doulaproject.org

See the beautiful flyer for this event here!

Please join us for a night of festivities in honor of The Doula Project! ....and also the 30th Birthday Party of the Doula Project's Fearless Accountant Lauren White! Who has agreed to make this her birthday party on one condition! That it be a...

Contra Dance! - (http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Contra_dance) with The Ok Pals (http://www.joedepaolo.com/ projects.html). It's ok that you have NO IDEA what that is. It's also ok that you have secretly stolen off to Western Mass every fall to get your fix. This is a New England style line dance and you will learn Everything You Need to Know when you get here! The Contra Dance begins PROMPTLY at 8:30pm!

I’m still fairly new to this whole reproductive rights scene as an advocate, not just a participant. In the past I’ve only been concerned with my own choices. Now I continually get to discuss other people’s journeys and their choices. As an activist and as a doula, I get to stand with these people. My own personal choices take a backseat, as I become absorbed in every one's rights, not just my own. I got to have my first in-depth birth control talk this week.

A lovely woman, mother and wife went through a vacuum aspiration that she had kept private from her husband. She is primarily a Spanish speaker, but could see I am definitely (and unfortunately) not, so we were both patient with each other as we chatted in the recovery room. I asked why she wanted to start using birth control pills and if she felt like it would be easy implementing them into her daily routine. Pills were just what she was most familiar with though she had never used them before. I suggested she think about some of the other methods available especially if birth control was something her husband did not agree with and she felt would be a secret.  She went home with more information and she earnestly said she would think about this decision more.

I can never put into words how thankful I am for having my two doulas during my pregnancy. What was most important was that I was able to learn from them how to stand up for myself and my beliefs during a very important time in my life. I had such a wonderful experience that now, two years later, I'm a happy doula giving back to others.

— Wendy

Dear Friends,

If you have been waiting for an opportunity to support The Doula Project – now is the time!

We are a volunteer led and run non-profit organization offering free doula care to women across the full spectrum of pregnancy options. The Doula Project works to connect the choices, needs, and experiences of people across this spectrum and to provide on-site support for our clients no matter what their choices may be. Since 2008, our 50 trained abortion and birth doulas have provided physical, emotional, and informational support to more than 5,000 women in New York City who have faced birth, abortion, miscarriage, stillbirth induction, and adoption.

Until I started working with abortion, I never knew exactly how to articulate what I love about birth—what pulls me to keep these crazy hours, spend 36 hours straight in a hospital, stay surgically attached to my phone.  I pursued a doula career for several years, but when people asked about my motivation, I could only vaguely describe my very real, life-long fascination with pregnancy and birth.  At the time I hadn’t yet connected it to my other very real, life-long fascination with abortion.  Learning, talking, reading and thinking about both filled hundreds of fascinated hours throughout my life—usually in very different settings and conversations—and while I had become a doula with the intention of doing full-spectrum work, I never realized how naturally these seeming-opposites connected in my mind.