Community Support — View All

134 | Making Peace with the Unknown - Ivory & Ernest Levert Jr.

For Ivory and Ernest a previous miscarriage had introduced a fear of pregnancy loss that loomed for a while. Their healing has enabled them to share their story with grace and humility. As the pregnancy thrived, Ivory and Ernest began to manage and prepare for childbirth. They hired a ROOTT perinatal support doula to support their pregnancy. They were able to start working with their doula in the critical stages of the first trimester and all the way through labor and immediate postpartum. Ivory always knew she wanted to work with a ROOTT doula and found it helpful to process her feelings and birth plans in the early stages with someone else.

Ivory utilized our podcast to listen to a slew of birth stories to learn what possibilities could present when labor started. An online childbirth education helped them learn even more about expectations and how labor could unfold. Ivory felt empowered with her newly gained knowledge. Ernest graciously shared that he was not emotionally invested in how the pregnancies would go, as he tends to stay in the now. His parenthood journey grew slowly as they got closer to their due date. Ernest started a grieving process of shifting his identity to make space for a new baby. Leaning into the voices of friends that are fathers, he learned to fill the gaps and help with managing stress for Ivory.

When labor started, Ivory texted her doula and Ernest that she was cramping. She wanted to stay active and decided to take a walk and spend some time with her husband at home as she wanted to stay relaxed. Contractions picked up, and they chose to report to the hospital to see how labor was progressing. Labor would go on longer than anticipated, but with the support of Ernest and their doula, Faith, Ivory endured. She gave birth to their daughter and immediately began her breastfeeding journey.

128 | Mothering the Mother - Megana Dwarakanath

Megana knew that she wanted a family, and before meeting her husband, she had even considered taking on the role of parenting without a partner. But soon after moving to a new city, she met her husband; they fell in love and began discussing expanding their family. They both wanted to have two kids before Megana got a bit older and had planned to start trying to conceive after getting married. But their March 2020 wedding was canceled due to the beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading them to move forward with a small ceremony and begin trying to conceive in May.

As a healthcare worker (pediatrician), Megana was aware of the studies around birthing folks in her field having two times the rate of infertility than others. Many of her friends in residency with her had shared their struggles with infertility. With that in mind, she was emotionally prepared to have some struggles of her own with conceiving but was grateful that she was pregnant within three months of trying. The beginning of her pregnancy was layered with many parts. They were going to be moving cross country; she had lost both her grandparents, dealing with the pandemic and also working through the pandemic and didn't fully have care established where they were moving; Megana describes that time as "surreal."

Amongst her birth preparation, she was journaling, reading, and listening to positive birth stories and remained active, running up to her 39th week of pregnancy. Her due date came and went, making Megana uneasy as she knew she was losing time from her maternity leave. Her jobs maternity leave policy would give her 12 weeks, and she had already begun using some time waiting on the arrival of her baby. Taking that into consideration, Megana elected to support her progress with an induction. Induction included two doses of misoprostol, moving her quickly into intense labor. Reviewing all her options and managing the frequency and intensity of her contractions, which had started putting her baby in distress - Megana decided to have an epidural to provide them some rest and allow her body the space it needed to continue to progress. After about an hour and a half of pushing, her daughter was born. Megana did suffer from a 2nd/3rd-degree periclitoral and labial tear, which would impact her in ways she wasn't prepared for.

Within her great support village, Megana's sister would be the guiding light in helping her navigate all the new transitions. The reality of how debilitating her tear was, combined with the level of rest she needed and what maternity leave entailed for caring and bonding with her daughter Megana was falling into a postpartum anxiety/depression cycle. With the support of her sister, they established some concrete strategies to guide her through this time and enable her healing.

Megana's journey with an extremely short maternity leave due to the American Board of Pediatrics policies has led her to be a driving force for changing maternity leave policy. She wrote an oped that has changed policies in her department and has a postpartum group for other South Asian women to discuss some of the cultural misogyny and expectations they contend with. Check these essential resources out in the show notes.

