Category: Anti-Oppression

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Anti-Oppression community Trauma

16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1701109787897{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]For our observance of UN Women’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, we reflect on how doulas are involved in ending obstetric violence at the individual and systemic level. Reflecting on this year’s theme, we call on governments and insurance providers to Unite and Invest to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls by funding better access to doula care.

Where we need to go

As doulas, companions, and birth keepers, we know in our bones that our presence alleviates the challenges of birth and new parenthood and supports people to have joyful, transformative experiences during this major life event. 

A growing body of research supports our intuitive knowledge. Doula care is an effective perinatal intervention that reduces the need for medical interventions, including c-sections, decreases low birth weight and preterm births, and improves satisfaction with childbirth and postpartum well-being, among many other benefits. These benefits have the biggest impact on families adversely affected by the social determinants of health, including low-income, and racialized people (Cidro et al., 2023; Greiner et al., 2019; Kozhimannil et al., 2016; Marshall et al., 2022; Ramey-Collier et al., 2023; Robles, 2019; Thomas et al., 2023; Wodtke et al., 2022; Young, 2022).

Yet, despite this, only 6% of birthing families receive support from a doula. Doulas are usually paid by families out of pocket, and care is not usually available to the populations for whom having a doula might have the greatest impact.

Some exciting changes are happening in the United States. Starting from around 2020, several studies found that racialized birthers and newborns experienced much poorer outcomes than their white counterparts, including an increased likelihood of death. This disparity was most significant for black people. These studies opened a floodgate of conversation about a Black maternal health crisis in the US. State healthcare systems are under significant political pressure to find solutions. Doula care is seen as a critical intervention that improves outcomes for racialized birthers and babies, and many Medicaid-funded doula programs are emerging (Rochester, Delaware, Michigan).

Sadly, Canada is lagging in finding innovative ways to make doula care accessible. One reason for this is that it is harder for researchers and advocates to demonstrate similar racial disparities because Canada does not collect race-based data. There is ample anecdotal evidence that Black and Indigenous people experience the same medical racism that has been identified in the US, but individual accounts can’t provide the level of “proof” that makes a strong case for funding.

That being said, a recent study by obstetrician researchers at McMaster University learned that birthers in Canada experience a high rate of operative vaginal deliveries (forceps or vacuum) and has higher rates of 3rd and 4th-degree tears than any other high-income country (CTV, 2023). Continuous support from a doula during childbirth reduces the need for interventions like operative deliveries.

Call to Action for International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (November 25)

Whether you are a birthworker, a birther, or a concerned citizen, you can add your voice to the call for better access to doula care by doing two things:

  1. Write or call your Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) and let them know you want coordinated public funding for doula care in your province’s healthcare plan. 
  2. If you have extended health coverage, call your insurance carrier and let them know you would like doula care to be an insured healthcare expense. More insurance companies covering doula care would make this support accessible to many more families.

Birthworker Affirmations for 16 Days

We use affirmations to buoy our clients, but what about using them to protect ourselves from burnout as we extend compassion to clients and act for systemic change? As part of our observance of 16 Days of Action Against Gender-Based Violence, we offer these 16 affirmations to support you on your birth work journey.

  1. My work humanizing birth humanizes communities. The merits of this work are limitless.
  2. My practice of self-compassion is integral to my ability to extend compassion to my clients.
  3. Changing one life changes everyone’s life. By supporting each person I honour our interconnectedness.
  4. My actions can make a difference.
  5. I will manifest the village I need to support me to continue manifesting change for birthers and families.
  6. By facilitating a non-judgemental space, I play an invaluable role in creating a safe space.
  7. By creating a sacred space for birth, I bring great joy to families, which increases my own joy.
  8. When I remember to take a deep breath, my client is reminded to breathe deeply.
  9. With collaboration and determination, we can realize humanized, empowering birth for all families. 
  10. My acts of service provide a blanket and a shield to families at their most vulnerable.
  11. My compassionate presence and loving words are a powerful antidote to suffering that can exist within birth, making space for more joy.
  12. By inspiring birthers and families to believe that physiological birth is possible, I play a tangible role in making physiological birth attainable.
  13. I will preserve my energy for the real struggle. 
  14. It is a blessing to walk alongside families during this intimate and transformative time, for which I am deeply grateful.
  15. With deeply rooted compassion, I can be a willow or an oak in service to my clients’ needs.
  16. With the birthwork community’s diligence, one day all births will be humanized births. I am honoured to be a part of this movement.

 

Keira Grant (she/her) Inclusion and Engagement Lead – Racialized Communities

Keira brings a wealth of experience to the Online Community Moderator role. She is a Queer, Black woman with a twenty-year track record in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) education, projects, and community building initiatives.

