Having endured the trauma of a lost pregnancy at the hands of her obstetrician during her teenagehood, Angelica Rideaux vowed that she would work to protect BIPOC women from emotional and physical abuse.
In 2021, she enrolled in Community Birth Companion, a non-profit doula training program serving those in Southwest Louisiana.
“During the training, I was loved on by women who looked like me, and had the same purpose of ending racial bias in maternal child health care,” Rideaux recalls.
She now serves as a doula for BIPOC families around Louisiana with the ultimate goal of becoming a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM). Currently, there are only three Black CPMs in Louisiana, according to Rideaux. In 2021 Baby Catcher Birth Center, the state’s first Black-owned, CABC accredited free-standing birth center opened.
Most recently, Rideaux was accepted as a member of the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice’s She Leads: Community Activist Fellowship 2023 cohort: a “network of women activists who are disrupting the current power structures and realizing change in their communities.”
Rideaux’s accomplishments go on. She earned one of the most recent Accessing the Milky Way scholarships to support her completion of the Lactation Counselor Training Course (LCTC).
Because Rideaux is a hands-on learner, she reports the online format of the LCTC challenging. Even so, Rideaux says she likes challenges.
“So I am going to push past that,” she states.
She says she has found the office hours helpful; they make the experience of online learning feel less isolating.
Working her way through the course, Rideaux has been surprised by how many myths have been put to rest. Specifically, she says it was “mind-blowing” to learn that water consumption is not solely responsible for milk production. She plans to share the knowledge she continues to gain among her colleagues and the families she supports.
Rideaux sees the LCTC as an important piece in making her future in midwifery more well-rounded, effective and supportive.
As Rideaux continues on her journey to know more to better serve her community, she reminds us of some important concepts to reflect on as we move through our own work to improve maternal child health outcomes.
First is that discomfort is necessary for change, and sitting in discomfort, having those difficult conversations is part of bringing an end to racial inequity.
Secondly, creating healthy environments for women and children, especially those in BIPOC communities, is not a trend. Rideaux comments that while she wants everyone to be culturally aware and competent, she hopes that the impetus comes from “hearts to get the situation resolved” rather than for “the dollars” or for “the accolades” or for an illusion of doing good.
In Equity is more than a buzzword, the author writes: “Those committed to equity should understand that the harm of racism cannot simply be ‘undone’. The ramifications of colonization, enslavement and segregation penetrate almost every aspect of our society, including our education systems. Merely boosting representation is not an effective way to increase equity in predominantly white institutions.” (Paytner, 2023)
It’s a reminder that improving maternal child health outcomes for the BIPOC community is part of a revolution, as Rideaux describes it.
“A lot of us are on the ground getting this work done, never receiving any kind of media coverage,” she begins. “We are soldiers in this war, and the goal is to get everybody on the same path for equity and justice. We want everybody to feel like they are humans because that’s what we are first and foremost.”
Learn about ending obstetric racism by visiting Birthing Cultural Rigor, founded by Dr. Karen A. Scott, MD, MPH, FACOG.
