of local midwives, they’ve been able to support so many, so well.

We also talked about Mila Jackson (who has thankfully been reunited with her family), the impact of separation on a newborn child and parent, birthing rights, sexuality and sensuality, prioritizing rest as caregivers, postpartum recipes in the diaspora and indigenous community, refugee needs, needs of displaced communities, needs of folks who don’t speak a language or can’t read, benefits of picture based teaching.. As always, it was full and we each came away with so much.

My thanks to everyone who came through tonight.

MEDI-CAL AS A DOULA BENEFIT - DOULA CIRCLE FOLLOW UP!

4/19/2023

We had a very chill doula circle last night and most who came shared that they have not applied to be a provider or thought they might not meet requirements to be a provider. So we talked about some of the information that folks need clarified in order to gauge whether this is something they want to do and there’s definitely a fair bit to sort through.

There was some confusion around requirements and eligibility for this benefit and folks shared stories they’ve heard from their clients about it as well. There’s definitely a need for more clear information and space needed for us to support each other through the process.

You can learn more about the benefit and the process of becoming a doula provider on the Doula Services as a Medi-Cal Benefit section of the DHCS website.

RLBC is also planning to offer some regular group coaching sessions for community members who would like some group and 1-on-1 support as they move through the application process. We are collaborating with other community organizations in the Bay Area and California to make sure we’re not replicating what others are doing but we are uplifting each others’ efforts and sharing information about what we’re learning and what’s working.

If you are interested in hearing about these sessions once they begin, please sign up here.

REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM WEEK BILLS!

4/14/2023

There is always policy and action work to be done to support and uplift reproductive justice. Our rights must be protected, especially now when there seems to be a very concerted effort to restrict people’s rights and we know and see that BIQTPOC are most disproportionately impacted by injustice and oppression.

I promised to come back and share the bills we were uplifting during Reproductive Freedom Week with CCRF, so here we are:

Reproductive Freedom Week bills:
● AB 576 (Weber) The Medication Abortion Equity Act
● AB 583 (Wicks) The Birthing Justice for California Families Pilot Project
● SB 541 (Menjivar) The Youth Health Equity + Safety Act

AB 576 (WEBER) MEDICATION ABORTION EQUITY ACT

Sponsors:
California Future of Abortion Council
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California
Essential Access Health
NARAL Pro-Choice California
National Health Law Program

Purpose:
AB 576, the Medication Abortion Equity Act, aligns medication abortion policies with clinical
guidelines and evidence-based research. Specifically, this bill requires the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to update its Medi-Cal policies to support full reimbursement for the provision of medication abortion and ensure that patients that rely on Medi-Cal can access medication abortion in line with up-to-date clinical guidelines and peer-reviewed scientific evidence.

Please direct inquiries about AB 576 to:
Sylvia Castillo [email protected]
Molly Robson [email protected]

AB 583 (WICKS) BIRTHING JUSTICE FOR CALIFORNIA FAMILIES PILOT PROJECT

Sponsors:
Black Women for Wellness Action Project
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California

Purpose:
AB583l will establish the Birthing Justice for California Families Pilot Project, a grant pilot that seeks to advance birth equity by expanding access to full-spectrum doula care to include:

1.) women and birthing people whose communities suffer from disproportionately high rates of negative birth outcomes, but who are not eligible for Medi-cal coverage; and
2.) incarcerated women and birthing people.

Please direct inquiries about AB 583 to:
Onyemma C. Obiekea [email protected]

SB 541 (MENJIVAR) YOUTH HEALTH EQUITY + SAFETY ACT

Sponsors:
Black Women for Wellness Action Project
Essential Access Health
GenUP
URGE: United for Reproductive & Gender Equity

Purpose:
Authored by State Senator Caroline Menjivar, the Youth Health Equity + Safety Act seeks to address the sexually transmitted infection (STI) epidemic among California youth and improve equitable public health outcomes statewide by expanding teen access to condoms and the HPV vaccine.

Please direct inquiries about SB 541 to:
Sylvia Castillo [email protected]
Kathy Mossburg [email protected]

OPEN FORUM - DOULA CIRCLE FOLLOW UP!

4/5/2023

Last night was the first Tuesday of April so we had an open forum, and as always, the conversation and discussion was rich and varied.

