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We are the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center, a network of maternal health equity experts and organizations working to make real change for women and birthing people in the U.S.
Our podcast is a series of episodes connecting around culture, lifting voices and stories, exploring innovations in maternal care and discussing ways we can center equity in the way we approach our health and wellness.
Learn more about us, explore our resource center and find support for all maternal health professionals at MaternalHealthLearning.org.
For more podcast information and content, visit MaternalHealthPodcast.org.
Erin - 00:00:03:
Welcome to the Maternal Health Innovation Podcast Season 3. I'm your host, Erin McClain. I'm the Assistant Director and Research Associate with the UNC Collaborative for Maternal and Infant Health. This podcast is created by the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center. Episodes are released weekly, so be sure you're subscribed. On the podcast, we listen to maternal health innovators talk about ways we can implement change to improve maternal health in the United States. In today's episode, I'm talking with Chauntel Norris. Super pleased to be talking with Chauntel. She's not only the co-director for the Alabama Prison Birth Project, but also the Co-founder of Baobab Birth Collective. And with her extensive experience in lactation during incarceration, she's a real trailblazer in her field. She's also a DONA-trained birth and postpartum doula, a Lamaze-certified childbirth educator, and a certified lactation counselor. Thank you. Her dedication to maternal and infant health shines through her work and her advocacy, and I'm excited to talk with her about that today. She's an active member of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance and a community transformer for Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere. She also serves on the board for the Alabama Breastfeeding Committee. Welcome, Chauntel. Thank you so much for being here.
Chauntel - 00:01:16:
Thanks for having me.
Erin - 00:01:18:
So today we are going to talk about your work and how we can change and improve care for incarcerated birthing people. Do you want to tell us a little bit more about the Alabama Prison Birth Project and the services that y'all provide to incarcerated folks?
Chauntel - 00:01:36:
Sure. Well, the Alabama Prison Birth Project, we provide doula care to incarcerated birthing individuals. So what we do, our program has three components. The first component is we match our clients one-on-one with a doula and their doula will meet with them prenatally, ideally twice prenatally to just kind of come up with a birth plan, just see, you know, what previous birth experiences have been like for that person and also what they would like this birthing experience to look like. Their doula is there to support them emotionally, but also provides informational support. So if a client is not really sure what an epidural is, her doula will provide her more information about what that means and what are some of the impacts that it could have on her and help her, you know, just give her the information and help her decide what it is that she would like for her birthing experience. So the doula is matched with her, will meet with her prenatally. And then also, you know, we have a doula that is a little bit more experienced, will go and be with her at her birth in the hospital. And so that is a crucial piece of our program because no family member is allowed to be with them. They are not, the family is not notified when they go have their babies. It's a security risk. And so having a trusted individual with them, we know how important that is in the birthing space. And so we wanted to provide that for these people as well. And then the doula will be there throughout the whole birthing experience. She'll be there up to three hours postpartum, sometimes longer, but just helping with the newborn bonding. So doing skin to skin, helping initiate breastfeeding, if that's the client's choice and just, you know, capturing those moments. So taking pictures. And then the doula comes back in Alabama, they get 24 hours if they've had a vaginal birth. So the doula comes back the following morning after she's had the baby and then just does newborn rituals, dressing the baby up. She brings a diaper bag, brings clothes, reading storybooks, all those kind of things to just celebrate this new baby. And the doula the whole time is taking lots and lots of pictures. She's with the mom until the moment of separation, until mom has to go back to the facility and baby stays at the hospital, until the receiving family. Ideally, it's a family placement, but we do know other things happen. And so the doula is there to just help with that emotional transition of having to be separated from the baby. And then she comes and meets with the client postpartum in the facility. She brings 20 pictures of the birth. So the client is not long without having some memory in hand of that experience. But also she's doing mental health checkups. And seeing how is that mom coping with the entire experience and being there to support her emotionally, however she needs. Then the second component of our program is we have a prenatal education group. So it's prenatal and it covers the first year postpartum. So we're talking about during pregnancy, the changes your body is going through. We're talking about lactation. We're talking about co-parenting from inside. What are developmental milestones in that first year? All of the things that you would need in a parenting course as well. So we incorporate all of that. And then we have a nutritional component. So we bring in food. When we do these weekly groups, we're also bringing in healthy, fresh food. We know that incarcerated people often don't have access to that. And we also know how important nutrition is in pregnancy. So that is one way that we try to help out with that situation. The third program component that we have is a lactation program. So the people who are in our group are able to express their milk. And then I come in and ship it to their baby. So overnight, wherever they may be. So that's our program here in Alabama.
