The Doulas

September 5, 2016
In this thoughtful book, Mahoney and Mitchell chronicle their efforts to bring labor and postpartum support to many women who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford the assistance of a doula. Recognizing that low-income women in particular need support dealing with the “medical industrial complex” and restricted reproductive choice, the authors formed the Doula Project in 2008 and coined the term “full-spectrum doula”: part activist, part advocate, and part direct caregiver; The Doula Project has trained a few thousand full-spectrum doulas to provide support for all pregnancy options and experiences, including birth, abortion, adoption, miscarriage, stillbirth, and perinatal loss. In five sections told mostly from the points of view of different doulas, the book covers the origins and scope of this approach, with personal narratives demonstrating the concerns of the caregivers as well as of the women they support, whatever their choices. The writing is clear, and the message is too: reproductive justice for the poor starts with the “quiet brand of activism” of one-on-one support and telling other people’s stories. A final chapter on how to build a full-spectrum model in other parts of the country outside Mahoney and Mitchell’s home base of New York City, rounds out the book.

September 15, 2016
The story of the transformative Doula Project.Mahoney and Mitchell explain how they were inspired as activists to broaden the reproductive rights movement to make sure that women seeking abortions "have continuous, nonjudgmental physical, emotional, and educational support just like people giving birth." During the summers of 2007 and 2008, they "set out to translate the reproductive justice framework into a more direct-care-oriented approach." They took the term "doula," derived from the Greek name for female slave and in the past only used to describe birth attendants, and adapted it to include "abortion doulas." The authors aimed to include not only women who suffered miscarriages, underwent deliberate abortions, or decided to become single mothers, but also "transgender and gender nonconforming people," and they helped to bridge the gap between birth and abortion activists. As they note, those who sought their help were mainly "women of color, immigrants, and young people." While the main focus of the book is the women they served and the causes they supported, the authors also discuss the problem of caregiver burnout in this emotionally charged field. During the past decade, doulas have been credited with helping to create a more broad-minded acceptance of their craft, and just as significantly, they have gained acceptance by the medical profession, something that was sorely lacking in previous decades. For women without support from family or friends, their presence during medical procedures can be crucial. Doulas represent their clients' wishes when they are unable to do so--e.g., helping to make a decision about induced labor or C-section. This eye-opening book also includes a glossary that defines common terms such as "epidural" as well as less-familiar ones like "dilation and curettage" or "manual vacuum aspiration." Throughout, the authors' stories are vivid, absorbing, and informative. A gripping chronicle that will be especially useful for expectant or aspirational mothers.

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