114 | The Birth of Ingrid & Isabel - Ingrid Carney

Within her pregnancy, Ingrid Carney would lean into a flexible and go with the flow mindset. As she came closer to the birth of her daughter, she felt like things would be textbook. So at eight and a half months, when she found out her daughter was breech, it wasn't something she felt prepared to handle. She gathered the information from the doctors and decided to move forward with trying to flip her daughter. Soon after the procedure, her water broke, and she would navigate three days of labor before her daughter was born. On the third day, reaching a point of feeling like she was tapped out, Ingrid and her husband decided to move forward with a surgical birth.

During the early parts of her postpartum, she had an extensive support system, but she found that she and her support system focused a lot on her daughter and not much on Ingrid's healing. At some point finding herself in what she described as a "fog" - but now knowing she was dealing with postpartum depression. Navigating it on her own with her husband, she slowly found her rhythm, and tides would change drastically after joining a mom's group. This group provided her community with others who were also working through their parenthood journey at the same time.

Joining this group would also be the beginning for Ingrid & Isabel. In a conversation in her mom's group, there was a discussion around products they all were using and whether or not they worked. Ingrid shared that she had created something - the Bellaband®. Seeing it and how it worked, the group encouraged her to move forward and make more. Taking advantage of nap time, Ingrid would use that time to explore fabrics and designs and, in November 2003, would have her first sale. The Bellaband® would become a product that brought her family together and has grown into a national company offering a full range of maternity essentials.

101 | Wolomi - Layo George

Layo's childhood planted the seed for Wolomi. Growing up in Nigeria and DC, the joy of community support during one's expansion of family was a part of her everyday life, as her mother supported friends and family as a midwife. Taking the lessons of these experiences with her into her career as a nurse in America, a reality set in that what she had seen with reproductive care was not the standard everywhere.

And as she navigated her pregnancy, she knew that she didn't want to allow pregnancy and birth to happen to her - or enable the healthcare system to do whatever they wanted. As she had seen growing up, she needed to be the center of her experience, supported by those who could uplift her in that positioning. That return to the beginning would also birth Wolomi. The goal and mission of Wolomi is to provide resources and guidance that support black birthing people to own their perinatal journey, alongside others that look like them, and share in their experience.

BMHW21 - An Offering of Meditation

Kristen Hanna is a BSiC Storyteller that encourages mindful motherhood in her work and daily life. Kristen and her partner have started an apparel line, Be Free Apparel, as an opportunity to not only clothe the body but inspire and encourage others to break generational patterns and heal to live and love as freely as God intended. She has graciously gifted our listeners with an offering of meditation.

The intention of this meditation is for reframing and centering as you prepare for and navigate your birth. The hope that this pause allows you to tap within yourself. And the affirmations curated from snippets of BSiC community storyteller’s own experiences cover you in support. Pause. Tap in. Listen.

79 | Pregnancy Needs Support - Deidre Brooks

Picture this, it's 1989, and Deidre found out she was pregnant between 4-5 months gestation after multiple negative tests. The moment she found out became a learning experience for a nurse eager to share the news. Deidre flatly reminded her to work on her delivery as you don't know how a person feels about the pregnancy. The pregnancy moved forward, and she discovered that she was losing weight and often feeling tired, which made her grow agitated with pregnancy.

When she finally went into labor, it proved challenging as the doctor on call was aggressive and had problems in his communication style. Not to have her voice silenced, Deidre made sure he knew how inadequate his service was to her in the moment. Postpartum care with her nurse home visitor helped her overcome the impossible feelings of providing for her son as a single parent. She was thankful for the words of encouragement and for someone to see her plight.

Today, Deidre has been hearing the stories of Black women giving birth, and it has opened her eyes to the experiences of lack of care and attention plaguing Black Maternal Healthcare. Her self-reflection triggers the things that could have gone wrong, and she shares that her experience shows, "That we are blessed even when we don't see it in the moment. There is always humor somewhere. That is what I find in reflecting on my story. Listening to the stats and stories about negative outcomes for black women makes this clear to me."