Erin - 00:05:37:
That is amazing. You know, I can tell you, I work around perinatal incarceration in North Carolina. And for our folks, they're largely not allowed to have any pictures of their children, that no pictures are allowed to be taken while they're in the hospital. And that is such a rite of passage that folks miss out on and time may never get back. And so that's really exciting to me. I mean, it seems like such a small thing, but it really is a huge thing. Can you talk a little bit more about, so you're working in a state prison, correct?
Chauntel - 00:06:11:
Correct.
Erin - 00:06:12:
Can you tell us a little bit more what birth was like for folks incarcerated in that prison before y'all's project started? So folks get a sense of like, what's different now versus how it was before?
Chauntel - 00:06:24:
Yes. Okay. So prior to our program, Tutwiler was one of the top 10 worst prisons in the United States. It was horrible. There were a lot of sexual abuse that was happening towards the incarcerated women perpetrated by officers. And so there was a lawsuit from the Department of Justice filed against Tutwiler, and they were required to make 40 something changes in their facility. Some of the requirements they had to hire more women staff and put cameras everywhere. There weren't cameras everywhere, which was how a lot of this abuse was happening. There were a lot of blind spots. And so they had to rectify those things. Also, they had to bring in gender informed and trauma responsive care is what they had. That was one of the requirements.
Erin - 00:07:16:
So Chauntel, it sounds like part of the remediation was establishing gender responsive, trauma responsive services and that y'all were part of that. Do you receive state funding for this work or is it all volunteer? How does that work?
Chauntel - 00:07:33:
That is funny. We do not receive state funding. We're definitely part of their programming. We bring in that gender responsive trauma informed care. Technically we're considered a volunteer organization. And we are required to come up with our own funding. So that means a lot of community donations, just giving talks. People hear about our work and are feeling motivated to donate to us. A lot of grant writing. But those are our sources of income. We're not funded. By the prison at all. They believe that it's valuable. But it still goes unfunded.
Erin - 00:08:11:
So in terms of, it sounds like some of your first kind of relationships and advocates within the prison system were the healthcare folks. So you said it was a nurse that helped kind of make the connections.
Chauntel - 00:08:22:
Yes. So he saw a documentary about the Minnesota Prison Doula Project. And he thought, hmm, this will mark off some of those checkboxes, you know, that we're required to meet. And so I wonder if that's something that we could do here. And so he invited the ladies who were working on the Minnesota Project down to Alabama. And they put a call out to local community about, hey, we're interested in trying this thing. Would you like to just come to a conversation and talk to the DOC folks, Department of Correction folks, about what is a doula? What services can you offer here? And how could that possibly work out? And so we did. We went for the initial meeting. I went just as a community doula who was interested in seeing. You know, the possibilities. And so it worked out. At the time, I lived a little too far to work on the project. So actually, I ended up relocating to work on this project. It is. But it's definitely it was something that I believe in and I couldn't not do it. So I just you know, it was just something that I felt compelled to do. And so, you know, things just opened up in my life in a way that I was able to make that transition. So it worked out perfectly. But, you know, prior to our program, what birth looked like at Tutwiler was, you know, the incarcerated person is shackled, you know, by their hands, by their legs. There's a belly chain, which is. Really dangerous for a pregnant person. You know, your balance is already off when you're pregnant. You know, you just, the center of gravity is not what it used to be for you. And then add restraints on it. So if you were to stumble or trip, which is happens often, you know, you can't even catch yourself because your hands are bound. So there's a fall risk for that for sure. Also when people were going out having babies, you know, nobody in their family even knew what had happened until after it was over. So nobody is there with them. No trusted person that they developed a relationship with the OB, the doctor does come see them at the facility. So they know him, but how long is the OB actually in the room at a birth? So and then you have officers who are in the space, oftentimes there's a male officer. Think about what that looks like to physically have a baby, right? You're in a very vulnerable position. There are officers in the room who are not related to you, who you don't know, who aren't your friends. And they're observing this, right? They're seeing your body exposed in a way that they normally wouldn't. And so that was stressful for birthing people. And then they gave birth shackled to the bed. Like, where are you going when you're pushing a baby out? Nowhere. And so they were, you know, they're giving birth shackled. And that is highly problematic, you know, to the bed.
