Introducing... Doula Routines

A day-in-the life look at community-centered doulas who are bringing care and connection to New York City

Hiya, Birth/Werk readers!! It’s been a minute. Welcome back.

I’m so thrilled to share with you a project I’ve been dreaming up and playing with all year long. It’s called Doula Routines and it’s inspired by the New York Times weekly series, “Sunday Routine” where interesting New Yorkers share how they spend a typical Sunday. What readers get each week when they read that Times column is a peek into the life of a notable New Yorker with a seemingly fabulous life.

For Doula Routines, I want to introduce readers to local community-based doulas - birth workers who are providing compassionate perinatal support to pregnant individuals and their families participating in the Citywide Doula Initiative (CDI) - the country’s largest city funded doula program, where I’ve been a doula coordinator since 2022.

These doulas are also notable and fabulous New Yorkers!

The doulas I’ll profile in this project are all people I’ve had the immense pleasure of getting to know in my work for the CDI. What impresses me most about them is there commitment to caring for people. Many of the doulas in our program do care work in addition to their doula work. They are caring for our city as a librarian, an EMT, a Chaplin, a student midwife, parents, and as a hostess at the world famous Sylvia’s soul food restaurant!

My hope for this project is that people who are not doulas get to meet the experts and see what it takes for them to do this vital work. More specifically, as doula care becomes part of the mainstream, I want these profiles to land in the hands of policy makers, program funders, insurance companies and hospital administrators who impact decisions that can expand access to doula care. After we collect a few more doula profiles, we’ll compile recommendations for the folks making these big decisions.

Doula Routines is produced in collaboration with The Educated Birth. You can find our very first profile in the Fall/Winter edition of their Everyday Birth Magazine - available digitally and in print. It’s beautiful, thank you Cheyenne!!

I’ll share extended versions of each doula’s profile in this substack as well. Keep an eye out for Ropani’s profile later this week.

And a very special thank you to Savannah Kirby, a student from the CUNY Healthcare Career Launch internship, who got the very first interviews for Doula Routine off the ground.

Tell us what you think. Is this a series you’re interested in following? Are you a doula with a routine to share? Let us know in the comments.