Just ten days ago I finished law school, but it is with a heavy heart that I write to inform you all that I am relocating outside of DC.
I moved to DC in the summer of 2010 in order to pursue a JD/MPH program and increase my knowledge of healthcare issues, reproductive justice, and policies affecting pregnant persons and families. While in law and grad school, I have had the immense privilege of working with DC-area families as a birth and postpartum doula, childbirth educator and advocate, lactation counselor, and placenta specialist.
I am grateful to the people and families that allowed me to share in such special, precious, and important moments in their lives. I learned so much from each of the people with whom I worked and am forever humbled by the opportunity to support them and their families.
Additionally, this work allowed me to glimpse the ways in which laws and policies affect healthcare decision-making. This work encouraged me to keep researching, keep writing, keep learning, and work with law school and public health peers to increase awareness around the unique ways that laws and policies affect pregnant persons.
In the coming weeks, I will be relocating to Florida for a few months to work at a birth center, complete my MPH thesis, and spend time with family. Come May 2014, I'll graduate, move back to New York City, and begin studying for the New York and New Jersey bar exams.
I'm not sure what the future holds, but I do know that we need to work to improve birth, reproductive justice, and human rights in this country. We must increase access to to quality healthcare providers (midwives! doulas! lactation professionals!) to eliminate racial disparities in birth outcomes and breastfeeding rates. We must prioritize healthcare and minimize unnecessary medical interventions and defensive medicine. We must work toward addressing the social determinants of health that disenfranchise lower-income and/or marginalized communities from meaningful health care. We must create and hold space for those who are subjected to systemic violence and oppressions through the medical-industrial and prison-industrial complexes. We must listen to pregnant people and trust them to make the decisions that are best for them and their families.
Most importantly, we tmust rebuild histories and support communities in their efforts to be safe, healthy, and exercise informed consent and refusal.
IMPORTANT NOTE TO CLIENTS
If you email for doula, lactation, and/or placenta services in the DC metropolitan area, I will do my absolute best to connect you to providers able to work with you! For more information, please email me at basildoulas@gmail.com.
In solidarity,
Shandanette
