The Doulas: Radical Care for Pregnant People

In this thoughtful book, Mahoney and Mitchell chronicle their efforts to bring labor and postpartum support to many women who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford the assistance of a doula. Recognizing that low-income women in particular need support dealing with the “medical industrial complex” and restricted reproductive choice, the authors formed the Doula Project in 2008 and coined the term “full-spectrum doula”: part activist, part advocate, and part direct caregiver; The Doula Project has trained a few thousand full-spectrum doulas to provide support for all pregnancy options and experiences, including birth, abortion, adoption, miscarriage, stillbirth, and perinatal loss. In five sections told mostly from the points of view of different doulas, the book covers the origins and scope of this approach, with personal narratives demonstrating the concerns of the caregivers as well as of the women they support, whatever their choices. The writing is clear, and the message is too: reproductive justice for the poor starts with the “quiet brand of activism” of one-on-one support and telling other people’s stories. A final chapter on how to build a full-spectrum model in other parts of the country outside Mahoney and Mitchell’s home base of New York City, rounds out the book. (Nov.)