07: Choosing a doula, and navigating hospital policies and your human rights in childbirth — with doula and childbirth activist Karli Smith

Birth Choices

In this episode we speak with Karli Smith, a doula with a background in international human rights law and humanitarian aid, who now spends her time supporting women and birthing people on an individual and broader systems level in advocating for rights in maternity care. We speak about the role of doulas in pregnancy, birth and postpartum, the power and magic of birth and having someone hold you in your vision for birth, the importance of informed consent and autonomous decision-making in birth, and strategies for navigating the (public and private) hospital system.
Karli gives us some great pointers for language you or your support people can use in the birth space, something she builds on more deeply in her amazing course, “The Hospital Birth Course” (with a version for women and birthing people, and another specifically geared to birth workers).

Links:

• The Hospital Birth Course
• Report of the Special Rapporteur — violence against women, its causes and consequences on a human rights-based approach to mistreatment and violence against women in reproductive health services with a focus on childbirth and obstetric violence
• AIHW: Australia’s Mothers and Babies (the birth stats we touched on)