 

We invite you to practice with the ones that resonate with you. Please share any of your own affirmations that would support the birthwork community.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Anti-Oppression community LGBTQ2S+ Trauma understanding bias

Trans Day of Remembrance

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1700318432768{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Trans people’s existence is not an ideology. Transness is a natural and inevitable aspect of the wondrous biological and social diversity of human beings. As humans engage in a debate about whether or not some humans get to use bathrooms, attend school safely, and read stories to children, much of the panic regarding “gender ideology” is fueled by myths and misinformation that appear to have taken off like the wildfires that plagued us this Spring and Summer. 

Like wildfire, these myths are dangerous because they kill. Trans youth are at 7.9 times the risk of attempting suicide and 4 times more likely to be the victims of violent crime than their cis counterparts. Those who lose their lives to violence continue to be overwhelmingly trans, Black women. That’s why November 20 is Trans Day of Remembrance.

Here are some of the most toxic myths fanning the flames of fear and hate, followed by the facts that can douse those flames.

Myth 1: People come in two kinds, male and female. 

Fact: There is ample scientific evidence that human biology is far more complex than inny equals girl, outie equals boy. 

MRI-based studies show that the putamen (the region of the brain that controls cognitive functioning and other tasks) in trans people differs from structural norms that are consistent with their assigned gender and more closely resembles their felt gender. (Flint et. al. 2020; Clemens et. al. 2021)

Epigenetics is the emerging science regarding how different genes in our biological makeup get switched on and manifest. This epigenetic study found that since all human embryos start with the potential to be male or female, hormonal variation during sex differentiation can cause genetic changes that cause a person’s gender to be different from their sex.   

I’m a science junkie and I could go on with articles about hormone receptor mutations and genetic perspectives. But I think you get the idea that the biology of transness is a lot more complicated than the primer we got in grade school.

Myth 2: People who think their gender is different from their biological sex are mentally ill.

Fact: Well, technically being trans is a mental illness. The 5th edition of the Diagnostics and Statistics Manual (DSM-V), a compendium that provides diagnostic criteria for all mental illnesses, refers to transness as “gender dysphoria”. There is consensus among the mental health professionals that write the DSM that the appropriate treatment is supporting the person to live as their felt gender. Receiving a diagnosis and treatment for gender dysphoria is an involved process. It takes years to be approved for interventions like surgery. People under the age of 16 cannot receive permanent interventions like surgery. As the emerging biological science suggests, the classification of “gender dsyphoria” as a mental illness is controversial in trans communities. For now, people have to meet the diagnostic criteria in the DSM-V to receiving gender-affirming healthcare.

Myth 3: Trans people are emerging because of the new “gender ideology”.

Fact: While some of the terminology being used is relatively new, people whose gender experience differs from biological “norms” have always existed. Research shows that over 150 Indigenous nations on Turtle Island recognized a third gender before colonization. Indigenous communities were by no means unique. For example, hijras in South Asia have been recognized as a gender group dating back to the 1200s. Similarly, in pre-colonial Uganda, there was the mudoko dako.

Myth 4: Talking about trans people in schools “sexualizes children” and “grooms them” into becoming trans.

Fact: As the facts above demonstrate, trans people have always been here. People are born trans as a result of complex biological factors. The kind of experience they have is determined by society’s attitude toward them. In the pre-colonial societies I mentioned above, trans people were honored and respected members of their communities leading secure and productive lives. Talking about trans people will not make more of them magically appear. Explaining sexual and gender diversity to kids is no more inherently sexual than explaining heterosexual marriage. Failing to talk about LGBTQ+ people won’t make them go away. However, silence will make people more unsafe.

It’s fitting that November 20 is also National Child Day. The goal of the day is to open dialogue about the vulnerability of children and what we can do collectively to keep them safe and honour their rights. Telling kids the truth is how we can keep them safe. Treating all people with dignity and respect is how we create environments where kids feel safe to be themselves. Arming kids with the language to talk about their bodies and experiences is how we keep them safe from actual groomers. Building up their confidence and self-respect is how we keep trans kids alive and well.

 

Keira Grant (she/her) Inclusion and Engagement Lead – Racialized Communities

Keira brings a wealth of experience to the Online Community Moderator role. She is a Queer, Black woman with a twenty-year track record in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) education, projects, and community building initiatives.

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Anti-Oppression birth Canada community Equity Trauma

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1698093869318{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]The rising cost of food and collective grocery store anxiety rest on a bed of other precarious conditions. The price of everything has gone up. We are still seeing empty shelves in stores “post” pandemic as we head to the mall in shorts on a 33-degree October day. There are numerous causes for feeling uncertainty.