Erin - 00:11:09:
So many reasons. I mean, it's dangerous medically. It's dangerous for the baby. It's, yeah, just from a human rights perspective is a complete violation. It's just terrible.
Chauntel - 00:11:20:
Exactly. And there was no prenatal education that's happening. So, you know, some people are more body aware than others, but still there's, you know, you're going through this experience uninformed, you know, you don't know what your options are and you're just going to do this thing. And oftentimes you're completely disregarded in this experience. Like you don't count, your voice is not heard in that space. And so- That's where our program stepped in. You know, like that was a gap. It was like, okay, we can do this a little better. You know, let's start with not shackling people. And the corrections facility was on board with it. Like they never scoffed at us about anything that we potentially said, hey, can we consider changing this or addressing that? They never pushed back. We definitely had buy-in instantly at that initial meeting. The warden at the time said, well, it's not a matter of if we're going to implement this program. It's just a matter of how and when. So immediately on day one, we had buy-in. So I am very thankful for that. And that's how our program got started.
Erin - 00:12:23:
Now, we have a law in North Carolina that just passed in 2021, kind of unforgivably recently, but that just and started came into effect in December 2021, where shackling is no longer allowed basically from the second trimester through six weeks postpartum. The only thing that can happen is handcuffs in front of the body during transport and no other time. There can be exceptions, of course, for safety and security because they always have that. But there has to be a process of reports filed and all sorts of things within a short amount of time if that occurs. It's been interesting, though, for us, we've not had pushback at the prison. We have one prison in North Carolina that accepts pregnant women, but we have had pushbacks at the jail level. A lot of folks don't either think the law applies to them at the jail, even though it very clearly does, or they're just worried about security. And it's like, again, how many pregnant women have you had flee while they're in labor? This seems very unlikely, you know, or during a C-section or during, you know, while they're delivering. It's ridiculous, you know, and we've luckily had great support from our OB-GYN society and other folks who've said, look, you know, medically, this is extremely dangerous. And it's a liability for the hospital and for the staff, you know, like the fall risk, the drop hazards for babies. So it's something that we're working really hard on here. Has it been passed as a law in Alabama or is it just regulation?
Chauntel - 00:13:52:
Yes, it's a law in Alabama. We passed it, I believe, in 2022. So we're right behind you. So what happened here is the facility. So there's one state prison in Alabama for women, and it's maximum security because there's only one. So they have to be able to house everybody. And they implemented that practice, but it wasn't a law. So that was only our facility. But Alabama has 67 counties. So there's jails in all of those counties. And that's the same thing we were encountering is the county and local jails. When we were trying to get the legislation passed, that was our pushback as well, was the local sheriffs. And same thing, we had to put the same type of language. Well, in the event of a security risk, you can do it, but you've got to document it and you've got to, you know, those things. So our experience here was very similar to theirs.
