On today's podcast, I talk with Tania Silva Meléndez  and Tamara Trinidad González, CPM, birth workers and Evidence Based Birth® Instructors about giving birth and midwifery care in Puerto Rico.   Tania Silva Meléndez  is a certified birth, postpartum, and abortion doula serving families in Puerto Rico since 2009. She's also a certified childbirth educator and breastfeeding/chestfeeding educator and counselor. She is the general coordinator of the team of Caderamen, a nonprofit community-based organization that works towards reducing inequalities in reproductive care, and she also supports Alimentación Segura Infantil, a community-based organization born after the impacts of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 to support breastfeeding and chestfeeding families in their lactation journeys, help them relactate their children when needed. Tania is also a human rights activist and advocate in her community and part of the Observatorio de Violencia Obstétrica in Puerto Rico and Las Mingas de Aborto, an abortion doula collective that offers free support in Puerto Rico.   Tamara Trinidad González, CPM, is a community parteira/midwife, perinatal educator and herbalist born and raised in Puerto Rico. Tamara is a mother of two children who were born at home with midwives and has been actively involved in birth work for 10 years. She holds a Master of Science in midwifery with foundations in botanical medicine from Bastyr University and is a certified professional midwife. Her midwifery and herbal practice is called Semilla Creciente, Midwifery & Herbalism.   In this episode, Tania and Tamara have a very candid conversation about the realities of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum care in Puerto Rico. They speak to how Puerto Rico’s birth landscape has been negatively impacted by the island’s history of colonialism, economic crisis’, environmental changes, and changes in political power. This has culminated in a system with far too few midwives and obstetricians, as well as high surgical birth rates, low VBAC rates, high prematurity rates, and more. Both Tania and Tamara educate our listeners on these issues but also raise awareness to the community organizations who have the trust of the pregnant and postpartum families they serve and the work being done to better support the families of Puerto Rico.   If you are interested in joining with Tania and Tamara and volunteering your time or skills to help them reform the maternal health system in Puerto Rico, they are currently looking for volunteers with experience in law, public relations, funding, data collection, research, and writing. OR if you have resources, or access to connections that could help fund their work, please email [email protected].     Resources: Read about the history of Puerto Rico: ·  How to hide an empire by Daniel Immerwahr ·  Puerto Rico: What everyone needs to know by Jorge Duany   · Learn more about Caderamen, a nonprofit organization that has a service program that is called SePARE, which offers education and doula services, midwifery services and naturopathic medicine services, social workers, mental health by clicking here. · Learn more about the Asociación de Parteras of Puerto Rico here. · Learn more about Alimentación Segura Infantil, a community-based organization born after the impacts of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 to support breastfeeding and chestfeeding families in their lactation journeys by clicking here.  · Learn more about Observatorio de Violencia Obstétrica in Puerto Rico here. · Learn more about Las Mingas de Aborto, an abortion doula collective that offers free support in Puerto Rico here.    Check out the work by Puerto Rican journalist Biana Graulau here: https://www.youtube.com/@BiancaGraulau/videos   If you would like to read a transcript of this episode in Spanish, please visit the blog post here or you can watch the captions in Spanish on YouTube.   For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth®, visit www.ebbirth.com. Follow us on:  TikTok Instagram Pinterest Want to get involved at EBB?  Check out our Professional Membership (including scholarship options) here  Find an EBB Instructor here  Click here to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class

On this episode of the Evidence Based Birth podcast, I talk with Marea Goodman of Restore Midwifery and Ray Rachlin of Refuge Midwifery, all about their work and their new book Baby Making For Everybody- A Guide for LGBTQ+ and Solo Parents.   Marea Goodman, CPM, pronouns she/her/they, is the licensed midwife specializing in pregnancy, birth, postpartum and conception care for the LGBTQ+ community. She's the co-author of the new book Baby Making For Everybody- A Guide for LGBTQ+ and Solo Parents and the founder of PregnantTogether, an online community for queer people and their allies throughout trying to conceive pregnancy and the postpartum.   Ray Rachlin, she/they, is a licensed midwife, certified professional midwife, author, and founder of Refuge Midwifery. Since 2017, Ray has been providing fertility care, home birth care, and community education throughout the greater Philadelphia area and South Jersey. Ray is also co-author of the book Baby Making For Everybody, which just came out in April 2023. Ray and her family live in West Philadelphia.   Marea and Ray join me to discuss their practices as queer midwives and the work they are doing to make the fields of midwifery, fertility, and reproductive health more inclusive, more transparent, and more accessible to the clients they serve. Through their new book, they have demystified and provide comprehensive education on everything regarding baby making from nutrition to legal matters. Their work is the definition reproductive justice – by inviting more families to be included and safe in this space.   Resources: ·       Follow Marea’s work on Instagram @Restore_Midwifery ·       Follow Ray’s work @refugemidwifery ·       Follow the impact of Marea and Ray’s new book on Instagram @babymakingforeverybody and check for additional information and resources on their blog  ·       Join the community PregnantTogether  and on Instagram   Check out the following books: ·       Complete Lesbian Conception Pregnancy Birth. ·       Taking Charge Of Your Fertility    For legal information about family formation near you, check out Family Equality here https://www.familyequality.org   For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth, visit www.ebbirth.com. Find us on:  TikTok Instagram Pinterest Want to get involved at EBB?  Check out our Professional Membership (including scholarship options) here  Find an EBB Instructor here  Click here to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth Childbirth Class.

