Caring for Women of Color

Community-Based Doulas' Strategies in Hospital Birth in Los Angeles

Bibliographic Data

ID4564460
AuthorsKim Sigmund (0000-0003-0808-9540, University of Amsterdam, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume44
Issue4
Pages378-391
Publication date2025-05-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedical Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0145-9740 • E-ISSN: 1545-5882
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01459740.2025.2495633
PMID40319486
OpenAlexW4410066740
LanguageEN
References cited50

In the United States, women of color experience worse pregnancy and birth outcomes than white women. Likewise, many women of color report facing discrimination from perinatal health providers, and many experience precarity that can negatively impact birth experiences and outcomes. In this context, more women of color now embrace the use of community-based doulas. Using ethnographic data, I argue that community-based doulas, as members of the communities in which they offer their services, are uniquely able to negotiate the tensions between their clients and biomedical birth practitioners to engender acts of transformative agency and forward the cause of reproductive justice

Sociology · Women of color · Gender Studies · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Maternal and Perinatal Health Interventions · Medicine · Migration, Health and Trauma · Nursing

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