About Us Learn more about some of the amazing doulas volunteering with us:
My name is Andie and I am a birth doula who hopes to one day become a midwife. I had my first experiences with birth while working with a traditional homebirth midwife in Guatemala which brought me to the belief that a woman's body knows what it needs and to really trust that. I offer support, compassion, and kind touch for any and all reproductive choices. I am endlessly amazed by what women are capable of and I think bearing witness to this may be the best job in the world.
Antoinette, CD (DONA), LCCE I have been a birthing doula for 2yrs. I have supported many women and their partners through delivery. I am also a certified Lamaze childbirth educator. I have educated several couples in their journey through pregnancy. My motto is: pregnancy and delivery is best had with love and opened arms.
Bianca is the daughter of a teacher and artist who immigrated to the US in the early 1970s. She has been working in the field of sexuality and sexual health with an emphasis on women and communities of Color for over a decade. An activist and educator, Bianca is an adjunct professor in the CUNY (City University of New York) system and at private institutions of higher education where she teaches interdisciplinary classes in women's studies, sociology, human sexuality, psychology, and cultural studies. Bianca is bilingual in English and Spanish, identifies as a radical woman of Color, and hosts the sex-positive website LatinoSexuality.com. You can reach Bianca here or visit her at BiancaLaureano.com.
Christine is proud and beyond pleased to volunteer with The Doula Project. An advocate for women's rights since being radicalized by an it's-so-hot-out-the-boys-can-take-their-shirts-off pronouncement on the playground in pre-school, she has been active in reproductive justice efforts since college. She's been a volunteer for an abortion fund, has worked for four years at reproductive health clinics, mostly always attends the annual CLPP conference, and went to the March for Women's Lives in 2004. Her biggest core belief (of many) is that everyone--EVERYONE--deserves access to an empowered medical experience, and sees doula work as an exceptional model of that type of compassionate care.
With years of experience supporting women as an emergency room advocate for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, Kristin joined the birth and abortion doula movement in 2010 after years of experience supporting women as an emergency room advocate for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. She hopes to one day work in the field of women's health as a midwife and women's health nurse practitioner. In her work as a volunteer doula and advocate, she has the privilege to witness the amazing strength and resilience of women in some of life's most private and challenging moments. Kristin is incredibly honored to be part of the Doula Project and to be supporting women in all of their reproductive health care choices.
Laura is a sexual health researcher, educator and student in a pre-medical program. Her degree in Medical Anthropology and Human Sexuality Studies has lead her to research issues of sexuality within medicine, focusing on health literacy and accessibility among underserved populations. She has taught sexual health education at a high school, non-profit and worked as a Gynecological Teaching Associate. She is honored to work with The Doula Project, an experience that constantly reaffirms her belief in reproductive justice, compassionate health care and the importance of respecting patient experience.
Lauren firmly believes in the inherent interdisciplinary connections that appear in the context of the body and throughout the spectrum of pregnancy. After getting her foot in the door by being an abortion rights activist, she became a certified gynecological teaching associate through the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-- which basically means she know a lot about how to do a good pelvic exams-- and a birth doula. She is currently also an abortion health educator and one of the founders of The Doula Project. When she's not thinking about women's health (which is rare), she writes. Her work can be found under the pseudonym L.A. Mitchell (please note, she is not the L.A. Mitchell who writes sci-fi Christian romance novels).
Libby, a proud native New Yorker, moved back to Brooklyn after graduating from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, where she received her MA in International Relations, in 2010. It was during a very rainy and grey four years abroad that she became an active Equal Opps advocate and solidified her love for feminist theory. As a passionate pro-choice, pro-voice gal Libby feels privileged to be a doula with the Doula Project.
Mary is a trained birth doula and Co-Founder and Coordinator of The Doula Project. She has served hundreds of pregnant people across the spectrum of choice and trained activists, doulas, clinicians, and medical students on the abortion doula model of care. Mary started her career in economic justice as an Americorps VISTA in the South Bronx and spent four years as Development Associate and Assistant Director of the Pro-Choice Public Education Project. She is a member of the Women's Health Leadership Network at the Center for American Progress and sits on the Conference Planning Committee of the Training and Access Working Group. She is currently pursuing her MSW at Hunter College in New York City and interning in adult inpatient psychiatry at Harlem Hospital. In order to maintain her expensive activist lifestyle, Mary spends her weekends waiting tables at a vegetarian diner.
Miriam's interest in birth started sometime in middle school, during various hour-long sessions pouring over health books at friend's houses. She became a doula in 2004, after watching the documentary Born in the USA and deciding that birth activism was her passion. Miriam has worked as a reproductive justice organizer, a case manager for pregnant Latinas and most recently a self-employed writer, consultant and speaker. Miriam is the Founder of RadicalDoula.com and an Editor at Feministing.com. In 2007, Miriam worked with Lauren Mitchell and Mary Mahoney to found the Doula Project. Mary and Lauren took that project to amazing places after Miriam left in 2008 to move to Washington DC. She's since come back to NYC and is excited to finally be doing the work of an abortion doula.
After graduating Summa Cum Laude with a major in Women’s Studies from Barnard College, Molly continued to pursue her passion for women’s health by attending a DONA birth doula training in May 2010. She’s had extensive experience serving as a support person for women during medical visits and procedures, in both clinics and private practices. Now, she is thrilled to be working as a member of the Doula Project in New York City, putting directly into practice her belief that every woman, regardless of what her choice may be, should feel entitled to her right to understand and participate in the decisions that are made about her body.
Vicki is a freelance writer and suburban mom who rediscovered her feminist activism as a side effect of needing to get out into the world again after a period of cocooning. She does this work because she has a passion for supporting women in transition, providing them with loving care at what may be a critical moment in their lives, or just a really tough day. She is especially drawn to people who may fall through the cracks of traditional healthcare: younger or older women, LGBT and polyamorous people, single parents, and artists and other alternative folk.