Erin - 00:14:45:
We eventually got, we're lucky enough to get the Sheriff's Association on board, but it took a lot. And unfortunately, some really tragic events happening, like babies dying, which could have been, you know, completely preventable and is incredibly tragic. It's definitely kept us going that, you know, this is really important and we need to keep focusing on it and making sure it's actually people are complying with the law because it is a struggle.
Chauntel - 00:15:10:
Yes.
Erin - 00:15:10:
Talk to me a little bit about how y'all, you know, recruit and train your doulas. And because, you know, working in a carceral setting is hard. It's hard for the folks, obviously, who are there as incarcerated people, but it's also hard for the staff and it's hard for folks like doulas and other people who want to work in that setting. Do you all, are the doulas volunteers? Are they paid? And kind of how do you train them?
Chauntel - 00:15:36:
Well, like you said, the work is hard. It's emotionally challenging more than anything. And so our staff is paid. We hire contract doulas. So they're community doulas. And we, prior to onboarding, like we really talk about the hard things. You know, like this is what the job is. It is really hard. Right. And that's why we pay. But that's why we don't do volunteer, because I just couldn't morally ask somebody to do this for free. And so we recruit the staff that we have now are people that I personally have worked with in community on other projects. They've seen me doing the work and they showed a willingness and or even a desire to participate as well. And so, you know, their hearts are in the right place and we felt like they were a good fit. When we do recruitment, we do, you know, just social media like, hey, we need some more doulas. You know, what do you think if you're willing to participate, submit your resume, you know, those kind of things. And then we kind of go to, okay, now what do we know about these people? And there are community members, there are people that we've all had some experience with in our program working with. And we know that they probably will work out pretty well. And so that's how we get our staff. And also, as far as training, of course, we do a local onboarding. Boarding process. You know, these are the rules at the prison. These are the colors you can wear. These are, you know, just basic onboarding. And then we also have a national prison doula training. So we send our staff through that as well. Then when they finish, there's also a mentorship component. Once they finish the mentorship, then they are certified prison doulas. And, you know, they can not only work at our facility, but they're certified, you know, to be able to work in any carceral setting.
Erin - 00:17:22:
That's great. That mentorship component seems really key in the, you know, training is not quite enough until folks have actually been in that setting. Because I think it is such a different, you know, if you haven't already had experience with that setting, it can be really disturbing. Even if you know what the rules are, you know, it's a different environment. So absolutely. So in terms of lactation, so babies don't ever come back to the prison from what I understand, right?
Chauntel - 00:17:50:
Correct.
Erin - 00:17:51:
But folks are allowed to pump. How were you able to get that program started?
Chauntel - 00:17:56:
Again, it was one of those, we didn't get any pushback. You know, it's like, hey, that was one of the right off the bat things. Like, hey, we need to be allowing folks to be able to get their milk to their babies. The longest thing that it took was it had to go through legal. Tedious months and months process. That was what took the longest was just getting them to sign off and say, yep, everything here looks good. The contract looks good because there is a contract between the facility and the person who's pumping. You know, I agree to, you know, keep my supplies cleaned and put away. You know, nothing comes back to the dorm. It all stays in the pumping room. You know, those kind of things. And the way that we were able to get started, of course, we had to go through getting the prison to sign off on it. But also, we had local buy-in from community members. So we got a $500 grant from our Alabama Breastfeeding Committee to purchase our freezer. They had to have a deep freezer to store their milk. We had another community member that donated. One of those utility sinks so that they could wash their parts out. Somebody else, you know, donated money so that we could purchase lockers so that they can store their equipment. We've had breast pump companies donate hospital grade pumps, you know, bags, nursing pads, lanolin. You know, all of the things that we would need. Rocking chairs for the room, artwork for the walls, you know, like just local moms just pitched in and was like, okay, you need this. I have one I'm not using. Here you go. So it's been amazing to just watch. Watch community come together and support these women as well. That was an unexpected consequence. But it's been a good one.
