* Recorded October 2019 *

In this episode of Birth Allowed Radio I am honored to speak with Sabia Wade, a Black, queer, full-spectrum doula in San Diego. She is the owner of Birthing Advocacy Doula Trainings, and Executive Director of For The Village, a reproductive justice non-profit providing free doula services to low-income and marginalized groups in the San Diego Area.

We dive into the topic of advocacy and doulas – including how advocacy is defined in different populations and communities, and the affects of racism in the birth world. We also talk about the complicated communication dynamics for doulas – including how to navigate tricky conversations, how to read the room, how to identify who you can and can’t talk to you, the value of doulas and the importance of making a sustainable living in birth work.

In her words:

“There’s so many different ways that you can advocate for somebody, and even with the clients that I work with, I feel like advocacy and what they expect from advocacy looks different depending on who they are, their income level, their race, their gender, their sexual identity. All the different things contribute to advocacy but it looks different depending on the person’s lens.”

“Specifically with my Black clients – if I’m not questioning, if I’m not bringing up options, if I’m not telling them the best way to go about something or at least a different option of what I’ve seen is beneficial, that can literally be life and death.”

Resources mentioned:

Follow Sabia at her website (theblackdoula.com/), and on Instagram @theblackdoula.

For more information on Birthing Advocacy Doula Trainings, visit birthingadvocacy.org, or Instagram @birthingadvocacy.

Visit For the Village online (forthevillage.org/) and at Instagram @forthevillageinc.

Go here to see the Evidence Based Birth® article, Evidence on: Doulas, which defines and examines advocacy: evidencebasedbirth.com/the-evidence-for-doulas/.