outlaw midwives

Photo

Mon, 20 May 2013 18:35:05 -0400

wrcsolace: divalocity: Solange Rocks! she looks like she’s...

Mon, 20 May 2013 18:28:55 -0400

divalocity:

Solange Rocks!

she looks like she’s running up the stairs in the first pic because of all of the movement in her dress. I LOVE THAT SHIT.

Virginia GOP Nominee For Attorney General Would Force Women To Report Their Miscarriages To Police

Mon, 20 May 2013 18:27:35 -0400

Virginia GOP Nominee For Attorney General Would Force Women To Report Their Miscarriages To Police:

robot-heart-politics:

abaldwin360:

If a woman in Virginia has a miscarriage without a doctor present, they must report it within 24 hours to the police or risk going to jail for a full year. At least, that’s what would have happened if a bill introduced by Virginia state Sen. Mark Obenshain (R) had become law. And yet, the […]

*sigh*

Somewhere between 10% and 25% of pregnancies end in miscarriage. 1 in 4 people who can get pregnant will experience a miscarriage. A miscarriage is a completely normal, natural process that happens surprisingly frequently. Why on earth should it be reported to law enforcement, and how on earth does this not constitute gross government overreach into people’s private lives?

fyeahblackmamas: Lola Monroe & son Brixton

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:05:48 -0400

fyeahblackmamas:

Lola Monroe & son Brixton

katiohead: Did you know that the United States has the highest...

Fri, 10 May 2013 02:02:27 -0400

katiohead:

Did you know that the United States has the highest first-day infant death rate in the industrialized world?

That’s 50% more first-day deaths than all other industrialized countries combined.

We can do better.

thegoddamazon: reservationsatdorsiaxo: desperatemonkeys: felii...

Mon, 06 May 2013 21:38:49 -0400

thegoddamazon:

reservationsatdorsiaxo:

desperatemonkeys:

feliidaesabers:

veeoneeye:

If I was a female, this post would just be the best.

I can’t breathe

I’m a dude and this belongs on my tumblr haha

I still can’t get over this.

This thing is the best thing; all other things are inferior to this thing.

thesewatersrundeep: “African American Midwife Maude Callen...

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:30:27 -0400

thesewatersrundeep:

“African American Midwife Maude Callen Delivering a Baby” by W. Eugene Smith, 1951

One remarkable moment in the public depiction of the midwife occurred in December 1951, when in a photo-essay for Life magazine, W. Eugene Smith introduced Mrs. Maude Callen, a nurse midwife practicing in rural South Carolina.

Callen traveled 36,000 miles a year over back roads to administer the only medical care many poor [B]lacks were likely to receive.

Maude Callen persuaded [the Division of Maternal and Child Health assistant director] to secure Penn Center, originally a school for newly freed slaves, as a site for the [midwifery] institutes because of its symbolic value in the Lowcountry communities served disproportionally by midwives. Training took place in the historic school buildings beneath moss-draped live oaks on a barrier island claimed by [B]lack farm families after the Civil War. Participants frequently described the experience as “inspirational.”

Working in the rural South in the 1950s, in “an area of some 400 square miles veined with muddy roads,” as LIFE put it, Callen served as “doctor, dietician, psychologist, bail-goer and friend” to thousands of poor (most of them desperately poor) patients…After the piece was published, LIFE subscribers from all over the country sent donations, large and small, to help Mrs. Callen in what one reader called “her magnificent endeavor”…

Maude Callen died in 1990 at the age of 91 in Pineville, South Carolina, where she had lived, and served, for seven decades.

All My Babies Film

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 07:36:57 -0400

All My Babies Film:

ynannarising:

“All My Babies: A Midwife’s Own Story Synopsis” This beautiful film is the story of “Miss Mary” Coley an African-American midwife more than half a century ago in rural Georgia. Conceived as a demonstration film for “granny” midwives its production sponsored by the Georgia Department of Public Health All My Babies quickly transcended its initial purpose. It was used around the world by UNESCO and has become an enduring classic of non-fiction film.

"We at the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives (NACM) have been deeply moved and inspired by the..."

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:26:21 -0400

“We at the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives (NACM) have been deeply moved and inspired by the vision, commitment, and endurance of the Nishiyuu Walkers who set out from the community of Whapmagoostui located in northern Cree territory on an important and urgent mission. These young men, who have since been joined by dozens of other young men and women, set out in frigid sub-zero weather two months ago to snowshoe and eventually walk their way down from the northern Hudson Bay coast all the way to Ottawa on a mission for their people and for all Indigenous peoples of this land. They will cover over 1,500 km during their journey. They seek unity between First Nations in support of each other and in defence of the sovereignty of our Nations, as well as to protect this beautiful land and water that we live upon and beside. They call attention to the fact that we depend upon this land and water for our very lives and it is gravely threatened. They call for a new and better relationship between Indigenous peoples and the government of Canada. This journey is an extraordinary and courageous act. In the words of journalist Cathryn Atkinson, “these are ordinary young people who are also extraordinary young people. They deserve our respect.””

- Press Release: NACM supports the Nishiyuu Walkers | National Aboriginal Council Of Midwives (NACM)

The Alliance Of African Midwives

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:55:51 -0400

The Alliance Of African Midwives:

guerrillamamamedicine:

great resources available from the perspective of african midwives…

notesonascandal: It’s INCREDIBLY hard for me to stomach the disrespect I see from Black men to...