When society gets taken for a ride, children come right along with us. As someone who works with babies and families, on International Day for the Eradication of Poverty I’m reflecting on the fact that 50% of the world’s children are affected by poverty. 

Most of these children are not where I am sitting, in a high-cost-of-living, high-standard-of-living urban centre in Canada. However, people where I am are still afraid of not having enough, and it’s making many people afraid to start a family.

These fears are justified. Raising children is expensive, and we are facing a food crisis, a housing crisis, a climate crisis, and a healthcare crisis. People and families live in a lot of isolation which makes feeling secure challenging. Poverty has a significantly adverse impact on outcomes during pregnancy and childbirth, and on how all aspects of your life go from there.

Support from a doula reduces the risk of many of the adverse outcomes that poverty increases the risk of. Sadly, individuals who can benefit the most from improved outcomes are those who are least able to pay the cost of hiring a doula. 

Doulas and birth workers are a compassionate bunch. No one in this profession is here to get rich, and we want to provide our services to people who can benefit from them the most. However, we also have ourselves and our families to care for, and doing this work well takes time. Far too many kind-hearted people who have trained long and hard and love this work leave after a few years, turning to less rewarding work that pays the bills. When this happens, the doula’s skills go to waste and their community loses out on the transformative care they could have received.

Advocates within the doula sphere are exploring options to improve community access to doula support while making a long-term career in this field more sustainable. At Doula Canada, we are doing our part by developing a briefing note that will elucidate opportunities and challenges in the current perinatal care landscape, the potential for doulas and childbirth educators to leverage these opportunities and solve these challenges, and models whereby doula care could be cost-effectively funded by a mix of social partners including different levels of government, insurance companies, and foundations. This initiative is directed by the Advocacy Working Group, comprised of Doula Canada members and staff. The Advocacy Working Group is part of our commitment to manifest a culture of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) action within our school. Stay tuned for more on the Doula Access Initiative in the coming months.

To connect with the Advocacy Working Group at Doula Canada, email Keira Grant, EDI Co-Lead at keira@doulatraining.ca.

 

Keira Grant (she/her) Inclusion and Engagement Lead – Racialized Communities

Keira brings a wealth of experience to the Online Community Moderator role. She is a Queer, Black woman with a twenty-year track record in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) education, projects, and community building initiatives.

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Anti-Oppression community Equity

World Food Day

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1697463575735{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]World Food Day hits a little differently this year. The skyrocketing cost of food has driven the federal government to summon the CEOs of Canada’s largest food retailers to a meeting in Ottawa on Thanksgiving Monday.

Access to food is not just about the rising price of groceries in contrast to incomes that haven’t changed much. This year’s theme for World Food Day is Water is Life. Water is Food. Leave No One Behind. It calls us to reflect on access to food on a deeper level. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United States notes that 71% of the planet is water, however only 2.5% of that water is fresh, drinkable water.

Canadians are blessed to live in a freshwater-rich country, however, 28 Indigenous Reservations across the country are still living with long-term boil water advisories. These communities have been systemically left behind, demonstrating that social policies and political will are central dimensions of ending hunger.

The statement “Water is Food” has an additional layer of meaning for birth workers. Water is the main ingredient in human milk, the ideal first food for all of us. When lactating parents don’t have access to clean drinking water babies are also left behind. When we view food and water as commodities we create a precarious circumstance for society’s most vulnerable members. 

As victims of the Nestle infant formula scandal learned in the most horrific way possible, diluting formula with contaminated water can mean death for babies. In addition to the health risks associated with formula feeding, the cost of infant formula has risen along with all other goods. This follows on the heels of a formula shortage that saw the price for one canister exceeding $70 in the Territories in 2022 according to one of our members. 

When we encourage and champion new parents to normalize, initiate, and sustain lactation and direct breast/chestfeeding we are engaging in a vital action to ensure food security in our communities. When we connect lactation support to action to achieve clean drinking water, and sustainable food networks for all, we are recognizing the intrinsic interconnectedness of social systems and family well-being.

You can learn more about the struggle to secure clean drinking water for all First Nations in Canada at First Nations Drinking Water Settlement. To learn more about how you can support Indigenous land and water defenders in Canada visit Indigenous Climate Action.