Erin - 00:19:33:
I think one of the scariest things about you know, when we listen to folks who have been through that experience of being pregnant in a carceral setting is that they often feel forgotten or that nobody's going to know what's going to happen to them, you know? And I think the more folks I talk to, I mean, half the time they don't even, they're like, wait, we put pregnant people in jail or in prison? And I'm like, yeah, we sure do. You know, so it's like, it already is like blows their mind that, you know, we would do that. And then, yeah. So that's exciting to hear about folks coming together. Our prison will not allow even a hand pump. So we have to teach people how to hand express so that they don't get mastitis as they're going back into the facility. We've had a couple of jails who've worked with local WIC programs in their county and they've been able to help folks pump, but it's really case by case basis and nothing, nothing as organized as this. And so the, the moms freeze the milk and then you all as an organization are able to get it to the babies.
Chauntel - 00:20:36:
Yep, I come pick it up when I come in and do group on Thursdays. And I come and collect the milk then as well. And then after I leave group, I go to the UPS store and ship it off.
Erin - 00:20:48:
So it's not even just keeping the supply going, but also making sure the babies are getting the benefit, which is really exciting.
Chauntel - 00:20:53:
For sure. And we've had quite a few moms have been able to exclusively feed their babies their milk. And so that's exciting.
Erin - 00:21:00:
That is amazing. Nutrition is something that I know we've struggled with. And, you know, food in carceral settings is always a point of contention. But I think, you know, one of the things that we found is that folks are served a lot of bologna and, you know, kind of lunch meat or tuna fish or insufficient calories for pregnant moms. And it sounds like y'all have tried to help with this, you know, by bringing in food. Is that stuff, again, that the community is donating or do y'all have to purchase or how does that work?
Chauntel - 00:21:34:
We do have some community partners, so like church groups, women groups, those kind of things. They will prepare the meals for us. And then a couple of weeks out of the month, we do it ourselves. We go grocery shopping and we cook it up. And Ashley, my co-director, she's a great chef. So, you know, she does a great job with that. I am not such a great chef. So I, um, things perhaps pre-prepared things but I make sure that they're healthy I can put together a mean salad so-
Erin - 00:22:09:
I'm sure they're excited to see that. And about how many women do you have at a time that participate?
Chauntel - 00:22:17:
Yep. Right now our group is about 15. We currently, we just got one new pregnant mom in. So we have five currently pregnant moms right now. Pre COVID our numbers were about, we saw about 25 to 30 births a year. During COVID, the number went way down. They were trying to get folks into community alternatives. And now we see the numbers increasing pretty much to pre-pandemic levels.
Erin - 00:22:43:
Okay. Yeah. We've had a similar dip in our state. A lot of the women and our project is working more on the county jail side of things, but predominantly the pregnant women who are, you know, justice involved tend to be justice involved related to substance use. Is that similar to what you're seeing in Alabama?
Chauntel - 00:23:05:
For sure. One of the unique things about Alabama is we have a chemical endangerment law. And so what that is, it was designed for people who were cooking meth in the presence of children. And we know how volatile meth can be. There can be explosions and harmful things. So we don't want people doing that with children. And that's what the law was designed to do was to protect children. But what they're doing now is applying it to pregnant women. So if you're pregnant and you use substances, that's an additional charge. It's a felony charge. And so we have folks in our group who that is why they're there. You know, it's because they have an addiction and My line of thinking is perhaps they might be better served with social services versus incarceration.
Erin - 00:23:51:
Yeah, that's one of the things that we really work hard to educate, you know, district attorneys and judges on is that, you know, in our state, and I know several others in the southeast as well, have really great perinatal substance use programs. And that those are much safer places for a pregnant person to receive care than a carceral setting. I mean, carceral settings are not really set up for people to thrive at all, but certainly not a pregnant person who is also battling substance use. And so that's been something that we've really had to talk with folks about because a lot of times we do get people who think they're doing a good thing by putting something in. In a supervised carceral setting. And it's like, no, there are community alternatives that don't rip people out of their families and their communities, then actually provide substance use support, which is very different than what is happening in jail and prison settings, at least in our state.
