Author: YBP

Learning about birth *should* be accessible, inclusive, uplifting, and dare we say it, fun! Yet so often, people don’t see themselves represented in birth imagery, and the available information doesn’t speak to their concerns & desires for birth.

Cheyenne Varner of The Educated Birth joins us this week to talk about fostering inclusion & autonomy in childbirth education materials.

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Cheyenne Varner is a doula, designer, photographer, and writer in Richmond, Virginia.

Born in California, raised in New Jersey, and transplanted to coastal Virginia in the midst of high school, Cheyenne didn’t hit the Richmond scene until 2009, to attend the University of Richmond. There, she created the interdisciplinary major Educational Activism in the Arts — a mix of courses in Sociology, Rhetoric and Communications, Education, and Theater — and minored in Creative Writing.

Today, Cheyenne is a freelancer and a certified professional birth doula, trained by toLabor, Ancient Song, and Doula Trainings International (DTI) and certified by DTI. She runs The Educated Birth, an online shop of birth educational materials, including Everyday Birth Magazine. Her passion for all things creative leads her to pursue projects of the design, photography, and writing variety.

Whether solo, or collaboratively, Cheyenne seeks to pursue all of her work with excellence, authenticity, and grace. 

In this episode, Cheyenne shares about the homogenous birth images & resources that didn’t reflect her family & her community and led to her creation of The Educated Birth materials.
~Cheyenne dives into the harm to both birthing people and birthworkers when we are faced with limited images & a limited mindset around the possibilities of birth.
~She explains why representation of a variety of races, identities, family structures, and birth outcomes is crucial to changing the birth narrative, and how centering Black & Brown birthing bodies in birth education fits into the larger conversation of shifting perinatal care disparities.
~We discuss the negative impact of one-sided birth education materials that present only one version of “ideal” birth.
~We also explore how storytelling, like in Cheyenne’s Everyday Birth Magazine, can change the future of birth & how we relate to others with our birth stories.

We love what Cheyenne has created through The Educated Birth. We love it so much that we’d love you to have your own copy of some of her materials! We are giving away two different infographic bundles this week, each to a different lucky winner! You can find the details and enter to win over in our facebook group.

For more information about The JJ Way, created by Jennie Josephs, LM, CPM, and how it is effective at reducing perinatal health disparities, check out these resources: Commonsense Childbirth & Bastyr University Symposium.

To dig deeper into the effect of representation in birth media on pregnant people’s experiences you can read BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth.

Check out this episode’s full transcript or tune in wherever you enjoy podcasts.

We’d love to hear from you; join our community group to discuss!

Music from https://filmmusic.io
“Gonna Start” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

All parents deserve compassionate, quality support as they prepare for their journey through pregnancy, birth, & postpartum. Due to a multitude of factors, many young parents have a more challenging time accessing care, and being treated with respect when they do. In this episode we want to challenge those knee-jerk reactions and showcase how to provide meaningful support for teen parents.

SeQuoia Kemp of Doula 4 A Queen joins us this week to share about her role as a birthworker and how she supports all parts of the journey and cultivates joy in the process as she provides doula care for young parents.

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SeQuoia Kemp is a Black feminist community-based birthworker from Syracuse, NY, where she serves as a community organizer, health justice advocate, and public health educator. SeQuoia Kemp is the Founder of Doula 4 a Queen (D4Q), and Co-Founder of Sankofa Reproductive Health and Healing Center. She currently holds a Bachelors of Arts in Public Health (2016) and Bachelors of Science in Nursing (2020) from the University of Rochester. SeQuoia aspires to become a Nurse-Midwife with the hope to reduce racial disparities in maternal and infant health through a community-based model of care.

Kemp founded D4Q to provide holistic community-based doula services to families through reproductive justice and birth justice praxis to help improve maternal and child health in the Syracuse community. Her work is rooted in ancestral, liberatory, and evidence-based practices to promote mental, physical, and spiritual alignment for optimal birth outcomes. You can connect with SeQuoia on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at @Doula4aQueen. If you would like to further support SeQuoia’s work, you can find more information in her linktree.

SeQuoia shares with us in this episode how her passion for supporting birth started when she herself was a teenager and how those formative experiences and her Black feminist roots impact the doula care she provides now.

~SeQuoia discusses how her public health background helps her to look broadly at all the systemic & structural factors that are impacting the pregnant person and may stop them from flourishing as parents

~She explains how she is able to help birthing parents & their families address their own internalized bias around younger pregnancies.

~SeQuoia reflects on how teen parents can be encouraged to find joy as they approach parenthood, especially for Black women who often have many social limitations on their joy.