 

Keira Grant (she/her) Inclusion and Engagement Lead – Racialized Communities

Keira brings a wealth of experience to the Online Community Moderator role. She is a Queer, Black woman with a twenty-year track record in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) education, projects, and community building initiatives.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Anti-Oppression birth Equity

Women’s History Month

4 females in colourful clothing sitting together smiling for a photo

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1696691842834{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]For much of human history and in a myriad of cultures, the ability to create life was revered and seen as a source of power. When Rachel from friends, overdue with Emma famously says “No uterus, no opinion” – she’s describing an attitude that used to be a given. Things started to change in the mid-19th century as the then-exclusively male profession of medicine and the burgeoning specialty of gynecology gained legitimacy and brought reproductive health under its control.

When you control the uterus, you quite literally control the social order. You assume control of the means of producing the next generation, who gets to have a “legitimate” family, and who does not. 

For as long as patriarchy has sought to control women and people with uteri by controlling reproduction, we have resisted and fought relentlessly to bring reproduction back under our control and keep it there. 

October is Women’s History Month and this year’s theme is “Through Her Lens: Celebrating the Diversity of Women”. 

The diverse, heroic people who have fought for reproductive justice, access to choice, and humanized birth are countless, spanning time, place, age, race, gender, sexuality, ability, class, religion, and the full array of human experiences. By sharing a few of their stories, we begin to tell the story of our ongoing struggle for reproductive freedom through their lens. 

The work of these pioneers and modern-day heroes is part of the fabric of all we do as doulas, childbirth educators, and birth keepers to ensure that pregnancy, birth, mothering, and parenthood are empowered, affirming choices and experiences.

The featured figures in women’s history offer a lens through which can explore the movements that have shaped the context of birth work in the 21st century.

Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw & Nurse Dorothea Palmer

Elizabeth Bagshaw started her medical studies at the University of Toronto in 1901 at the age of 19 and began practicing medicine in Hamilton, Ontario in 1905. The medical profession was overwhelmingly dominated by men at the time. The limited number of women in the profession were excluded from specialties such as surgery and steered toward obstetrics or pediatrics. As a result, maternal health quickly became the primary focus of Dr. Bagshaw’s practice. In 1932 she was asked to become the medical director of Canada first birth control clinic, which was illegal at the time. Despite the legal risks, Dr. Bagshaw accepted the role because she “understood that neglecting health care that only women need contributes to their subordination.” Bradshaw’s practice at the clinic consisted largely of fitting women for diaphragms and conducting follow-ups. The clinic served 400 women in its first year of operation.

At the time that she assumed the role, the Great Depression was ravaging society. Men were out of work, children were hungry, and maternal mortality was high. Women were dying from botched abortions. Family planning options were urgently needed. Despite these conditions, sharing birth control information was illegal and considered immoral by many. Bagshaw and her collaborators were called “devils” and “heretics”. 

The controversy came to a head in 1936 with the trial of Ottawa-based reproductive health nurse Dorothea Palmer. Palmer was charged with advertising birth control during home visits to discuss family planning. Palmer’s defence successfully argued that she had acted in the public good and she was acquitted. This defense was successful again on appeal, making things easier for Bagshaw’s clinic and other early family planning pioneers, although the law making advertising birth control illegal was not reppealed until 1969..

June Callwood 

June Callwood was a Canadian activist, journalist and writer who co-founded the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League in 1973, along with Kay Macpherson, Lorna Grant, Eleanor Wright Pelrine, Esther Greenglass, and Henry Morgentaler. Over the course of the 1970s and 1980s the organization played a pivotal role in the journey to full decriminalization of inducing an abortion in 1988.  After this milestone, CARAL continued its work to ensure equitable and safe access to medical termination of pregnancy.

June Callwood was also known for her journalism in support of social justice and women’s rights. Over the course of her journalistic career she wrote for the Globe & Mail, Chatelaine, McLeans, and other major Canadian publications.

As an activist, she was involved in co-founding over 50 social service organizations, including Casey House a hospice for people with AIDS and Jessies: The June Callwood Centre for Young Women, which provides a range of social services to young women and trans people experiencing pregnancy.

Dr. Galba Araujo

The Humanizing Childbirth movement began in Fortaleza, Brazil in 1975 when Obstetrician Galba Araujo pioneered a program to train traditional midwives and partner them with hospitals. His project gained international recognition, and acted as a catalyst for the World Health Organization to host a conference on technology and childbirth in Brazil in 1985. 

In 2000, the first annual conference on humanizing childbirth was held in Fortaleza Brazil, revitalizing interest in the Humanized Birth movement for the 21st century. This movement aims to de-medicalize birth and create a process wherein relationships and communication are centred and where personal and spiritual transformation are possible. 

While Dr. Araujo’s contribution was undoubtedly central to this movement garnering international recognition in mainstream medicine, the principles of this movement are drawn from woman-led traditional Indigenous midwifery in Brazil and other part of the Americas. 

