BJP NYC 09: A Sisterly Approach to Doula Care in NYC with Nicole Jean Baptiste

Black Women's Dept. of Labor

Season 1 Episode 9 features an interview with Nicole Jean Baptiste: a mother of two, a full spectrum community based doula, lactation counselor, yoga instructor, and oral historian. In this week’s episode we discuss Nicole’s journey into birthwork (which includes a bit about her own birth story) as well as the birth injustice she has witnessed in New York City as a doula and as an advocate. We also dive into doula work: from the importance of compensating doulas to valuing doulas as autonomous birthworkers. Nicole offers some sound suggestions and advice for what our City can do to better serve pregnant and parenting people, and folks of reproductive age.

Nicole Jean Baptiste’s Bio:
Of Southern American and Caribbean ancestry and based in the Bronx, New York, Nicole Jean Baptiste strives to center the borough and the Black experience in the birth and social justice activism in which she engages. Nicole is currently a Community Doula Consultant for the New York City Health Department’s COVID-19 Perinatal Taskforce. She is the founder of Sésé Doula Services and co-founder of the Bx (Re)Birth and Progress Collective.

References During the Episode:

• Donate to Bx (Re)Birth and Progress Collective via PayPal and through their registry on Target
• Follow Nicole and Bx (Re)Birth and Progress on Instagram
• Birth Centers in NYC: Brooklyn Birthing Center, Jazz Birthing Center (sister center of the Brooklyn Birthing Center), and the Birthing Center of New York
• To learn more about Amber Rose Isaac and her death, you can read this article in The Guardian

Questions to Consider After the Episode:

• How can our City make doulas more accessible to people who want them and need them?
• How can healthcare institutions and healthcare providers follow the lead of their patients and clients?

Created and Hosted by Taja Lindley
Produced by Colored Girls Hustle
Music, Soundscape and Audio Engineering by Emma Alabaster
Support our work on Patreon or make a one-time payment via PayPal
For more information visit BirthJustice.nyc
This podcast is made possible, in part, by the Narrative Power Stipend - a grant funded by Forward Together for members of Echoing Ida.

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1. BJP NYC 09: A Sisterly Approach to Doula Care in NYC with Nicole Jean Baptiste (00:00:00)

2. How Nicole came to birthwork + 1st birth story (00:07:03)

3. Nicole’s definition of a doula and their role (00:19:10)

4. Journey into birthwork (continued) (00:31:34)

5. Distinctions between midwives & doulas, & among (un)certified doulas (00:37:00)

6. Birth of Sésé Doula Services (00:48:36)

7. Supporting births in NYC (00:55:33)

8. Beyond doula work: oral history project and BX (Re)Birth and Progress (01:11:46)

9. Birth justice definition and vision (01:22:20)

10. Organizing in the wake of Amber Rose Isaac’s death (01:28:03)