Berkshire Doula Project

The Berkshire Doula Project a student-run, volunteer collective on campus that addresses doula work, abortion, and the reproductive justice needs of Williams College and our surrounding Berkshire community.

Our Vision
~To create a society in which all people with uteruses have access to the care and support they need throughout their reproductive lives.

Our Goals
~To educate future full-spectrum doulas with the doula model of continuous, non-judgmental emotional, physical, and informational support
~To provide free, compassionate, and empowering full-spectrum doula services to pregnant people in the Williams community and around the Berkshires
~To host community events that support destigmatization of reproductive experiences and a better understanding of reproductive health, rights, and justice
~To improve and raise awareness of reproductive resources available to students and community members on and around campus


Want to get involved? Questions or comments? Email us at BerkshireDoulaProject@gmail.com






FAQ:
What is reproductive justice?
Reproductive justice applies a social justice framework to reproductive rights. SisterSong, a Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, defines reproductive justice as the human right to have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and healthy environments. For more information, visit SisterSong’s website: http://sistersong.net/reproductive-justice/.

What is a doula?
A doula is a person who provides continuous, nonjudgmental physical, emotional, and informational support to a person across a range of pregnancy experiences.

What is a full-spectrum doula?
A full-spectrum doula provides doula support to people across the full spectrum of pregnancy and parenting-related care, including abortion, adoption, labor, delivery, surrogacy, miscarriage, and stillbirth.

What is a radical doula?
A radical doula is a doula who centers the people that are most disenfranchised by the current health system, particularly people of color and low-income people, in their doula work in order to disrupt the politics of highly racialized and class-stratified experiences and outcomes of pregnancy and birth in the US. Miriam Zoila Pérez, who coined the term radical doula, says, “To me, being a Radical Doula is committing to the hard work of facing issues of racism, classism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia head-on in our work with pregnant and parenting people. It means understanding birth as just one instance in a wide spectrum of pregnancy-related experiences that include abortion, miscarriage and adoption, and understanding why doula support across that spectrum makes sense. It’s about providing non-judgmental and unconditional support to pregnant and parenting people, ultimately in service of social justice.” For more information, visit her Radical Doula website: https://radicaldoula.com/radical-doula/.

What is a doula project?
Started by The Doula Project in New York City, their idea of a doula project is a volunteer-run collective of full-spectrum doulas providing doula services to the people who need it most: low-income people and people without existing support structures. To read more about The Doula Project, visit their website: http://www.doulaproject.org/p/about-us.html/.



Resources:

If you are a Williams student and think you might be pregnant, you can access services and counseling at the Williams Health Center. Call 413-597-2206 to schedule an appointment.

If you are a community member and think you might be pregnant, call the North Adams branch of Tapestry Health at 413-443-2844 or Planned Parenthood in Bennington, VT at 802-442-8166 for full information and counseling.

If you are seeking anonymous, judgement-free support for individuals before, during, or after their experience with pregnancy, parenting, abortion, or adoption, you can call Backline at 888-493-0092.

If you are seeking help funding your abortion: Abortion Rights Fund of Western Massachusetts 413-582-3532.


**Note: Care Net Pregnancy Center in Bennington, VT, while advertising full spectrum counseling, counsels AGAINST abortion and does not provide abortion referrals.