Reverend Alma Faith Crawford

Reverend Alma Faith Crawford is one of 12 Black women who coined the term “reproductive justice” in 1994 and founded an anti-racist feminist movement aimed at equipping women of all races, classes, and sexual and gender identities with the option to choose to have family, whether through accessing adequate support to childrear, or by accessing options to prevent or terminate pregnancy. The organizing framework they developed for Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice recognizes that the rage of choices available to a person are impacted by a person’s social experience, with people experiencing injustice and marginalization having diminished access to choice. Maintaining each individuals human right to reproductive justice involves dismantling all forms of social injustice at the deepest level of the system. In addition to equitable abortion access, reproductive justice advocates call for access to social services that would make is possible for more people to raise families with well-being.

Reverend Crawford also organizes with interfaith pro-choice advocacy organization Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. She continues her intersectional social justice work as a senior coach for Pastors Without Borders. As clergy in the United Church, she and her partner Karen Hutt create welcoming and loving spaces for members of the Black, LGBTQ+ community. 

Nurse Courtney Penell

Courtney Penell is an Indigenous labour and delivery nurse in Nova Scotia who performed the first smudge ceremony in a Halifax hospital in June 2023. Her ability to perform the ceremony in the hospital came at the end of 10 years of advocacy, that included collaboration with the hospital and the fire department to resolve safety concerns. The long-fought-for policy was implemented just days before her nephew’s birth, allowing her sister to become the first person to receive the ceremony in the hospital. Smudging is an important Indigenous ceremonial and medicinal practice that involves burning sacred herbs such as sage, cedar, sweetgrass, and tobacco. The specifics of the ceremony vary from Nation to Nation. Penell performed the ceremony according to her family’s Mi’kmaw traditions. 

Courtney Penell’s advocacy is part of a Canada-wide Indigenous movement to decolonize birth by reclaiming traditional practices and ceremonies, bringing birth back onto ancestral lands, introducing traditional first foods, and other liberatory actions. 

 

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1696691935455{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Keira Grant (she/her) Inclusion and Engagement Lead – Racialized Communities

Keira brings a wealth of experience to the Online Community Moderator role. She is a Queer, Black woman with a twenty-year track record in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) education, projects, and community building initiatives.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”520907″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Anti-Oppression Canada Equity indigenous doula understanding bias

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1694354019009{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]September 30th marks National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada, also known as Orange Shirt Day. The day is a national day of remembrance and reflection on the historic and current violence and oppression toward Indigenous Peoples. As a vocational school, we encourage our non-Indigenous students to participate in workshops, lectures, sharing circles, vigils, and more on September 30th.

The “every child matters” slogan dawned on orange shirts resonates deeply with us as doulas and care workers. As doulas we work intimately with families, infants, and children. The tragedies of the residential school systems and 60’s scoop, as well as the current oppression and violence toward Indigenous families in the forms of child apprehension, incarceration, birth alerts, and more are horrific and unacceptable, and impacts the families and communities we belong to and work with.

As doulas and allies, it is crucial to educate ourselves about the actions, policies, and systems that disproportionately impact Indigenous families, especially those that directly impact the work we do in terms of advocacy, intergenerational care, and reproductive justice. It is our duty to critically reflect on our identities, experiences, and our relationship to wider systems.

We understand that National Day for Truth and Reconciliation can bring up difficult emotions and be potentially triggering for our Indigenous students. We will be hosting a Indigenous-only peer support sweetgrass circle on October 1 from 1-3 EST on Zoom to debrief together. Contact kayt@doulatraining.ca to register. You can also check in 0n our progress here at Doula Canada by reviewing our NTRD Progress Report, which includes our goals between now and 2028.

Don’t know where to get started? Here are some ideas:

  • Follow Indigenous creators on Tiktok, Instagram, and other platforms
  • Take the University of Alberta’s free Indigenous Canada Course
  • https://www.ualberta.ca/admissions-programs/online-courses/indigenous-canada/index.html
  • Search up Kairos Blanket Exercises near you
  • Read up on the 94 Calls to Action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
  • Register for Doula Canada’s Doulas for Reconcili-ACTION Orange Shirt Day workshop
  • “Who Am I: Locating Oneself in Settler-Colonialism, A Conversation on Oppression Privilege, and Allyship” on September 30th from 1-3 PM EST on Zoom. $30, with all proceeds going to Aunties on the Road
  • Apply for our Truth and Reconciliation Action Plan Committee to contribute to our TRAP Five Year Plan
  • Assist in knowledge mobilization. Tag @doulacanada with the hashtag #doulasforreconciliaction on social media to share what you learned on September 30th that you think would benefit your fellow allies.