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 11:22:24 -0400

notesonascandal:

It’s INCREDIBLY hard for me to stomach the disrespect I see from Black men to Black women when last night I saw a Black woman LITERALLY have her body cut into to deliver her Black male child and within 30 mins of that, had him suckling at her breasts. All while smiling and happy and calling him a King.

I just…seriously. I can’t take it.

fuckyeahsexualhealth: Stats on maternal death from unsafe...

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 04:03:54 -0400

fuckyeahsexualhealth:

Stats on maternal death from unsafe abortions.

forwomenseyesonly | Smile! You’re at a woman friendly site.

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 22:34:17 -0500

forwomenseyesonly | Smile! You’re at a woman friendly site.:

guerrillamamamedicine:

questioning the necessity of pelvic exams.

Going It Alone: Survey Says Black Mothers Get Little Help, Services & Support While Giving Birth

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:16:24 -0500

Going It Alone: Survey Says Black Mothers Get Little Help, Services & Support While Giving Birth

ancient-song-doula-services: The traditional midwives of Isiolo...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 17:16:51 -0500

ancient-song-doula-services:

The traditional midwives of Isiolo (by DNKenya)

Traditional Birth with Midwives and doula’s(women of the village)!

zuky: dynamicafrica: The Dry Nurse (1909) Madagascar “Dry...

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:46:25 -0500

zuky:

dynamicafrica:

The Dry Nurse (1909)

Madagascar

“Dry Nurse Bara — Malgaches Type”

In The Depth of These Waters

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 22:27:54 -0500

In The Depth of These Waters:

ynannarising:

“My passion for birthing work comes from my sacred wound. Birthing heals me. It has helped me understand what I have lost so long ago. It has shown me how to get it back, or at the very least, the path. I have discovered that it is deeper than just my own family and mother. That a deeply sick community savagely ripped form their motherland centuries ago has not healed from the trauma. Serving mothers has healed me. I have become connected to a bigger sisterhood of women learning to mother themselves; this has given me access to learning how to mother myself. This softens the ache slowly but surely. Observing women and talking to them allows me to listen to me deeply; it has also expanded my capacity to forgive and have compassion for my mother’s way of being. That in the precarious situation that Afro-descendant people find themselves in, the healing work requires a collective effort to remember the pain and reclaim what has been stolen.”

okay someone asked me why do i have issues with squat magazine…but i am having trouble getting...

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 07:07:31 -0500

okay someone asked me why do i have issues with squat magazine…but i am having trouble getting tumblr to let me answer them so i am just going to write this publicly…

the editors of squat magazine when they first came out were incredibly disrespectful to me. like bingo card white girl racist. i am still over two years later kind of amazed at how that went down. and it is pretty hard to surprise me by white girl racism…but yeah, they managed.

so i dont deal with them.

now they are claiming to be anti racist allies and to be supporting midwives of color who walked away from mana, because mana pulled the exact same racist shit of those moc, as squat pulled on me.

the irony is fucking killer.

i guess the part that kind of sticks with me, over all this time, is when they claimed that them publishing an article by me was them ‘helping’ me to get my name out and getting publicity for outlaw midwives, when they had only published one issue at the time…

also on a petty side, i just really hate the name squat. like i know its supposed to be fun and punchy, but really it just reminds me of shitting in asian toilets…

"When I introduce the concept of reproductive justice to new audiences, at lectures or workshops, I..."

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 02:40:54 -0500

“When I introduce the concept of reproductive justice to new audiences, at lectures or workshops, I always frame it in the same way. I use a really simple exercise, where I draw a stick figure on a piece of butcher paper, or an easel, or a chalkboard. Then I ask the question: “What things in this person’s life will impact their ability to create the family they want to create?” Usually it takes a few minutes for the audience to get going, but within five or ten minutes the result is a stick figure with many, many issues written in bubbles around them. Things like religion, money, environment, language, race, gender, sexuality, laws, incarceration end up surrounding the person.

This activity is a pretty decent illustration of my definition of reproductive justice—it’s working to build a world where everyone has what they need to create the family they want to create. And that work requires incorporating and taking into account all of those items written in bubbles on the diagram, as well as many we probably leave out. Almost always this exercise results in “ah ha” moments, and it’s had a striking universality—from using it with college students to using it in Latina immigrant communities on the border. Reproductive justice is an easier concept to explain in ten minutes than in a two-word soundbite, like pro-choice, but that additional context also allows for so many more of the issues and challenges or our every day lives to be made visible and explicitly included in our work.”

- The Meaning of Reproductive Justice: Simplifying a Complex Concept | RH Reality Check (via becauseiamawoman)

katiohead: Your vocabulary lesson of the day is “To be born in...

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 06:35:36 -0500

katiohead:

Your vocabulary lesson of the day is “To be born in the caul”

We say that babies are born in the caul when they are born with their membranes intact surrounded by their amniotic fluid. It’s pretty uncommon for it to happen much in hospitals now because many nurse midwives and obstetricians break laboring women’s water to try to speed along labor. I have seen a few at home births, in fact the first baby I caught as an apprentice midwife was a baby girl born in the caul at midnight on a full moon. It was a pretty special birth! <3 This little one seems to have had a surgical assist into this world.

And now you’ve had a peek into the fetal world from which we all originated and a little lesson in natural childbirth vocabulary.