“Dis-place”: Connections Between Black Feminist Thought and the Black Doula Placemaking

Keywords: maternal health, black geographies, black feminist thought, climate and health
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 17

Abstract

This paper reviews the literature on the role of Black doulas in the reproductive justice movement to counter the adverse impacts of Black maternal health disparities. Reproductive justice is instrumental to crafting care-centered practices for Black women’s reproductive health, and through doulas, literal spaces in which Black women have greater agency and support for their reproductive decisions and birthing processes. The work of Black doulas are rooted in Black feminist thought of space making and shifting the focus of these outcomes from the “faults” of the Black maternal body and instead onto structures in place that have allowed for these outcomes to occur. I will first examine Black feminist thought and the historical legacies of racism in Black maternal health. Lastly I will look at how Black women and mothers have taken ideas of Black feminism and created ways to center their experiences without focusing on their bodies and crisis. My Ph.D. research aims to examine the relationship between extreme weather events and the health of Black mothers across North Carolina. This synthesis is ultimately aimed at assessing the possibilities of reproductive justice practices like “doulaing” for mitigating adverse health outcomes stemming from climate change.