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“Young Mother’s Bill of Rights,” Melanie Cervantes (2009).

The Center For Young Women’s Development in San Francisco asked me to partner with them to create a poster and postcards to popularize the Young Mother’s Bill of Rights. The Center was integral to creating the Bill of Rights through a campaign they won. San Francisco Juvenile Hall has accepted and agreed to implement the Center’s ten-point Young Mother’s Bill of Rights, which sets forth the rights of pregnant and parenting young woman and young fathers who are locked in juvenile hall. They wanted young men and women to know their rights as parents and felt that a compelling graphic would help grab the attention of the young people in lockup so we made a few hundred posters and thousands of postcards to give out to the young people.

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My 2.5 year old son breastfeeding his new baby “Frederick the Baby” 💜💜💜💜#doulakids #doulalife #doula #breastfeeding #wildcatbirth

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Here are the newest additions to our lending library! To check out all of our titles and to see our wishlist go to wildcatbirth.libib.com. Baltimore birth workers and parents, let us know if you want to borrow any titles. #lendinglibrary #baltimore #birth #doula #transhealth #womenshealth #pregnancy #wildcatbirth

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Loooove this piece from @wildhomegirl #birth #bodies #doula #baltimore

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One of the projects we're working on is building a lending library. Check out our wishlist at wildcatbirth.libib.com 📚

Wildcat Birth is building a lending library of resources for birthing parents with limited resources, birth workers and children with incarcerated parents. This is part of our larger project of building a community center here in Baltimore that will help house and fund our volunteer doula services for parents who are incarcerated, homeless, survivors of abuse and dealing with addiction. Consider donating to us! wildcatbirth.libib.com http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/?ie=UTF8&cid=A1ATQWY49P4SBC

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From the great folks of @prisonbirthproject - One of our goals is to provide #doula support to incarcerated parents in Maryland 👭 #healthcareisahumanright

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Repost from @cccaaaarrrlyn We've been hard at work this week! 💪 #doula #healthcare #baltimore

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Image of Diego Rivera breastfeeding from the book "Frida Kahlo: Her Photos"

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thanks to ultraviolet for reminding us of these important facts about gender-based violence and criminalization - this is scary. (source)

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Wildcat Birth on the #pregnantparentingprochoice blog

My name is Liz Jones and I am a pro-choice parent. I had my son two and a half years ago and an abortion last year. After dealing with a traumatic birth and the stigma of abortion, I became a doula to help other parents through their difficult transitions. I believe that everyone deserves love, support, and autonomy through the full spectrum of pregnancy experiences.

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My husband and I experienced three painful miscarriages before our son was born. After the third, we visited a counselor. The grief was too much for us to bear on our own. The counselor made a huge mistake during the session. His office was close to a Marie Stopes Clinic. He told us that every morning when he drove to work and thought about all the families dealing with infertility, he wanted to “burn [the Marie Stopes clinic] down.” I was shocked and outraged but too emotional with my own grief to manage more than a comment about how his remark was inappropriate. I’ve thought often since then about what I should have said. My message today is for him. 

I am a mother by choice. I was never certain that I wanted children, but when I met my loving husband, it became clear that parenthood was our path. When it didn’t happen easily, we were devastated. I experienced emotional and physical pain, including severe hemorrhaging and emergency hospital visits. Eventually we were fortunate to have the means for and access to IVF. This picture was taken just hours after our son was born. I had an emergency cesarean because I had developed life threatening HELLP syndrome. 

Looking back, I can honestly say that there is not one moment when I would have begrudged another woman the right to choose to end her pregnancy. Some may find that to be a contradiction, but I see it as the most uncomplicated representation of my belief in sexual and reproductive rights. In fact, claiming to be “pro-life” and stating that a Marie Stopes Clinic should be “burned down” is the real contradiction. 

—Naomi Lince-Deroche

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From a children’s encyclopedia, 1919

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Suffering from hysteria?