Full-Spectrum Doula Work & Reproductive Justice

I first came across the concept of reproductive justice as I was reading “The Doula Project: Radical Care for Pregnant People” as I was beginning my doula training over two years ago. This book takes up the evolution of the Doula Project - an organization that sprouted up in 2008 to provide doula support to people receiving abortions. The organizers of this project faced some pushback from birth doulas who claimed abortion doulas did not practice doula work. 

In order to counter these claims, the organization came up with the term “full-spectrum doulas” in order to describe the folks who support pregnant people, no matter the outcome of the pregnancy (Mahoney & Mitchell, Loc. 182). Full-spectrum doulas provide emotional, physical, educational support. We hold space for our client’s during abortions - elective or spontaneous, miscarriages, stillbirths, birth, and the postpartum period. 

What allowed these doulas to conceptualize full-spectrum doula work was the reproductive justice framework born from Black women in the 1990s. This framework relies upon the human rights framework and asserts three rights -- the right to have children, the right to not have children, and the right to parent the children one has in safe and healthy communities (Ross 171). 

As a collective, we work towards reproductive justice by centering the autonomy of our clients and helping support their reproductive experiences as desired. We work with individuals, but we also seek to work with community-based organizations doing work towards reproductive justice. 

Sources:

Mahoney, Mary and Lauren Mitchell. The Doulas: Radical Care for Pregnant People. New York City, the Feminist Press, 2016. 
Ross, Loretta J. “Conceptualizing Reproductive Justice Theory: A Manifesto for Activism,” Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice, Critique. Ed by Ross et al. New York: Feminist Press. 2017.