'She Made Me Feel Seen and Heard.' Black Doulas Offer Support
Jacquesta Michel’s baby shower was supposed to be themed around her favorite Disney movie, The Lion King. Then her blood pressure spiked. Instead of dancing and eating Simba cake, the Florida mom and licensed clinical social worker found herself in the hospital in July nearly three months before her due date. At night, she slept fitfully, worrying that she and her baby wouldn’t survive.
During those stressful weeks, her lifeline was Sabine Renois, a birth doula. Renois would show up at the hospital in Fort Lauderdale every day for hours at a time. Michel had a midwife, but it was Renois who translated and softened the alarming language from nurses and doctors. She massaged Michel’s neck and ears with essential oils and assured her that whatever happened, she could handle it.
With Renois’ help, Michel would fall back asleep, sending her blood pressure down. But over time, it crept back up and eventually she had to undergo an emergency cesarean section. While that wasn’t in her dream birth plan, Renois had already given baby Ezra more time to grow and eased Michel’s anxiety, making everything more bearable.
“This is the most traumatic thing I’ve ever experienced,” Michel said. “And I’m so glad Sabine was there. Her whole presence – her voice, the words she used – it was all very calming.”
Doulas like Renois are non-clinical health care workers trained to tend to the physical and emotional needs of women and other birthing people during pregnancy, childbirth and beyond. They’ve been around for centuries – the word comes from the ancient Greek and today means “one who mothers the mother.” In the U.S., they are slowly becoming more widely used, partly as a way to address longstanding inequities that lead to higher rates of premature births, pregnancy complications and maternal deaths among mothers of color.
While the first year after a child’s birth is a time of joy and bonding, it can also be a time of risk: Suicidality is now considered a leading cause of maternal mortality for women in the year after they give birth. Postpartum mood disturbance, although usually mild and short-lived, affects up to 85% of women, with 10-15% experiencing depression and anxiety and 1-2 women per 1000 developing postpartum psychosis.
But doula support not only leads to reduced birth complications and higher rates of breastfeeding, it also boosts new mothers’ mental health. A recent study found that women using doulas had a nearly 65% reduction in odds of developing postpartum depression and/or postpartum anxiety, provided doulas were present during labor and delivery.