~We discuss educational tools and techniques that can help us to connect with younger clientele in engaging, approachable ways.

~She will also share the top 3 things we can do as birth professionals to relate to and support our younger clients during labor and birth.

For the inclusive, accessible graphics & childbirth education materials SeQuoia mentions she likes to share with clients, check out The Educated Birth.
If you’re looking to freshen up your understanding of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and how that may impact connecting & sharing information with younger clientele, you can get a quick overview here.

During this Black Maternal Health Week (BMHW), we honor the Black & Brown women who are leading the fight against the racism-driven disparities in birthcare. We so appreciate the way birthworkers like SeQuoia advocate with their communities & increase greater access to representative birthcare. We encourage you to find more resources about BMHW and how you can support & partner in this activism over at Black Mamas Matter Alliance. If you would like to make a financial impact this week you can contribute to SeQuoia’s birth justice fund.

Check out this episode’s full transcript or tune in wherever you enjoy podcasts.

We’d love to hear from you; join our community group to discuss!

Music from https://filmmusic.io
“Gonna Start” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

This week we are breaking down the terminology stigma around “AMA” or advanced maternal age, exploring the nuances of risk management in pregnancies over the age of 35, & highlighting the benefits that should be discussed in any conversation around age & family planning.

Ray Rachlin of Refuge Midwifery shares how their personal practice centers patient autonomy through fertility support, pregnancy monitoring, & birth care for this population, how they discuss relative risk surrounding age with their otherwise low-risk clientele, and how we can change the narrative around pregnancies over the age of 35.

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Our society has a lot of opinions on who, & when, & how babies should come into this world. Deeply ingrained is this belief that people pursuing pregnancy over the age of 35 will struggle to become pregnant, have high-risk pregnancies, and experience complications as a result of their age. However…that is, of course, not true for many folks over the age of 35, and we could use to be more cognizant of this in our care planning with these clients.

In this episode we’ve framed the conversation around how can we hold awareness of this one variable, age, without losing sight of all the other characteristics & personal desires of the birthing person.

For an excellent in-depth breakdown of the research evidence surrounding pregnancies over the age of 35, check out the Evidence Based Birth article by Dr Rebecca Dekker, Dr. Mimi Niles, & Dr Alicia Breakey. You can see more about the ARRIVE trial and read up on its effects on practice by Evidence Based Birth and the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists.

Benefits of pregnancies over age 35 are explored in several studies and you can read more about it by Myrskyla, Sun, & Extend Fertility.

Check out this episode’s full transcript or tune in wherever you enjoy podcasts.

We’d love to hear from you; join our community group to discuss!

Music from https://filmmusic.io
“Gonna Start” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

We need to talk about postpartum care. We collectively, as a society, spend so much time focused on pregnancy and birth, and the postpartum period gets completely lost in the shuffle. We’ve realized that’s happended too here on the podcast!

Ray Rachlin of Refuge Midwifery joined Pansay of Sacred Butterfly Births & Maggie to lay out some of the ways we are failing to provide adequate care to postpartum families, and some of the steps we can take to change that.

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The postpartum time frame spans anywhere from 6 weeks, to the full year after birth depending on what dictionary you check, and for those who’ve lived it, the “postpartum period” may never truly close. Despite this, many people feel inadequately supported through this transition from pregnant to parent. We see this in how postpartum is treated through the medical lens following a hospital birth, we see it in the way attention focuses so squarely on the new baby that the person who *just* gave birth is left in the dust, we see it in how so many of us have been conditioned to treat ourselves after birth as we “snap back.”

Join Ray, Pansay, & Maggie this week as we explore:

~how to prepare clients for the realities of postpartum during pregnancy

~navigating the shift between pregnant & parent to rediscover one’s self

~home-based & community-based models of postpartum support

~the missing links in creating comprehensive postpartum care for physical, mental, emotional, & spiritual health

Want to deepen your understanding of healthcare legislation on insurance reimbursement? You can read up on: The Momnibus Bill (several facets impact postpartum care), understand your state’s position on expanding medicaid coverage, and if you’d like to continue learning more about the power of legislation in affecting birth outcomes, check out Movement to Birth Liberation.

Here is more information comparing US postpartum care with other countries around the world. Better Postpartum is an educational & support program that unites individual birthing people with resources they need, and provides opportunities for the institutions who serve them to incorporate this care into their standard program.

Some recommended reading on the postpartum period and how to support it: The Fourth Trimester, Nurture, Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts, A Taste of Our Own Medicine, The First Forty Days

Check out this episode’s full transcript or tune in wherever you enjoy podcasts.

We’d love to hear from you; join our community group to discuss!

