World Doula Week Scholarship: Meg Escobar 1st Place Winner

Bridging the Gap: Bringing Alignment to Our Communities and Ourselves Through Doula Work 

Meg McAteer Escobar, Postpartum Doula 

Do not hustle; align. Destroy the idea that you have to be constantly working or grinding in order to be successful. Embrace the concept that rest, recovery, and reflection are essential parts of the progress towards a successful and ultimately happy life. 

-Source unknown 

According to the WHO, “Worldwide, more than 3 in 10 women and babies do not currently receive postnatal care in the first days after birth - the period when most maternal and infant deaths occur. Meanwhile the physical and emotional consequences of childbirth – from injuries to recurring pain and trauma - can be debilitating if unmanaged, but are often highly treatable when the right care is given at the right time….In addition to addressing immediate health concerns, these first weeks after birth are crucial for building relationships and establishing behaviours that affect long-term infant development and health.” WHO urges quality care for women and newborns in critical first weeks after childbirth 

In reading this we must remember that, in the US, birthing people do not receive any follow up care during those first 6 critical weeks postpartum. The recommended first follow up after birth is at 6 weeks in the US. Our healthcare system is broken and can be very dangerous, especially for marginalized and underserved communities. The doula provides a safety net for people 

giving birth and their families who fall between the cracks of care. I am honored and consider it a privilege to have helped many people make the transition of welcoming a new soul into their family safer and more peaceful. 

In some places, like Germany for example, having a midwife provide you with care is a legal right. These midwives provide birthing support in the hospital and provide postpartum care with in-home visits. These places have taken the role that we doulas provide in the US and have marked it as so necessary that they've made it a right to have it included in the care received from your midwife/birth care provider. 

It is a widely known fact that women in America have the highest maternal mortality rate in the entire developed world. Black women in America are THREE TIMES more likely to die in childbirth than any other race, according to the CDC. Birth rates have gone up and maternal mortality rates have gone down in other nations who provide comprehensive antenatal, birth and postpartum care. In fact we know here in the US as well, when we have a doula step into the gap

in care, birthing outcomes are better. In a study documented by the NIH, it was found that “Doula-assisted mothers were four times less likely to have a low birth weight (LBW) baby, two times less likely to experience a birth complication involving themselves or their baby, and significantly more likely to initiate breastfeeding. Communication with and encouragement from a doula throughout the pregnancy may have increased the mother’s self-efficacy regarding her ability to impact her own pregnancy outcomes.” Impact of Doulas on Healthy Birth Outcomes - PMC We need more doulas! We have a birth problem in America that has left us, as a people, out of alignment. This is the reason doula work in the United States is so vital. We must close that gap in care for our birthing people. We see lasting and significant improvements in the birth and/or parenting experience, when this kind of intensive care has been practiced. 

In 2020 I was deep in the idea that in order to get ahead, pushing myself as hard as I could for as long as I could, was the only way to make it. I worked two part time jobs. Between our 4 jobs, my husband and I can probably easily count the small number of weekends we had spent together with our kids in 5 years. We passed our family back and forth, working in hopes of achieving the dream of financial stability and home ownership. And it worked. We had a new family car and purchased our home in March 2020. But we were not in alignment. Our scales were wildly unbalanced and we had no idea. When the pandemic hit and I was home for 4 months, I realized two things. I needed people. Being home alone with 3 children and no adult interaction as a break, was a huge transition. The second thing I realized was that I was in complete survival mode, keeping my head above water and missing life around me. I began to desire to find an exit strategy from this life. By March 2021, I left behind that which I loved, but that no longer served me and ended my professional relationship with the restaurant industry. I began to ask myself what could I do, how could I find a life which brought me purpose, joy, was in line with my personal values and most of all gave me balance. I landed on birth and postpartum work. Since the birth of my oldest child, I became a passionate and outspoken advocate for comprehensive and safe care for people in this stage of life. I found myself in a position to take that passion and make a concrete difference in people's lives and to do so while providing for my family. 

I view doula work in my life as the great balancer of the scales of justice. I work and provide for my family while bringing my life into alignment with my values. I believe that each family’s life I touch helps to start each of those small new lives in a greater state of balance. Those children then go out into the world one day as adults whose parents, hopefully, were in a better place to parent because of my presence in their lives during those early days postpartum. As a doula, it is important to remember that you are not touching one life when you help someone give birth or provide them with postpartum care. You have added good to this world. That energy goes on to touch each person’s life they are involved with and that their children are involved in.

I plan to continue to grow and learn each and every year in hopes to bring more and more into the world as I move through it. Being a doula is what gave me the ability to grow as a person, to balance my soul and my life. I am called now to widen my impact on our community with birth doula training. The lesson this life has taught me the past two years is that we must be still and learn where we are called. When we follow the path we are called too, that is when our lives fall into alignment. I know that my future holds the continued growth of this profession in big and great ways, through my own education, through advocating for this type of work and through encouraging others.