Black Women Are 3-5x More Likely To Die Of Pregnancy-Related Causes Than White Women — Baby Dove Is Looking To Change That

What’s more, Baby Dove will team up with Chanel Porchia-Albert, Founder of Ancient Song Doula Services & Co-Creator of JustBirth Space, to launch “#DearDoula.”

The content series will provide helpful tips and recommendations to mothers across social media platforms and open the floor for questions surrounding pregnancy, labor and delivery, postpartum care, and baby care.

“DearDoula offers an opportunity to bring forth information and education to a broader community that allows for more conversations to happen, to provide resources in under-resourced areas, but also put action behind the talk like the Dear Doula Series intersecting with the Black Birth Equity Fund. We are not just saying, ‘Oh, here’s a resource. You could have a doula,’ but also giving people the financial resources to be able to do that,” Porchia-Albert​ told AfroTech.

She continued: “Through the grants that are provided and offering grant services up to $1,300, it offers people the opportunity to get those doulas. So, you’re not just learning about them, you’re also accessing them, you’re having an opportunity to center what it means for you to have a healthy pregnancy and have the resources that you need.”

Porchia-Albert​ will continue to work closely with Baby Dove as she is also set to be a featured key speaker at the upcoming Black Maternal Health Conference in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 17-18. The conference will welcome topics targetting the maternal health gap.

“It’s really important to understand the impact that we’re all facing in Black, brown, and indigenous communities. The Black maternal health numbers, we are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications or experience a near miss,” Porchia-Albert​ told AfroTech. “Our Hispanic and our indigenous cousins find themselves in the same predicaments. Oftentimes we are living and reside in the same communities together. We’re accessing the same resources. We’re finding ourselves in spaces that are not necessarily affirming us. And when we start to bring in language barriers, as well as maybe folks who may be undocumented, at a different literacy level, all of the different intersections, it’s important for us to center a framework of doulas who are working from a community-based model and understanding the intersections of care, understanding how the impacts of how life and our cultural identity can impact how we’re able to or not access healthcare resources.”