Music from https://filmmusic.io
“Gonna Start” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Happy World Doula Week!! We are celebrating this week by bringing on two incredible doulas to discuss how we can create more inclusive communities in birthwork that honor the varied needs of expectant families.

Jessie Ray Spivey of The Doudad joined Pansay & Maggie to explore some of the myriad reasons that masculine-identifying birthworkers continue to face issues with acceptance in the greater birth community.

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Jessie (he/him) shares this: I am a Queer Black Indigenous Cis male Full Spectrum Doula based in Oakland, California. My Mother has been a birth worker and birth advocate for over 15 years and largely influenced my decision to enter birth work. I created The Doudad as an effort to address the mortality rates of black and brown people during birth. The Doudad is also a space and platform that supports and encourages more masculine identified person(s) to be a part of the birthing process. I host a show called “Spilled Milk” on IGTV that is centered around birth and a mini-series called “The Hot Chocolate Chronicles” that encourages lactation awareness and support.

In this episode we stress the importance of welcoming birthworkers of all genders into our communities. We identify the double-standard that exists in a field where masculine obstetricians placed themselves at the top of a power hierarchy, but masculine-identified nurses, doulas, & other often have to explain their presence in birthwork.

We discussed concerns of clients with a history of sexual abuse around sharing an intimate experience such as birth with masculine folks, and the importance & necessity of ALL birthworkers incorporating trauma-informed care practices. There are great trainings on this offered through The Birth & Trauma Support Center, Eri Guajardo Johnson, The Birth Nurse, & Resilient Birth.

We address how awareness of the racism-driven disparities in perinatal morbidity and mortality is motivating more Black people to enter birthwork, & how that was a driving force in Jessie pursuing this work.

Jessie speaks to his work welcoming loved ones of all genders into support so that the expectant parent is supported by their whole village. He encourages us as birth professionals to increase our awareness of how prescribed “gender norms” have biased us about who & how birth should be supported.

You can learn more with Jessie over on IG by catching up on Season 1 and looking forward to Season 2 of “Spilled Milk,” which will premiere on April 7th 2021.

If you’re looking for some fantastic folks to follow in birthwork who are masculine of center, find these folks on social media: @queerbirthworker, @teddythe doula, @kaydenxofficial @loveoverfearwellness, @the_male_doula, @labordude

Check out this episode’s full transcript or tune in wherever you enjoy podcasts.

We’d love to hear from you; join our community group to discuss!

Music from https://filmmusic.io
“Gonna Start” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Welcome back to season 3 of the podcast!! We are eager to share another season with you, focused around topics where we need more nuanced conversations to grow our awareness so we can identify and breakdown biases and understand more fully the benefits!

In this first episode we are joined by Brittany Sharpe McCollum of Blossoming Bellies Birth to dive deep into bias around pelvis shape, pelvic biomechanics & dynamics, and the relationship between the pelvis & movement during birth.

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Brittany Sharpe McCollum, CCE(BWI), CD(DONA) is the owner of Blossoming Bellies Wholistic Birth Services based out of Philadelphia PA, providing childbirth education and doula services to expectant families and pelvic biomechanics trainings for clinical and non-clinical birth professionals. Her workshops are conversational and hands-on with a focus on developing skills to reduce intervention, increase labor efficiency, and empower the birthing person. Brittany’s pelvic biomechanics workshops combine well over a decade of experience in supporting and educating parents and training and mentoring birth workers with a multidisciplinary research-based approach to movement, drawing on resources from obstetrics, kinesiology, physiotherapy, and anthropology. Brittany is honored to be a sought after guest at international childbirth related conferences, including the Evidence Based Birth conference, the Midwifery Forward 2020 Conference, the ICEA 2020 Virtual Conference, and the ICPA Freedom for Family Wellness Summit, among others. Find her on FB and IG.

Brittany discusses the history of pelvic shape classification, and dispels some myths about the role of pelvic shape in labor progress, as well as addressing the racist ways this information has been used.

We identify some common times where birth pros get hung up on understanding pelvic biomechanics, and how we can expand our understanding of creating space through the pelvis during birth.

We talk about expectations during labor & birth and preparing for those with awareness of possibilities, without creating self-fulfilling prophecies of challenging outcomes.

We close out with Brittany sharing her “5-4-3” guidelines for movement during labor, which is a simple framework to be used by birthing parents & support people and birth workers for being intentional about movement!

Brittany also wanted to recommend this list of books for readers wanting to deepen their understanding of the perpetuation of racism in obstetrics & midwifery:
Medical Apartheid by Harriet A. Washington
From Midwives to Medicine by Deborah Kuhn McGregor
Motherwit by Onnie Lee Logan
Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi

If you’d like to learn more from Brittany, don’t miss her upcoming Creating Space workshop, and join our giveaway for it happening over in our community group.