Chauntel - 00:24:51:
Right.
Erin - 00:24:52:
You seeing any movement towards either changing that law or making it more specific or, you know, sometimes technical fixes. I know we've had to kind of talk with folks about how do we specify transport as just while people are in motion and not while anytime they're outside of the facility for things like shackling and things like that. Is there a kind of talk about how to mitigate some of that harm that's happening to pregnant folks?
Chauntel - 00:25:18:
Yes, I have heard different legal organizations and different maternal health organizations actually having the conversations. And I know that there was some discussion about legislation this year. I know that it didn't pass. So how far it got in the agenda, I'm not sure, but it's definitely something I have my finger on. And next legislative session, I will. I'm sure be on board with whatever efforts are happening to push the issue and get that off the books or get it revised or whatever it needs to be so that this is not happening to pregnant people.
Erin - 00:25:57:
It's become really important to stay attentive to what's going on in the legislature and how folks are using those laws. In terms of just thinking about public health in general, so a lot of the folks who listen to this podcast are either clinicians or they're public health folks. What are things that y[ou feel like anybody can do to, attend to the wellbeing of people who are incarcerated, particularly pregnant folks who are incarcerated and kind of where can they, you know, help in this effort?
Chauntel - 00:26:31:
So the first thing I would say would be find out what facility is close to you that's housing pregnant women. You know, is that the local jail? You know, is there a prison nearby? What is that? And then just call them up like, hey, what are you, you guys got pregnant people? What are you doing? Are they getting enough calories? I'm concerned. You know, I'm a concerned citizen. And I just want to make sure that these people are being treated well, because we're talking about a brand new baby, you know, like, especially in Alabama, you know, it's definitely a pro-life state. And so if we're really pro-life, let's make sure that we're treating this pregnant person well. But I would say call, find out what's going on. And just, you know, if they know that people are looking, that's been my experience. When they know that they're being observed, then they act better. They being the institutions. Historically, when we're getting to this topic, nobody knew about it. Nobody knew it was happening. It was happening in the dark, which means who knows what all was happening, right? Like, I just know the little bits that I know. And I know there's a whole lot that I don't. So I can only imagine a rural county in Alabama thinking nobody is paying attention. And the things that they may try to get away with. You know, we survey our clients when they come in about their care in the county prior to getting to us. And like you said, a whole lot of bologna was happening, you know, like a whole lot of bologna sandwiches, corn dogs. They live in a state of perpetual hunger, right? Like not enough calories, not enough nutrition. And there's no oversight. There's no nationwide, statewide, countywide, there is no oversight committee. And so people are just doing whatever the heck they feel like doing. We hear about folks coming in from county who have not received any prenatal care while incarcerated. And that is highly problematic.
Erin - 00:28:22:
We have a similar situation. You know, we have 100 counties in North Carolina and 86 of them have facilities that house women. And, you know, each sheriff is a king in his own fiefdom, basically. We do finally have this law. It used to just be pregnant women should receive standard of care. That was literally that was one sentence in the statute. And that's all it was. But the tricky thing is, you know, in our case, all of the health care comes out of the county budget. And so a lot of our smaller, poorer counties, you know, they can afford a nurse on Tuesday mornings at the county jail. And other than that, it's just calling EMS. And so there's just no way they could provide adequate care. You know what I mean? Like they don't have the resources when it's an LPN on Tuesdays. Like that is not sufficient prenatal care. Right. Unfortunately, the way our system is set up, women are often sent to the state prison. Now, these are women who are in county jail, who have not been convicted of a crime for the most part, who are then sent to the state prison in Raleigh, often very far away from their families. And then their hearing just gets moved and gets moved. And so they end up, they might have only been in jail for two weeks if they weren't pregnant. But because they're pregnant and they can't get adequate care in the jail, they're held for six months, eight months, sometimes the whole pregnancy. And that's unforgivable.