We understand that not everyone will have the same time, resources, finances, etc. to participate in some of the activities for the day. If you’re reflecting internally, please consider the following prompts (designed for non-Indigenous students).

  • What preconceived biases have been instilled in me about Indigenous Peoples? Where did I learn them from?
  • Whose land do I reside on? What is the story of the land here? (If applicable) How have I benefited from white/settler privilege?
  • Does the word “settler” make me uncomfortable? Why or why not?

Wishing you all a meaningful and educational National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Miigwetch,

Kayt Ward, EDI Co-Lead, BSW[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Anti-Oppression decolonization indigenous doula national indigenous peoples day Uncategorised

Let’s Celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1687365796950{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Aaniin Doulas!

This month is National Indigenous History Month, how have you been celebrating?
The Indigenous excellence at DTC shines bright, and we are so grateful for the many contributions Indigenous birth helpers have brought to the community, historically and currently!
We hope this Indigenous Peoples Day, Indigenous and Non-Indigenous folks can reflect on how to create more accessible care for Indigenous families, co-resist against systems, and use their doula roles to uphold Indigenous rights.
Some ideas on how to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day:
  1. Learn whose land you reside on. www.native-land.ca
  2. Attend a local or virtual Indigenous Peoples Day event
  3.  Donate to Indigenous-led organizations upholding Indigenous rights today
  4. Pick a film to watch from the National Film Board of Canada’s catalogue of over 200 Indigenous-created films
  5. Follow and amplify the voices of Indigenous people through social media platforms
  6. Read through the Indigenous Ally Toolkit or How to Become an Indigenous Ally
  7. Find a CBC Reclaimed playlist and explore the many different worlds of Indigenous music, or start by watching the documentary Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
  8. Understand the issues facing Indigenous reproductive health in Canada
  9. Join me June 29  from 12-3 pm EST,  for a Celebrating Indigenous Changemakers: NIHM Watch Party and discussion on Turtle Island Heros. This is open to Indigenous and Non-Indigenous members. We will be screening some Indigenous pieces, including clips of award-winning documentaries, spoken word pieces, and music to celebrate Indigenous culture and history. We will also be having an open circle discussion about the pieces being viewed, and how they relate to doula care in Canada. register here
At Doula Canada we continue working toward our goals outlined in the DTC Truth and Reconciliation Action Plan for 2023, and we are so excited to announce the launch of our Indigenous History and Allyship module, compulsory in all doula streams, starting in July. This is a three-month pilot, where we will take feedback and then relaunch a final module based on surveys afterward.
We are on Indigenous land, and we must know how to be good relations with one another.
Happy Indigenous Peoples Day and Happy Summer Solstice!
I look forward to seeing you all on June 29 from 12-3 pm EST.
Kayt

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1687096542163{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Kayt (she/her) Inclusion and Engagement Lead, is an Anishnaabe kwe from Bonnechere Algonquin territory and the owner of Sweetgrass Solace Wholistic Support. Her post-secondary education includes a Bachelor of Social Work and Bachelor of the Arts in Indigenous Studies from Trent University (2021). She is also a certified hatha yoga teacher and a certifying birth and postpartum Doula.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Anti-Oppression community connection Equity intersectionality LGBTQ2S+ Newsletters pride understanding bias vulnerabiliity

Unlearning the Nuclear Family

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1685714926487{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]When I was a kid in the 80s, the family sitcom dominated television. From the Huxtables to the Keatons, to the Seavers, it was always Mom, Dad, and 2.5 kids. By then, the nuclear family had become the norm, so usually, both Mom and Dad worked outside the home. 

I always knew I wanted to be a mom someday. Even though my family didn’t look like the ones I saw on TV (I was raised by an Aunt and a Grandma), somehow it never occurred to me that the family I made someday would look different from the ones I saw on TV. I always pictured Daddy, babies, and me.

As I got older and came out as bisexual, my visions of future family life expanded to include the possibility of parenting with a “Daddy” or another “Mommy”, but I was still locked into a really nuclear understanding of what “families” looked like. 

Now my life has taught me a lot better. I do parent my only child with my wife, but welcoming Baby into our family made so much more than three. Our chosen family comprised of friends and partners from our queer and polyamorous communities has always been a huge part of our parenting journey.

We know many beautiful families configured in ways that transcend a couple with kids. We know quartets of a lesbian couple and a gay couple who have chosen to co-parent. We know gay and lesbian besties who have chosen to co-parent with their respective biological and chosen families behind them. We know lesbian couples with a known sperm donor who is deeply involved in their child’s life. There are triads or “thrupples” (a partnership involving 3 adults) who choose to raise families. This could look like a mom having a baby with each of her two male partners, or two women each having a baby with their male partner or any other number of ways of creating a family.

