MEMPHIS, Tenn. — For expectant moms, a bundle of joy, takes a labor of love.
"With my first, I really didn't know what I was doing. I didn't get the experience that I truly wanted with her," said Gera Lay, mother of two children.
"I was afraid because my mom had a difficult three pregnancies before she had me," new mom Christian Price said.
The praises of a new life often overshadow the fears of bearing it. To make sure they felt heard, Lay and Price put their trust in Shanille Bowens, a doula with Naturally Nurtured Birth Services.
"A doula is a birth companion that provides emotional, educational and physical support during labor. We perform no medical task, but we're there to encourage, go over different labor positions, advocate for our moms and be there to help them through the whole process," Bowens said.
Having six kids of her own, Bowens has supported more than 100 mothers with birth since 2018.
For so many women, creating a life means sacrificing their own, a risk that's 2 1/2 times higher for Black women than White women.
"A lot of times we just aren't believed. We aren't taken seriously. Our symptoms and our experiences are overlooked. I think that plays a major role, and also a lot it has to do with how providers treat women post partum," Bowens said.
The Tennessee's Department of Health's key findings between 2017 and 2020 reported 113 pregnancy-related deaths across the state.
Women without a college degree were more likely to die from pregnancy-related deaths than women with one a degree, and women in West Tennessee had a higher ratio of pregnancy-related deaths than the rest of the state.
That study found 89% of those deaths were preventable.
"When you feel safe, when you feel supported, when you feel comfortable, you do have better outcomes," Bowens said.
Having a doula to help with the education of giving birth decreases the overall cesarean rate by 50%, the length of labor by 25%, and requests for an epidural by 60%, according to the American Pregnancy Association.
"It's like if you could take your best friend, give her that background knowledge and then sit her right next to you, and she'll be like, 'You got this girl. Let's do this.' And so I feel like that's what you're going to get with a doula, and it's going to take the scariness out of the hospital," Price said.
Naturally Nurtured Birth Services start at $795. Bowens works on a case by case basis to make doula services accessible and affordable to all women.
"For those who are not able to afford, we do have financial assistance and that's completely community funded. So, we collect donations and then we offer a sliding scale. We might offer a percentage off depending on what their income is," Bowens said.
"I don't ever want to have to go through that again without having that support of a doula," Lay said.
Naturally Nurtured Birth Services accepts TriCare insurance and are able to give financial assistance from monetary donations. Bowens is currently working to partner with United Healthcare.
Their doulas offers support up to two years and assist women through lactation counseling, post partum and other stresses that come with being a new mom.
For more information, visit the Naturally Nurtured Birth Services website.