Chauntel - 00:29:52:
It is. Talk about a human rights violation.
Erin - 00:29:55:
Right. It's something that, and we're finding other states that do this as well. And I worry a lot about, well, any incarcerated pregnant person, but certainly the ones in jails. Because I do feel like you're right. It's really easy for folks not to know what's happening. I really like your point about asking kind of where's the closest facility to me and you know, that we are citizens and taxpayers and we're able to say what's happening here. That's really important. I also, you know, I'm sure they were more receptive because of the U.S. Justice Department investigation, but we've also found that when community groups or outside folks come to jails or prisons and say, I want to provide support, that a lot of times they are really excited. We have one county out west who's been super collaborative and they're like, we don't have enough programs for women. We know that they need more support and we don't know how to do it or have the budget to do it. And so I think a lot of times if you're willing to go in and ask, they will let you in and let you work with folks. I really like that suggestion. Is there anything else that you want to make sure we talk about that I've forgotten.
Chauntel - 00:31:14:
No, I don't think so. I think probably our conversation has opened up the door for some more questions, some more introspection for folks who are going to be listening. So one thing I do want to say is I mentioned earlier we do a national prison doula training. And so, you know, if folks are interested in contributing in that way, maybe perhaps doing birth work in their local facilities, that is something that we provide. We do the training. We have one in Wisconsin coming up in February and we'll probably do one towards the end of the year in Montgomery, Alabama.
Erin - 00:31:47:
Oh, great. Okay.
Chauntel - 00:31:48:
That is a way that people can get involved. We don't have any links as of yet, as far as registration and those kinds of things, but just know that it is coming and I can get that to you as soon as it, you know, it's published. But if people are looking at wanting to get involved, you know, doing a deep dive and really getting into it, that's one opportunity.
Erin - 00:32:11:
That is a great suggestion. Do you want to let us know the website of your organization?
Chauntel - 00:32:17:
Our parent organization is Ostara Initiative. And so that's ostara.org. And there's some resources on there as well. One thing that people just want more information about our project, there's the vision class on there. And that's different folks from our org. Just brief video clips, like five to seven minutes. I'm on there talking about incarceration. One of our board members was born while his mom was incarcerated. And so he talks about that experience. Another one of our colleagues in Minnesota, she is formerly incarcerated. And so she's talking about her experience being pregnant and incarcerated. There's another person on there talking about their role as a doula. Somebody else talking about researching these populations, our researchers on there. So just several things, just more information about our project in this work.
Erin - 00:33:09:
That is so exciting. Thank you for sharing. We will definitely put that in the show notes. For those of you that are in North Carolina, we have Incarcerated Women’s Health, which has resources about the new law. And we have training for nurses and providers in community hospitals who are helping deliver incarcerated folks so that they know both about the law, but also how to help, you know, from a trauma-informed, trauma-responsive place. You know, what are things that may be difficult, particularly for folks who are incarcerated and how can they help mitigate that during the birthing and postpartum process? And that training is free and available to anybody. The law stuff will be North Carolina specific, but I think the other things are transferable. But this is super exciting. I can't wait to dive into the videos. That sounds great. Thank you so much for taking the time today. I think this has been really exciting. For more podcasts, videos, blogs, and maternal health content, visit the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center website at maternalhealthlearning.org. We want to hear from you. Tell us what you want to hear more of. Review our podcast and share with like-minded innovators. We've got some great episodes recording now. Be sure you're subscribed. Let's keep talking. Tag us in your posts using #maternalhealthinnovation. I'm Erin McClain, and we'll see you again next week on the Maternal Health Innovation Podcast. This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration, HRSA, of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, HHS, under grant number U7CMC33636, State Maternal Health Innovation Support and Implementation Program Cooperative Agreement. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government.