Check out this episode’s full transcript or tune in wherever you enjoy podcasts.

We’d love to hear from you; join our community group to discuss!

Music from https://filmmusic.io
“Gonna Start” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

What does it mean to have truly collaborative birth care? Why is it so much harder than everyone “just getting along?”

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In our last episode of season 2 we are joined by Dr Nathan Riley, MD of the Obgyno Wino Podcast to discuss collaborative birth care.

We discuss how medicine & obstetrics has historically excluded midwives and other community caregivers, and the intentional harm that has caused, particularly in communities of color.  
We identify the challenges in changing the mindset about what responsibilities physicians have for birth, and the conversations that need to be happening between hospital-based birth professionals and their patients and the community at large.
We also explore some of the present-day barriers to collaborative care and our vision for working through them!

We are excited to share a new resource with you to help you check and see that you are creating a collaborative community around you, and that you know who to refer to when situations present with needs outside of your expertise or scope of practice. Please fill out the form below to have this free download sent to you!

Nathan referenced the healthcare system issue with growing administration and recommended this article from Robert Kocher to read more about it.

You can keep up with Nathan and his work on his website, where he’ll be sharing more information about his growing holistic gynecology practice in 2021!

Check out ybp.buzzsprout.com to find wherever you like to listen to podcasts or read the full transcript here.

Join our community on facebook to talk more about creating collaborative, inclusive, equitable birth care.

Music from https://filmmusic.io
“Gonna Start” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

How does “professionalism” stop us from showing up as activists and advocates for change in birth care?

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Katy details how professionalism is a tool of white supremacy culture, the privilege inherent in operating as an “apolitical” birth pro, and 3 steps you can take now to change your practice and step into activism.

We welcome you into this work of changing birth care for the better as you step into your power as an activist.

You can follow more of Katy’s work on her website, instagram, and twitter. You can also check out the form to get plugged in to Katy’s Movement to Birth Liberation.

You can watch Katy’s full testimony to the NY State Senate here.

Katy mentioned several resources on the podcast we would like to share with you all:

Fannie LeFlore’s The Sociopathic Roots of Racism: Why History Repeats Itself

Dr Joia Crear-Perry’s Race Isn’t a Risk Factor in Maternal Health. Racism Is.

Jo Ann Ashley’s Hospitals, Paternalism, and the Role of the Nurse

Efe Osaren’s 25 Books Every Birthworker Should Read

Abraham Lateiner’s Grieving the White Void

Check out ybp.buzzsprout.com to find wherever you like to listen to podcasts or read the full transcript here.

Join our community on facebook to talk more about creating collaborative, inclusive, equitable birth care.

Music from https://filmmusic.io
“Gonna Start” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

In this week’s podcast we are discussing Cultural Humility in birth care.  We talk about the differences we’ve seen in the terms cultural competence and cultural humility, the impact of “professionalism” on how we engage with those in our care about their cultural preferences and needs, and the growth and hope possible within our system.

Our panel for this episode:

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For more information and reading on this subject: this article by Jennifer McGee Avila expounds on cultural humility as a method of transforming healthcare, Josepha Campinah-Bacote, PhD’s article talks about the terminology and meaning of cultural competence and cultural humility, and this piece from Ada Stewart, MD, which speaks to cultural competence, cultural proficiency, and growth into cultural humility.

If you want more information about developing your mindset and practice around being culturally humble, please check out trainings from these powerful birthworkers:
Dr Sayida Peprah
Shafia Monroe

Check out ybp.buzzsprout.com to find wherever you like to listen to podcasts or read the full transcript here.

Join our community on facebook to talk more about creating collaborative, inclusive, equitable birth care.

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In birth care we have the opportunity to support someone through one of their most transformative life experiences. It is our responsibility to create trauma-informed spaces for everyone in our care.

We are discussing how and when we became aware of trauma-informed practices, the different types of trauma we encounter, specific steps we take in our care practices to reduce trauma, and our goals moving forward to create a perinatal healthcare system where trauma experiences are rare, rather than present in 1/3 births.

Here are some amazing resources with offerings of trainings to educate birth professionals on creating more trauma-informed care practices:
Birth & Trauma Support Center with Krysta Dancy
Dr Sayida Peprah
Mandy Irby, The Birth Nurse
Eri Guajardo Johnson with Birth Bruja

Check out ybp.buzzsprout.com to find wherever you like to listen to podcasts or read the full transcript here.

Join our community on facebook to talk more about creating collaborative, inclusive, equitable birth care.