Key Points
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..
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"...
"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...
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...
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."..