The reality is that Queer and Trans Culture isn’t just about having a life partner who was assigned the same sex as you at birth. Our cultural norms are forged from a history where the most conventional, nuclear way that we could have a family was still socially unacceptable. Many of us and our queer elders were rejected by our biological families for being honest about who we are. As a result, our community has been resourceful and resilient in carving out new ways of defining “family” and building family units that allow us to be whole. We create our own villages that know who we are, where we’ve been, and where we’re going to support us while we child rear and do this thing called life.

5 was a vital turning point for queer and trans families. It made the relationship to the child the focus of parental rights, rather than biology. The law also makes it possible for more than two people to be the legal parents of a child. This legal change was extremely important, but it’s only a fraction of the needed social change.

We must unlearn the idea that “parent+parent+kid(s)=family”. There are infinite equations that can add up to a family. As professional support people, we can embrace the expectation that clients seeking our help could come in ones, twos, or more, reflecting any mix of gender identities. 

We can also expect that folks living outside the parental binary are seeking our support specifically because they can expect that other parts of the health and social service systems don’t expect them, and might be hostile toward anything or anyone that challenges their expectations. We can create an unconditional blanket of compassion and support around all the beautiful shapes and sizes that families come in. That blanket is also a shield against fear and hate that preserves the sacredness of the parenting journey for all people.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][mk_padding_divider][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1686178152124{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]

Keira Grant (she/her) Inclusion and Engagement Lead – Racialized Communities

Keira brings a wealth of experience to the Online Community Moderator role. She is a Queer, Black woman with a twenty-year track record in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) education, projects, and community building initiatives.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
Anti-Oppression intersectionality LGBTQ2S+ pride Uncategorised vulnerabiliity

Why Representation Matters.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”502714″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][mk_padding_divider][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1685976157863{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]As Pride month comes to a start, I decided to write a more personal piece for the Doula Canada blog. As many queer people know, the process of coming out isn’t linear nor a one time deal. Queer people often come out over and over, in every day interactions. We decide whether or not its safe to come out, whether or not it will have repercussions professionally, socially, and within our family circles. Pride comes with a lot of baggage. Working at a feminist vocational school, that celebrates diversity and inclusion, I know that writing this is a safe space. 

You see, I’m freshly out. I’ve been “out” as pansexual for about five years, but being “conceptually queer” and “actively queer” feel very different. Not that pansexuals do not struggle, we do, but we have one of those “border” identities where we can experience privilege and oppression at the same time, i.e. “passing”. Being able to pansexual while being in opposite sex relationships had a sense of “safety” in it. I could identify as queer, but also feel accepted and included by following compulsory heterosexuality. 

What is that you ask? Compulsory heterosexuality is the concept that society favors those who act in heterosexual ways. Our social norms favor heterosexuality, and it is assumed to be the default. You see this when someone asks you if you have a spouse of the opposite sex. When teachers can speak about their partners freely (as long as they are straight) and we assume things about strangers we do not know. Being conceptually queer, but passing as “actively straight” kept me safe. I didn’t have to have uncomfortable conversations, debate whether someone would be accepting of my partner, or wonder if it would be a deal breaker for a job. Until one day, passing didn’t work for me.

I’m 28 years old from a rural area in Northeastern Ontario. I went to a Catholic school where bringing a partner of the same sex to prom was forbidden, and we were told our “lifestyles” were unnatural and against God. I came from an area where queer people were (visibly) few and far between, and if they were outed they were ostracized for being “predators” or other horrendous, homophobic things. At one point, I thought I was queer when I was about 14 years old. A school counselor told me that all girls feel that way at some point, and I believed her. As I grew up, I thought I was emotionally bankrupt to all my boyfriends, that perhaps I was asexual, or traumatized, and that one day I would marry a husband. Asexuality and trauma are valid, but for me, it was a mask that seemed “more appropriate or acceptable” than the thought that I may be attracted to women. I didn’t realize that most women don’t see finding a husband as a begrudging task on a to-do list. This was compounded by the “ball and chain” rhetoric of a heteronormative and often misogynist society. Dating, sex, and marriage is supposed to be disappointing if you are a woman with a man (we’re often told).  It was easier for me to believe I may be asexual or traumatized than to think I may one day marry a woman. This is when I realized, I may not be attracted to men at all. But I didn’t know what that would look like.

Representation matters, because I had none. 

I was 20 before I saw a lesbian in a professional role, that wasn’t actively trying to hide her identity from the institution she was employed from. She was my Women’s Studies 1000 professor, and I thought about how brave that was. I didn’t realize that queer women could be out in positions of power without punishment.

