Latino doulas can help mums in their communities incorporate specific cultural practices, overcome language barriers, navigate disparities in the healthcare system and discuss their challenges. Surey Rodriguez-Cortes, a certified birth, postpartum and infant-care doula, is one of them.
“Each year, I see more Latinx and other people of colour enter doula work,” she says. And this specialisation is becoming increasingly vital, as maternal resources for people of colour are caught in a US political firestorm amid the post-Roe v Wade landscape. In Alabama, for instance, activists are currently fighting the shutdown of birthing centres in majority-black communities.
A doula’s goal is the same across racial and ethnic divides, explains Rodriguez-Cortes: to foster “an empowered and respectful birth and postpartum experience where, regardless of how events might unfold, the birthing people we support feel truly seen and heard throughout”.
But birthing parents of colour often face barriers to maternal care, both before and after their child arrives. It’s an urgent problem in the US, where maternal deaths are the highest in the industrialised world, and maternal mortality rates for women of colour outstrip those of white mums.
“This field has been composed predominantly of middle-class white women for decades,” says Rodrigues-Cortes, who was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and is now based in Massachusetts. “While [these doulas] can certainly support people of other backgrounds and cultures, there are nuances of the lived experience as ‘other’ that they will never fully grasp and might not even be aware of. “
Many women of colour don’t have adequate support when it’s time to give birth, especially in cultures that discourage conversations about pregnancy and childbirth struggles: an idea known as “la ropa sucia se lava en casa” (don’t wash your dirty laundry in public).
Yet a rising group of Latino doulas is emerging to help break down these barriers, and provide birthing parents the specialised help they’ve long lacked. Rodrigues-Cortes explains how Latino doulas give much-needed support to marginalised communities – and why they’ve never been more important.
How are Latino doulas different than other doulas?
“Latino doulas bring slightly different cultural awareness and personal-experience background when working with clients in the Latinx community that a white, non-Latinx doula cannot fully understand or emulate, given our different personal histories.
It’s not that a non-Latinx doula cannot support Latinx birthing people and families. However, such support might be missing cultural considerations, such as including Spanish language or music during birth, understanding the unique Latino postpartum ritual of ‘cuarentena’ and first-hand experience with the challenges of coming from an immigrant family background. [These are missing] simply because they are unaware of these from their own lived experiences. And this is without getting into potential language barriers for many Latinx clients, especially first-generation immigrants.
The system was not designed with us in mind. Due to the large-scale human trials of the birth control pill that occurred in Puerto Rico in the 50s, and the mass sterilisation campaigns aimed specifically at women of colour in the 60s and 70s, there is understandable, long-standing generational trauma and distrust of the healthcare system.
Thus, having someone with experience navigating these disparities and anticipating the challenges [a pregnant woman] may face can be crucial not only to our birth and postpartum experience, but also to our survival and thriving as new mothers and parents.”
How do Latino cultural rituals and practices fit into this work?
“One of the most common Latinx cultural practices and concepts surrounding childbearing is the ‘cuarentena‘ during the early postpartum period. This is when a birthing parent/baby dyad is meant to rest and bond in semi-seclusion in their home for the first 40 days after the birth.
Having to leave the home [for paediatrician appointments] during a period of culturally expected rest, when we are already physically and emotionally vulnerable, makes the cuarentena practice often unfeasible. Add to that the lack of comprehensive parental leave policies in the US, and in the case of immigrant families, there may be no familial or cultural community support and safety nets where they are located.
Surey Rodriguez-Cortes, interviewed here, is a Massachusetts-based doula (Credit: VIVID LIFE Experience)
Having postpartum doula support, especially from a doula of a similar background, who understands this period’s cultural nuances and expectations, can help make the most of the leave time new parents get [even if 40 days of at-home isolation is not possible]. In those first few weeks at home, a doula can help a Latina mum maximize her time for physical recovery and baby bonding by providing assistance with small tasks around the home, preparing culturally specific nourishing meals, and helping to find community resources and additional supports.”
Why do Latino mums struggle to access the right care?
“The biggest barrier to support for Latinx and other BIPOC [black, indigenous and people of colour] birthing parents is lack of knowledge. While it was not uncommon in many of our cultures to have midwives and doula-like support from family and community members … many Latinx families have never even heard the word ‘doula’ until hearing it during pregnancy, oftentimes entirely by chance at a childbirth education course or in a book.
[There are also] language barriers that make making fully informed decisions surrounding their or their baby’s care more difficult. We [can also be] reluctant to express doubts or concerns to our doctors and medical staff. I have often witnessed an expectant parent try to express such sentiments only to be dismissed by an older family member with something like, ‘Listen to the doctor, they’re the professional, just do what they tell you, they know better.’
And, of course, there are financial barriers to securing doula support. Traditionally, doulas have been hired privately at an out-of-pocket cost for families. They have been seen as a luxury, mostly hired by white, well-off women. While a doula is not needed for birthing a baby and recovering postpartum, we know that studies show the tangible benefits.
Plus, given the maternal mortality crisis in the US, and the documented disparities in care and outcomes for black and brown birthing people, the unbiased support, education and continuity of care a doula can add to their experience while navigating maternity care in this country can make a huge difference in the birthing parent feeling empowered and heard.”
This interview was edited for clarity
