I am the Research Doula. The title came to me during a postpartum doula training. I took my first doula training in 2018, and it changed my life. My research is a value add to my doula service. I will serve my birthing friends and family with the systems playbook at our disposal. My doula knowledge is my value add to research. I will only conduct and support research that has a Reproductive Justice methodology and moves us toward liberation.
A doula is person trained to assist someone in childbirth. The word “doula” derives from the Greek word “douleiá” (δουλειά), a word that means either slavery, servitude or work. This may be the only time Kanye West’s statement on willful slavery applies- we choose this life! There are other names for this birthworker role that aren’t associated with the European etymology. Whatever you call it, being bedside to mama and serving the family is an honor and privilege.
To be a doula, perinatal birthworker or a similar supporting role, you must sacrifice your schedule to the family you are serving. We learned that a successful doula's phone never dies. Be prepared to hand your children off, your other responsibilities and obligations; you belong to the mama during this time. Full time schoolwork and working has my time and attention seriously limited. I know I am not able to serve as a doula for many people. The first birth I attended was for my line sister/damn-near blood sister. My second will be with my sister in love, this fall! My hands-on experiences will be with close family and friends during choice points in my life.
I was there when my nephew was born in 2014. I spoke up at times and was quiet others. I was aloof to the ins and outs of birth work, but I was engaged. Knowing a little at the time about the decentering of Black mamas in hospital birth, my sociologist brain would not shut up in the delivery room. 4 years later, I was well into my work at NBEC and ready to establish myself as a health sciences researcher and changemaker. Taking the public health route instead of pursuing a medical career naturally separated me from clinical spaces. My job was to enter hospitals and health systems to facilitate discussion about racism and how it impacts care, yet all of my knowledge came from my research and the one birth I had attended. To be more effective- more real - I needed to better familiarize myself with hospital and birth facility culture. Listening to birth stories is informative, but there is nothing like contextualizing those experiences by really supporting mamas in hospitals.
Doulas advocate for the birthing person and are part of the care team; their unique voices make them systems change makers.
Doulas know less than nurses, nurse midwives and other clinical care providers, about the physiology of birth. That is why doulas are not authorized to “catch” babies. However, we are educated to be emotionally intelligent, to center mama and mind the spiritual energy of the room. After learning from the Innate Traditions Postpartum Doula course and the Sista Midwife Productions Birth Companion course, natural connections occurred between its lessons, my job in the Research Team and my studies in the UCSF sociology doctoral program. The reproductive life course has so many points where our physical and nonphysical bodies can either be compromised or edified. This doula knowledge prepares me to be a better advocate for birth equity.
As a research doula, I can think about practical health systems changes and culturally rigorous research projects. I can explore foundational research methodologies and build upon Black feminist and womanist literature. I can study better coordination of care between traditional birth workers and hospital care teams. I can strategize longitudinal research projects to assess the long-term pelvic floor benefits for mamas who had full spectrum doula care. I could work on policy advocacy for bill packages that edify and pay doulas, like the Momnibus Act of 2021. I can organize botanists and plant medicine birth workers to petition the National Institutes of Health for increased funding for research on holistic maternal care. I could build upon the Reproductive Justice literature as evidence for antiracist reproductive health care. . .*goes on and on*
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