Paisley Lucas says, humbly, that as a first time mother, she was really, really good at breastfeeding. You don’t have to take her word for it because everyone she knew in a similar situation was asking for her help.
That’s what led her to becoming a certified lactation support provider and opening her own breastfeeding consulting business, Moo’d.
“Our parents have been given formula in the hospital, our grandparents have been given formula in the hospital, I mean we were the babies that were given formula in the hospital because there was a huge formula push,” Lucas says.
There’s a long, tragic political history of why Black communities were pushed to use formula instead of breastfeeding. It dates back to slavery and a history of wet nursings where Black mothers fed the white children they were forced to care for.
Today in Milwaukee, Black and brown moms, and birthing people, have some of the worst birthing outcomes in the nation. Even being pregnant can come with danger. But there are an abundance of birth workers, like Lucas, that cater their services directly to these demographics who’ve historically been marginalized.
From prenatal to postpartum
The journey for expecting people and families starts long before labor and delivery. Lucas likes to work with people at the beginning of their pregnancies to help get them ready. There are a few ways you could come across her help and guidance, either through one-on-one consulting with her business or at one of the free classes she teaches through Milwaukee Recreation.
“A lot of people have a lot of the same concerns,” Lucas says. “A lot of it is how do I know if I make enough milk, what happens when I go back to work, what does pumping look like.”
Lucas says there are other service providers for prenatal services expecting parents can access. One that she recommends is to start working with a doula, which Milwaukee is rich with, including Whitney Bingham, director of weRise’s doula program and owner of Selfish Evolution.
“First, congratulations on being pregnant. It’s a beautiful journey. I would ask if you’ve ever heard of what a doula does?” asks Bingham. “And if you haven’t, a doula would be someone who is an educated support person."
A few things to expect working with Bingham, or other local doulas:
- A birth plan with designated roles for your family and support team
- All the potential birthing scenarios
- Positions that help comfort a changing body
- And how to advocate for yourself in healthcare settings, among other things
Bingham starts working with clients during the first trimester but will stay with them through labor and delivery and even up to three months post-birth. And while doulas work primarily with the birthing person and baby, they are a resource for the entire family or whoever is supporting.
The role of doulas also helps counter systemic inequities in medical settings for Black and brown women. Some of the potential outcomes of working with a doula includes, less likely to require a c-section, more likely to have a spontaneous birth, have shorter labor times and reduce overall racial disparities in maternal health.
“If you have support your nervous system is much more relaxed and you’re less likely to have issues with high blood pressure, anxiety and things like that when you have a trusted person supporting you through one of the biggest events in your life,” Bingham says.
Maybe you’re thinking that after a successful and healthy delivery, moms and birthing people are out of the woods. But Bingham recommends following up with more community-based resources, like Maternally Strong’s mom’s group.
The group says they are the first Black and BIPOC-led mom’s group in the city of Milwaukee. And it all started as an idea to share the knowledge the four group members had, all which are certified and licensed birth workers.
Shanna Franklin is a member of Maternally Strong and recalls the feedback she got from one of the mom’s in her group on the importance of a space like theirs.
“I don’t feel comfortable going to mom’s groups where no one looks like me and I don’t feel like I can be my authentic self,” Franklin says.
Some of this, Franklin says, is because Black women are often fighting an internal narrative that they’re supposed to be strong and figure things out on their own. She said when she had her own concerns during her pregnancy, and asked for advice and guidance from her elders, they often told her, “don’t worry, you got this.”
Michelle Wilkins is another member of Maternally Strong and she says the Black community has had to be independent, especially when it comes to pregnancy and birth.
“We’re using this group to bring back that village [mentality] and having a collective of women,” says Wilkins. “Even if you’ve been a mom before and you think you know, you don’t know. Because everything is always changing.”
Mom’s groups are what they sound like, safe and supportive spaces for moms to unload, ask for help and build community. And if you’re in Milwaukee, you’ve got options for groups. That includes Haley King’s new baby, not actual baby, but business baby and mom’s support group for postpartum, After Birth.
The motivation for the group was King’s own traumatic birthing experience.
“I also didn’t know my body anymore,” says King. “I didn’t know how to move it. I didn’t know how to love it. I felt uncomfortable in my skin. Even where I had my c-section I could not touch that area. Like physically, couldn’t touch it."
While all c-sections are traumatic, hers was especially so. Thirty-six hours of labor. Lost heartbeats. Both mom and baby in distress. When she touches her scar, she touches all of that pain.
She also had issues with the hospital’s care after her pregnancy. King says they told her that she should be able to walk after 24 hours so they made her get up and try to walk. The problem was she had lost so much blood they rushed her back to bed and gave her two blood transfusions.
“I was telling them, ‘Hey I feel weird. I don’t feel right,’” King recalls. “Not knowing stuff and having to learn in these actual traumatic ways affects you.”
After Birth provides a similar space for new moms and birthing people as does Maternally Strong, but also includes catered meals and child care. When you arrive for the half-day session, you’re given a gift box and a journal. Then you meet the “community conversation leader” who will be your counselor and moderator for the day.
“She is a Black mama and she also has a background from therapy so she knows what postpartum looks like in all of the stages,” says King.
King also provides yoga and stretching exercises. And after the day, King makes sure they have all they need to move forward, including contacts to Black maternal resources across Milwaukee.
The need for these resources in Milwaukee
All of these birth workers have been through this journey and shaped by it. They all provide their own expertise to make the prenatal to postpartum process easier for Black moms in a city where it can be incredibly challenging.
“In Milwaukee, these resources are life and death,” says Haley King. “Having a support system to navigate [an experience like mine], to heal from that is so important."
“Being a Black mom in Milwaukee, I just want to say it’s OK to ask for help,” Paisley Lucas of Moo’d says. “There’s a community here to help and we want to help that’s why we’re here. Let’s help each other and have better birthing outcomes. Let’s save us.”
“I want to let every mom know that you are not alone, this is a hard, wonderful, thankless job that we do everyday, 24/7 and it is OK to put you first sometimes,” says Shanna Franklin of Maternally Strong. “We gonna cry and turn up, it’s not just gonna be a lot of crying. We gonna turn up, too”
All of these birth workers, and more, will be available at the Black Birth Collection taking place this Sunday, Feb. 23, from 12:00 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Kellogg PEAK initiative at 2480 W. Cherry St in Milwaukee.
