What do Western countries have to learn about birth from cultures that experience devastatingly high rates of infant mortality?

Content warning: extensive discussion of infant loss

Charlotte Brielle has worked in countries including Tanzania, South Africa, and Ecuador, where she has encountered tragically high rates of infant mortality due to lack of resources. Yet, she believes that the West has so much to learn about birth practices, rituals, and traditions from these cultures. She persuasively makes the case that the whole of society stands to benefit from better supporting women through the physical, emotional, and social transitions of matrescence – the process of becoming a mother.

Time stamps:

3:10 – Charlotte’s journey to becoming a birth worker

4:21 – Charlotte’s experience at a birth clinic in Tanzania: birth, death, and cultural perspective

12:12 – The need for better tools to support families through perinatal loss

25:58 – How supporting moms can change the whole of society for the better

34:35 – Upcoming Wombs of the World summit in Berlin, Germany, bringing together birth workers from around the world

38:17 – Other ways to work with Wombs of the World

To learn more about the 501(c)(3) public charity Global Doula Project, and how we support birth and death doulas, visit:

www.globaldoulaproject.org

To learn more about Charlotte’s organization, Wombs of the World, and how they empower birth workers around the world by bringing knowledge from diverse birth cultures, visit:

https://www.wombsoftheworld.com/

To learn more about the upcoming summit in Berlin, visit:

https://www.wombsoftheworld.com/summit

Follow Global Doula Project on Instagram and LinkedIn @globaldoulaproject

Follow Wombs of the World on Instagram and LinkedIn @wombsoftheworld

How can death doulas pick up the “compassion pieces” often dropped by the conventional medical system when a loved one is dying, or has died?

In the first episode of Birth, Death, and Doulas, host Anne Kathryn Rice interviews Sheila Burke about how the death of her husband, Shane, from an aggressive form of lung cancer began her journey to becoming a death doula. Sheila came to understand how sacred the process of dying is, and how much dying people and their loved ones can benefit from someone who can compassionately hold space for the emotional and spiritual dimensions of death, where conventional medicine typically only addresses the physical aspects.

In this episode, Sheila and Anne Kathryn talk about the need for compassionate honesty, hopeful last hurrahs, the real value of palliative care, and the importance of honoring the supernatural experiences that are common when someone dies.

In this episode:

02:57 – Sheila and Shane’s love story

07:01 – Children’s closeness to the dead

09:17 - Shane’s diagnosis

13:25 - Navigating treatment options

23:05 - Maintaining hope when death is imminent

29:20 - The importance of honest communication in healthcare

33:08 - The role of death doulas for end-of-life support

36:56 - Creating meaningful goodbyes

To learn more about the Global Doula Project and how they support

birth and death doulas, visit:

www.globaldoulaproject.org

To learn more about Sheila Burke’s work and books:

https://endoflifedoulacle.com/

Find Sheila’s podcast, Talk Deathy to Me, at:

https://talkdeathytome.com/welcome/

Follow Global Doula Project on Instagram @globaldoulaproject

Follow Sheila on Instagram @deathdoulacle