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.
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.
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