Doulas Without Borders: A Grassroots Solution to a Systemic Crisis

Abstract

There is an urgent need to address a crisis in our society, which finds traumatised pregnant women giving birth alone and unsupported. Women are pregnant and in terror from living with an abuser, without English as a first language, sometimes post-rape, pregnant through coercion, forced marriage, or as a result of sex trafficking. There are also teens, refugees and asylum-seekers, those living with intimate partner violence and those women made homeless, who are often incredibly isolated during this time.