On today's episode we are bringing back one of the most popular Signature Article episodes on the Evidence on Birthing Positions. Listen and learn more about: How upright birthing positions benefit pregnant people and babies, How common are upright birthing positions and understanding your options, Which birthing positions are best supported by evidence, and, For people with epidurals, which birthing positions are best supported by evidence. Read more about The Evidence on: Birthing Positions on the blog.  For parents - learn more about your options and sign up for the EBB Childbirth Class here . For birth professionals - get access to the full-length signature articles here.  Don't forget to join the conversation on social:  Instagram TikTok YouTube  

Content note: We strongly encourage you to listen to EBB Podcast Episode 277 The Evidence on PROM and check out our recently updated Signature Article on PROM here before listening to this episode.    Content Warnings: Discussion of viability, complications with preterm birth, causes of preterm birth, and racism.    On this episode of the EBB Podcast, we bring you a mini episode on the research on Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes. We are excited to share this episode as an extension of the recent Signature Article update on PROM.    In this episode, I will cover the following topics:   What is Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes (PPROM)? How Common is it?  What Causes Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes (PPROM)?  When does Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes (PPROM) occur? Treatment Options for Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes (PPROM) Risks associated with Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes (PPROM) Prevention of Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes (PPROM) and Pre-Term Birth  Racism and Pre-Term Birth  Resources for PPROM   The PPROM Foundation: PPROM Facts Nationwide Children’s Hospital: PPROM Facts Cleveland Clinic: Term PROM and PPROM Facts Continuing Education for Medical Practitioners: Premature Rupture of Membranes EBB Signature Article: Anti-Racism in Health Care and Birth Work The March of Dimes: PPROM  Read our Signature Article on GBS here  Read our Abortion Resource Guide here   Guidelines for PPROM American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists 2020 (addresses both PROM and PPROM, free text not available) National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (UK) 2022 Queensland Health Clinical Guidelines 2018  Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 2022 Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada 2022 (free text not available)   Listen to the following EBB Episodes and read the associated Signature Articles:  EBB 277 - Evidence on PROM  EBB 175 - Evidence on Midwives  EBB 265 - Evidence on Anti-Racism in Health Care and Birth Work  EBB 21 - Evidence on Doulas  EBB 240 - Top 5 Surprising Findings from the EBB Abortion Research Guide with Dr. Dekker & Doctoral Candidate Tyler Jean Dukes    For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth, visit www.ebbirth.com. Find us on:  TikTok Instagram Pinterest Want to get involved at EBB?  Check out our Professional Membership (including scholarship options) here  Find an EBB Instructor here  Click here to learn more about the Evidence Based BirthChildbirth Class.  

On this episode of the EBB podcast, I talk with Nekisha Killings, IBCLC and founder of The Melanated Mammary Atlas®, all about cultural humility and educating clinicians and birth workers about identifying and diagnosing conditions that present in Black and Brown breasts/chests.   Nekisha Killings, holds a master's in public health (MPH) and is an international board certified lactation consultant (IBCLC). She's an equity strategist and maternal and child health advocate who speaks, teaches and facilitates on topics related to equity and dismantling bias across various sectors. She is also a director of equity, inclusion, and belonging with the Black Mothers' Breastfeeding Association and consults with organizations on implementing creative strategies to better support marginalized communities. As a leader in the field, she wrote the chapter titled Cultural Humility in the latest core curriculum for interdisciplinary lactation care and continues to wow audiences with new realizations that positively impact their approach to business and life.   Nekisha shares how she's working to change the face of lactation education and bring equity, inclusion, diversity and most importantly training and education to clinicians and birth workers around the normalization of Black and Brown breasts/chests, as well as, identifying and diagnosing clinical conditions that present on melanated skin. Not only is Nekisha working to revolutionize how we understand many pathologies in lactation, she shares how she has been entrusted to carry forward in the production of the pivotal Breastfeeding Atlas and ensure that future clinicians and folks vested in the lactation dyad have access to accurate, complete, and inclusive information.   Content Warning: Discussion of birth/lactation trauma and lack of diversity and inclusion in lactation training.   Resources:   Follow The Melanated Mammary Atlas® on Instagram  Follow Nekisha on Instagram    Learn more and subscribe to The Melanated Mammary Atlas® here  Learn more about Nekisha and her work here   Find The Breastfeeding Atlas here    Learn about the Black Mothers' Breastfeeding Association  Learn about Black Breastfeeding Week    Listen to EBB episodes:   EBB 214 - Supporting Pumping Parents in Lactation with IBCLC, Nichelle Clark EBB 211 - Supporting Expectant Families through Birth and Lactation with Birth Doula and EBB Program Team Assistant, Rikki Jenkins EBB 189 - Why Black Lactation Matters and the Importance of Black Breastfeeding Week with IBCLC, Janiya Mitnaul Williams   For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth®, visit www.ebbirth.com. Find us on:  TikTok Instagram Pinterest Want to get involved at EBB?  Check out our Professional Membership (including scholarship options) here  Find an EBB Instructor here  Click here to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth Childbirth Class.