Webinar: Community Birthing Care Solutions

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Join the Pulitzer Center on February 28, 2024, at 5:00pm EST for a webinar exploring community-oriented and culturally-grounded birthing care solutions.

Jenna Kunze, author of “The Rise of Indigenous Doulas,” published in Native News Online, will moderate a discussion between Camie Goldhammer, a Sisseton-Wahpeton tribal citizen, traditional birth worker, and founder of Hummingbird Indigenous Family Services in Seattle; Nichole Wardlaw, a certified nurse midwife and founder of Jamii Birth in Hampton, Virginia; and Victoria Buchanan, a certified nurse midwife at Sentara Midwifery Specialists in Hampton, Virginia.

Maternal mortality rates in the United States are among the world’s worst for high-income countries. Here, Black and Indigenous pregnant women are three times more likely than white pregnant women to die during childbirth.

Organizations like Wardlaw’s and Goldhammer’s fill in where for-profit health care incents pharmaceutical and surgical intervention and otherwise fails to provide dignified pre- and postpartum care. Studies show improved health and wellness outcomes for pregnant people of color who seek out midwives or doulas.

Webinar topics include advocating for patients in hospital settings, delivering culturally appropriate care, policy solutions like Medicare coverage extensions, and the importance of being there for clients long before and after they give birth.

Panelists:

• Victoria Buchanan is a certified nurse midwife at Sentara Midwifery Specialists. Caring for women during pregnancy and birth is a cornerstone of her career as a nurse-midwife. She also provides routine care for women from adolescence through menopause.
• Nichole Wardlaw is a certified nurse midwife with over 16 years of experience in health education, full-scope midwifery services, and clinical faculty advisory. She lives in Hampton, Virginia.
• Camie Goldhammer has spent nearly 20 years serving urban Native families. She is a clinical social worker and lactation consultant based in Seattle. Goldhammer is the founder and chair of the Native American Breastfeeding Coalition of Washington.
• Jenna Kunze is a staff reporter at Native News Online. She covers stories impacting Indigenous people across the United States and Canada. For her Pulitzer Center-supported coverage of Iñupiat adaptability and resilience, she received an inaugural 2021 Covering Climate Now Journalism Award.

The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A. The webinar is free and open to the public; registration is required.

The Pulitzer Center’s Global Health initiatives support vital reporting and audience engagement on systemic, interconnected health issues around the world.