I was 24 before I realized that you could be queer without ostracization in a bigger city. I was surrounded by queer friends who were living their joyful lives, loving their partners, and living (mostly) without harassment.

I was 26 before I met my first queer couple with children. I was downtown Toronto and finally seeing lesbian and gay couples living loud and proud, and simple and boring just like any other couples. I had never seen pregnancy and childrearing in queer couples, and had always tied my dream of having kids with being in a heterosexual relationship. Representation changed this for me.

How does this relate to doula work? Easy. If you’re a queer doula, you are actively showing the world that queer people belong in the doula space. If you’re creating inclusive advertising for trans and queer people, you are telling them you see them, and they belong in the reproductive health discussion. When you use a trans person’s pronouns, you are validating their experience and showing them you respect their identity. When you learn about surrogacy, IVF, and adoption support, you are creating more services for queer people to access.

Representation matters because it shows queer youth, and queer adults that their experiences are normal, and can be expansive and joyful. It shows others the possibilities within being queer. It shows us our dreams can exist in a comphet society, and that we don’t have to give up a part of ourselves to be happy. So this pride, when you hear someone say “Why do they have to be so LOUD about it?” tell them its for every queer person who is forced to live quietly, and is silently listening.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”violet”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1685976337654{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]

Kayt (she/her) is an Anishnaabe kwe from Bonnechere Algonquin territory and the owner of Sweetgrass Solace Wholistic Support. Her post-secondary education includes a Bachelor of Social Work and Bachelor of the Arts in Indigenous Studies from Trent University (2021). She is also a certified hatha yoga teacher and a certifying birth and postpartum Doula.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
Anti-Oppression Anti-racism work balance birth Business collaboration community connection Equity fear gratitude Health Care pregnancy rebranding shame starting fresh Trauma Volunteering vulnerabiliity

Using Doula Care as Community Aid: The Giving Equation

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1684151324317{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]As I’ve been going through our Truth and Reconciliation Action Plan, I’ve been continuously thinking about doula care and community aid, and how we can continue to decolonize our practices. As doula care becomes more “trendy” in current society, as it continues to dominate mostly higher-class spaces, how do we reflect on the roots of doula care, and stay true to community work? Of course, as doulas we do not feed ourselves and pay the bills off of warm and fuzzy feelings, but I think it is realistic to say most of us enter the field with a certain amount of passion and drive to create change in our communities. Whether that be being inspired by our own birth experience, or noticing how much of a difference our own doula made, most of us come to doula care for a deep reason.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1684151342874{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]However you identify, birth work has the ability to bring folks together. The birth and the postpartum periods are intimate and vulnerable. Individuals from marginalized communities may wish to hire someone with the same identity or lived experience as them. As someone from a certain background you may possess a set of skills, knowledge or spiritual/cultural teachings that someone from an outside identity may not. For example, a Muslim family may choose to hire a Muslim doula who may better understand their traditional customs and practices surrounding birth. An Indigenous family may choose an Indigenous doula who understands and celebrates their practices and understands the risk of violence within the medical system.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1684151427232{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]

Below are some tips on using your practice and voice as a doula to help your community:

  1. Marry your interests

An easy equation for finding what population you want to serve is this: identifier + lived experience + passions and skills.

Between your lived experiences and passions/interests and skill, lays your intended community. For example, as an Indigenous mental health practitioner who grew up low-income, I chose to narrow my focus on low-income families and trauma survivors. Think about the spaces you frequent, the groups you are a part of, your professional training and hobbies.

 

Identifier: Indigenous, Queer

Lived experience: Poverty

Skill: Social work background

Passion: Trauma

           _______________________________

Target communities:

Indigenous families

Queer Families

Low Income Families

Trauma Survivors

 

2. What can you afford to give?

Whether that is your time, or money, or expertise. Some doulas choose to dedicate acouple of births per year pro-bono or sliding scale. Perhaps, you decide to attend protests and events as a community member that are relevant to your population. You may have resources you don’t mind sharing.or books to loan out. Be creative!

 

3. Advocacy

What issues are impacting your community? How can you use your voice in a way that helps others? Perhaps you can assist in social movements regarding reproductive health.How do you use your social media. What current issues are really important to you?

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These are just a few of the ways that you can take your profession, and use it for social change. What other ways can you make waves?

 

Here are some exploratory journal prompts for you:

  • Why did I choose to become a doula?

  • What social issues am I passionate about?

  • What can I afford to give?

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1684154527320{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]-Kayt Ward, EDI Co-lead, BSW[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]