Birth Attendants

Olympia, WA

The Birth Attendants is a collective of doulas based in Olympia, WA, that provides educations, emotional and physical support to empower incarcerated pregnant and post-partum women in the Washington state prison. The organization educates the community about the struggles and triumphs of all marginalized pregnant and parenting women. Third Wave’s grant will help the collective extend their services to include courses on abortion, document human rights abuses within the prisons, and build a network of advocates.

The Birth Attendants was recently featured on a radio program called Making Contact, which is a part of the National Radio Project. The segment is called “Lockdown on Life: Stories from Women Behind Bars” and was aired on January 3, 2007. You can listen online at radioproject.org

The Birth Attendants and the stories of a few of the women they work with are featured in the second half of the program. The first segment is about transgendered women living inside men’s facilities in California.