Here are some of the things we discussed:

Lots of sniffling and general tiredness so we started out with folks shared some home remedies for supporting our immunity and fighting off illness. Recipes for home remedies like fire cider, citrus tea and ginger tea were shared. What’s your go to?
The challenges of bodyfeeding and how vital family/community are in ensuring lactating folks meet their goals
Stories of some of the ways we’ve seen family & friends sabotage their loved ones efforts to breastfeed
How bottle feeding and breastfeeding vary significantly and some of the differences folks need to consider when trying to gauge if the baby has had enough
Our last skillshare Narcan Training for Birthworkers… the replay is up!
Reproductive Freedom Week with California Coalition for Reproductive Freedom which is coming up next month! I’ll share more on those bills in the next blog post!
SB 21-193 which makes changes to statute concerning care for pregnant persons, addresses medical malpractice insurance coverage, policies for health facilities that provide labor and delivery services, and the treatment of pregnant persons in correctional facilities.
Trends with medicalized spaces presenting as more holistic and safe, and how we can support clients to use a discerning eye when considering where to birth.
The Irth app - they drop the B for bias. Described as being like Yelp, but for reproductive care providers
How to support clients who choose to go against their medical provider’s recommendations, the AMA form and the possible repercussions based on biases against certain identities
Doula Services as a Medi-Cal benefit and how to register as a provider. Folks are looking for HIPPA and 1st Aid training recommendations. Share yours below and look out for a future post with some options!

Narcan skillshare - Replay now available

3/28/2023

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this month’s skillshare:

Narcan Training for Birthworkers
with Nickie Tilsner @Cornerstone.Birthwork

The live training was a pay what you like training where folks learned how to identify the signs of an opioid overdose and how to administer naloxone. Nickie also covered the principles of harm reduction, how we can better support our clients and community by eliminating the stigma of substance use and why this is for everyone! Our Q&A time was robust and I’m grateful we had a chance to get into some specific scenarios.

The replay of this training is now available for purchase, so if you’d like to learn more about harm reduction, how we can show up for community members who are also substance users and how this will enable you to better support your clients, you can sign up for it here and access it instantly. Your purchase funds our ability to continue offering our skillshare and other programs - so thank you for your support!

RLBC Skillshares are a monthly offering from collective and community members alike, centering BIQTPOC and uplifting all the many ways that we learn, explore and share our wisdom, skills and experience. To learn more, visit rootsoflaborbc.com/skillshares

Cultivating a practice of Rest - Doula Circle follow up

3/23/2023

This week’s Doula Circle topic was ‘Cultivating a practice of rest’. If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, check out our last Doula Circle follow up post to learn more about the new structure we’re using in this space.

A summary of what we discussed last Tuesday:

What does your rest practice look like currently?

When you consider these forms of rest, what feels easy and accessible to you? Which feel more challenging to access?

Physical Rest
Mental Rest
Spiritual Rest
Emotional Rest
Sensory Rest
Social Rest
Creative Rest

When you’re overwhelmed, what’s the first/primary form of rest that you focus on or ground in?

What are some ways that you call on folks in your life to support your rest practice?

How could you be better supported in your rest practice?

Some other topics that were discussed:

Placenta encapsulation

If you have a recommendation for a training that you loved, please share below.

Supporting folks that are incarcerated

If you’d like to support RLBC as we begin reinstating services at Santa Rita Jail, please consider becoming a patron. We’ll be sharing a gofundme soon!

There’s no self-care without community care

Ajira wrote this post for her Missives from the Birthlines newsletter. Check it out with a free trial.

Resources:
The Nap Ministry 1-833-LUV-NAPS (588-6277)
Call this number to have some love and restful encouragement poured into you from the Nap Bishop herself, Tricia Hersey. Visit the website to explore other resources like her book, Rest is Resistance and more.

Ramadan Mubarak and Happy World Doula Week!

3/22/2023

How fortuitous to have both Ramadan and World Doula Week beginning right at Spring Equinox! I know it’s not accidental, and it makes my heart happy. Celebrating you all as we move through these markers of intention, celebration and devotion.

Thank you for all the ways you show up in the world!

World Doula Week is from March 22 - 28.

We intentionally seek to uplift and center the work of BIQTPOC birthworkers and doulas in particular, because we are too often dismissed, overlooked and invisibilized.

We know that our work is critical and offering support to folks whose lived experiences we reflect has an indelible impact on their experiences as well as their outcomes. We believe that everyone deserves a doula and we all deserve to thrive.

You can learn more about:

the collective here
how you can get involved here
supporting our doulas by contributing to the collective here
World Doula Week here.

Happy spring equinox!

3/20/2023

Happy Spring Equinox to you! The spring equinox is when day and night are as close to equal as they typically get. Many view this as a time of rebirth and renewal, and a good time to check in with yourself about balance, self-care and where you may need to make some adjustments.

Many births happen at this time, fresh out of winter.. It’s considered a time of awakening and new growth and it’s a beautiful time to set new intentions for the upcoming season. And a good time, as always, to root deeper into your rest practice. However you move in this time, I hope you’re centering your needs and offering yourself care.

The Collective

We are Roots of Labor - a collective of BIQTPOC birthworkers, healers and support care advocates who believe everyone deserves to have the support they want & need as they move through transitions & transformations.

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