Women's History Month and Birth Justice
For Women’s History Month, KC Black Owned is highlighting women business owners and celebrating their strength, tenacity, and their persistence.
Today is the last day of Women's History Month so it is only fitting that we highlight a woman whose business is built on the desire to empower other women in a field where there is little research, very high stakes, and a disappointing amount of misinformation: birth.
What is a Doula?
Ashley Haden-Peaches, owner of Peachy Births, is a doula and lactation consultant. A common misconception is that a doula delivers babies, but a doula is someone who is trained to assist a birthing person with maintaining body autonomy, informed consent, and who often acts as an advocate on behalf of the birthing person.
Arguably, birth is a traumatic event. Here in the US, it is especially so when hospitals prioritize policies over individual people. Not only is maternal death rate alarmingly high in the United States but Black birthing people are 3 times more likely to die due to pregnancy or birth complications. Thanks to many factors like societal norms, healthcare-related interventions, and a field that has been classically dominated by white men, the business of birth is built on a system that, unfortunately, results in a large number of poor birth outcomes. Ashley’s mission is to save birthing people from these poor birth outcomes.
Birth Justice
Ashley is deeply invested in birth justice and works hard to reach true justice in her practice: ensuring that all people, regardless of gender, race, or creed, has an advocate to help them reach their birth goals. Ashley is clear in that she is doing this to save lives. Her goal is to connect families to the resources that offer them support, connection, knowledge, and most importantly, empowerment.
A quick peek at her website reveals that she is determined to offer these support to every body, even if she never meets them. To assist the community and further advance birth justice, she has a list of local Black OBGYNs and a whole host of resources that anyone is welcome to.
Big Impact on Families
Ashley is also a social worker, though she hopes to be able to move to birth work full-time in the near future. She became interested in birth work while she was working on a project to reduce infant mortality. When her wife became pregnant, Ashley decided to seek certification to become a doula, primarily to assist in the birth of their child. But Ashley was still interested in the work and Peachy Births was born.
Ashely’s work does make a difference. Studies show that birthing people who hire doulas have a 14% less risk of their newborns being admitted to the NICU, 28% decrease in the risk of a cesarean birth, and 34% decrease in being dissatisfied with the birth experience. In a country where unsatisfied birth experiences are the norm, these statistics can make a huge impact on birthing people and their families.
As a social worker, Ashley has a lot of tools in her toolbox. “Social work informs the type of birth worker I am,” she tells us, “I am trauma informed, culturally aware, inclusive, and I help people understand that I do not have any desire for it to be any specific way.” In a country where birth is scary and more than a quarter of women are sexually assaulted sometime in their lives, Ashley’s background blends seamlessly with her birth work.
Women and Birth Work
When asked about Women’s History Month, Ashley points to those who have come before her: “Especially in birth there is a rich history of women who have advanced the field,” Ashley tells us, “we see this all the time like how we talk about things that we did not used to like tongue ties, episiotomies, ect. I think that there have been so many women who have taken the time to put time into these topics.” Ashley is inspired by those women who have had poor birth experiences and then sought ways to change things for others.
Our favorite thing about Ashley is her advocacy. As a social worker, she has helped many, many people in the community but she went beyond that. As she worked within the community, she identified a need and she rose to the challenge: to help save lives, empower birthing people, and to advocate for birth justice.
If you are moved by Ashley and her work, consider donating to her community fund that helps connect low income birthing people with Ashely’s doula or lactation services.