Hospital BirthLaurel GourrierNovember 24, 2020Community Support Comment

62 | Your Community Midwife - Nikki Helms

Nikki Helms has supported families as either a doula or midwife for over 15 years. Answering the call of family-centered care has led her down the path of wanting to own and open a free-standing birth center in Clairemont, California. Centralized care within the community and directly for the community. While it will be a space of inclusive reproductive health focus, she also envisions it as a community hub. A space offering education, resources, mental health support, donation-based services, and collective support for anything you might need in a particular season of your life — a space full of abundance and accessibility.

58 | Story of Malachi: Living Through Loss - Crystall Boatwright

This is a story about loss - In memory of Malachi Cayden Boatwright

Crystall was 28 weeks before she found out she was pregnant. and there were some daunting concerns about the baby's health. They spent the rest of the day through testing and trying to process all the information. Malachi was born 7lbs, eyes bright and open taking in his parents. After some time in NICU, he transitioned with his father rocking and singing to him. Crystall is honest that it was tough and painful to try and go back to what was. As she put it, how do you explain to people what you went through and what you're going through - "There is no baby in me and no baby in my arms."

Crystall attributes that the place she is currently on her journey is due to finding community and other families that had walked in her shoes. Others allowed her to share her truth, all parts of it without question, and with lots of love. There is healing in community, there is support in community, and there is always space in community - in whatever capacity you may need it.

38 & 39 | Reimagining the Village - Tayo Mbande & Toni Taylor

The saying goes, "it takes a village to raise a child" - hearing Tayo and her mother share Tayo's birth experience not only affirms this but reveals it takes a village to birth a mother.

Tayo knew for her third pregnancy and birth; she was going to need to facilitate her experience with intense intention. From her previous births, birthing at a hospital was not an option, so with the support of her mother and husband, she prepared to have a family homebirth, absent of a midwife. Yet, this pregnancy was opposite from her others, and there was a point where she thought her homebirth wouldn't come to fruition. Tayo relied heavily on her mother for support throughout her earlier births. This time around, her mother pushed for Tayo and her husband to create a stronger bond they could depend on and believe in each other as a support unit.

Reimagining her village, she let herself to be fully loved and cared for, throughout the pregnancy, her birth, and at the beginning of her postpartum and still currently. Everyone showing up for her makes her show up for herself.

Tayo and Toni have a beautiful bond; they have now created a space to support and uplift the families in their community in that same sacred love. The Chicago Birth Collective is the village, a collective of birth workers, healers, and wellness practitioners serving and healing Black families across Chicago.

32 | Navigating Motherhood Through The Lens of Postpartum Depression - Briara Lowery

After having her son, she expressed that physically she healed well, yet struggled healing mentally. When considering what postpartum might look like, she didn't think postpartum depression was something that would affect her. Looking at all the risk factors, in her mind, she didn't fit the mold. Her experience with postpartum depression required her to process her birth, examine how she was taking care of herself, and reflect on her expectations of what parenthood should look like. In doing that work, she acquired the tools to navigate that part of her postpartum journey.

Briara found power in telling her story and wanted to spread awareness while doing so. She founded Melanin Mommies, a Philadelphia based nonprofit and safe space for pregnant, new and seasoned mothers alike. Lowery noticed that the mothers in her community did not have as much access to resources as other mothers in more affluent areas, and so she decided to make a change. It is a space for mothers of color to connect, find healing, and discuss navigating the realities of motherhood.

20 | Futuristic Midwife - Barbara Verneus

Becoming pregnant with her daughter was a surprise for Barbara. Throughout her pregnancy, birth and postpartum, the community was a vital part of uplifting and supporting her. She discusses that during her pregnancy she was depressed, yet her community called her home and surrounded her in love. At her birth, her church family gave her shoulders to lean on and continued that support as she navigated the postpartum transition. That experience pushed her to keep being a doula and into becoming a midwife.

As we learned from speaking with her, there are only 2% of black midwives in the birth world. Taking that information and combining it with the fact that black women have higher rates of maternal mortality than their white counterparts it highlights why this statistic must change! One way we as a community can help with that change is providing our student midwives with sustainable access to resources. Barbara hopes that by 2020 she will be a midwife and we are here for it!

SUBSCRIBE On your Favorite Podcast Platform

Spotify - Apple Podcasts - Google Podcasts - Stitcher - Amazon Music

© Birthstories in Color 2017

Powered by Squarespace