Creating Technology for Social Change

A conversation with the Bay Area Doula Project (BADP)

I had the chance to join a Bay Area Doula Project (BADP) salon event the other week. They were gathering at Rock Health (http://rockhealth.com/) in SF, an incubator for health-IT projects and the new host space for the salon series that previously met at Million Fishes. I’ve been paying attention to the series because a friend is helping to organize it and I’ve been wishing, from my East Coastness, that I was in the Bay to join these, especially the first 2 events from March 2012, intriguingly named Orgasm Outside of the Box and This Hormonal Life. Through the magic of video chat, I joined as a head on a tv for the Sept 27th salon on how the full spectrum doula movement is using new media to build skills and connection between the community of practitioners, connect with clients, and some of the potential benefits and concerns of communicating online.

Full spectrum doulas, in their own words, “Traditionally, doulas support women during the intense transformation of childbirth, helping them safely, gently bring their babies into the world. Doulas understand the physiological and emotional processes involved, and offer continuous care and support. With the Bay Area Doula Project, we extend that unconditional care and support to benefit women during abortion as well.” (http://badp.squarespace.com/what-is-a-doula/)

The conversation ranged from talking about how members of the conversation are keeping in touch with one another, sharing knowledge and skills with other doulas, building visibility for their practices, to broader conversation about what kinds of stories and build a movement and safety concerns for full spectrum doulas in different parts of the country.

2 projects that we spoke about:
Hormone Horoscope, an iPhone app created by Tatiana Joseph (on twitter tatianajosephy), Co-Founder and CEO of MobileCurious. Hormone Horoscope is a free iPhone app to help women understand their own hormone levels and the effects. Tatiana spoke about how she chose this format for sharing hormone information, wrapping medical and health information in engaging narrative.

How it works: Start by entering the first day of your last period. That’s it! Every day, you’ll get a new horoscope based on the day of your cycle. It’s all about rising and falling Estrogen and Progesterone levels throughout the month. Modern science has shown these hormones have a huge impact on every area of a woman’s life, but women of course have known this all along! Hormone Horoscope assumes an average 28 Day cycle, with ovulation on Day 14. You might not be on this exact schedule, but the general pattern will be the same (plus or minus a few days). Please email us if you have any questions – tatiana@mobilecurious.com.

The Birth Justice Project

Some members from the Birth Justice Project described their work with pregnant women who are incarcerated and the challenges of communicating. A description of their work:

Pregnant women* in jail and the communities connected to them tend to have limited access to emotional support throughout their pregnancy and labor. The Birth Justice Project uses the doula model of care and peer-to-peer health education to equip women with vital information and essential community resources. We combine empathic care and educational empowerment to support these women through satisfying birth experiences. BJP seeks to empower our clients to make healthy choices about their bodies and their children.

*This includes persons who identify as transgender.

This is the BADP write up of the event: http://badp.squarespace.com/blog/2012/10/16/notes-from-the-salon-technology-for-a-hands-on-movement.html
And a list of resources from that post:
To that list we could add some resources specific to our work as doulas:
Full Spectrum Doula Network – “News, Resources, and Community for Full Spectrum Doulas”
#doulaparty – “Support, information sharing, brainstorming, problem solving, changing the world of birth through connection and social media.”
Birthswell – “Spread your birth genius”