We pass the microphone to physician-activist Dr. Jamila Perritt and movement lawyer Yveka Pierre for a dialogue spanning the post-Dobbs criminalization of abortion patients and providers, period tracking apps and digital footprint protections and new imaginings of privacy and care.

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Follow @natalstories on Twitter and Instagram. 

Learn more about Dr. Jamila Perritt

Learn more Yveka Pierre 

Special thanks to Arneta Rogers at the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice.

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In our season premiere, we pass the microphone to two prolific reproductive justice organizers, Marie Leaner and Kwajelyn Jackson. With more than a combined 70+ years of fighting for abortion access, the pair sit down for lively conversation unpacking the rich legacy of Black women organizing for reproductive freedom before, during and beyond Roe.

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Follow @natalstories on Twitter and Instagram.

Learn more about Marie Leaner

Learn more about Kwajelyn Jackson

Watch: The Janes (HBO) 

Use code NATAL15 for 15% off at baby-yams.com

This conversation was co-published and supported by the journalism non-profit the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

Taking matters into her own hands, Anasia charts new pathways to parenthood uniquely her own.

Featured guest: Dr. Tonya Hawkins Hunter

For resources on pregnancy loss, listen to our NPR Life Kit episode. 

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Follow NATAL on Twitter and Instagram.

Fannie Lou Hamer, Southern freedom fighter and one of the oldest Black-founded towns in the country spark The Browns' most transformational decision yet. 

Featured guests: Katy Kozhamminil, PhD and Arrianna Planey, PhD.

If you loved learning about Mound Bayou, check out this video.

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Follow NATAL on Twitter and Instagram.

The moments that (re)introduced Shayla, Erick and Anasia to their bodies.

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Follow NATAL on Twitter and Instagram.

Meet the founding members of The Alabama Birth Collective. 

Learn more about ABC members Charity Moore, Jasmine Merritt, Mariah Brown, Nadia Gramby and Tori Rodriguez, or visit their Instagram.

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Follow NATAL on Twitter and Instagram.

Anasia Sturdivant and Ciara Hunter leave city life behind to find new places to call home.

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Follow NATAL on Twitter and Instagram.

Eight months pregnant during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Shayla and Erick Brown return home to rural Mississippi for a chance to finally get it right.

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Follow NATAL on Twitter and Instagram.

Hosts Gabrielle Horton and Martina Abrahams Ilunga share what inspired this season. Interwoven between narrative interludes, this 10-part story album highlights the rich traditions and structural challenges that have moved four Black rural parents to birth new life and legacies on their own terms.

Featured guests: Arrianna Planey, PhD and DaLyah Jones.

If you loved learning about Black rural communities, check out this article by DaLyah.

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Follow NATAL on Twitter and Instagram. 

Coming Soon: NATAL heads to rural America for season two.

Despite how common pregnancy loss is, families often suffer in silence. In honor of Black Maternal Health Week (#BMHW21), we teamed up with NPR’s Life Kit to share stories from parents who have experienced loss, and expert advice about how to support loved ones through grief.

In this episode we mention:

• Episode Five: Marilyn and Yvonne’s Stories
• Sisters in Loss
• The NATAL Resource Hub
• NPR: Life Kit

Welcome to The NATAL Summit! In this bonus episode, several parent storytellers from NATAL Season One gathered in a multi-generational conversation about the value of oral traditions, agency, and healing for Black birthing parents. You'll hear from:

• Marilyn Abrahams, Episode Five
• Shellie Blackson, Episode Four
• Trish Jones, Episode Eight
• Moderators: Co-Hosts Martina Abrahams Ilunga & Gabrielle Horton

Share your story on NATAL

We're looking for stories for Season Two! This time, we're focusing on Black birthing parents, providers and advocates in rural communities. If you or someone you know have given birth, delivered a birth, or supported birthing persons in rural areas, visit natal stories.com/participate for more information.

Welcome to The NATAL Summit! In this bonus episode, our very own production team offers a behind-the-scenes look at what it means to produce Black stories with dignity and how the team approached the season from a craft perspective. You'll hear from our:

• Editor, Tiara Darnell
• Sound Designer & Engineer, Jessica Jupiter
• Producer, Jhodie Williams
• Co-Hosts, Gabrielle Horton and Martina Abrahams Ilunga

Welcome back to The NATAL Summit! In this bonus episode, medical providers and birthworkers share steps needed to create a more integrated model of care that empowers Black birthing parents and protects the sacredness of the childbirth process.  

In this episode you'll hear from:

• Dr. Sinmi Bamgbose (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center)
• Latham Thomas (Mama Glow)
• Dr. Jamila Perritt (Board-certified OBGYN)
• Tanya Smith Johnson (Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition - Hawaii)
• Moderator: Martina Abrahams Ilunga (NATAL)

Welcome to The NATAL Summit! In this bonus episode, birth equity advocates from the non-profit sector to government discuss how they're advancing public narratives, alongside effective data-informed public policies that result in better health outcomes for Black birthing parents. 

In this episode you’ll hear from:

• Congresswoman Alma Adams, D-NC (Black Maternal Health Caucus)
• Jamille Fields Allsbrook (Center for American Progress)
• Kimberly Seals Allers (Irth)
• Charles Johnson, (4Kira4Moms)
• Moderator Gabrielle Horton (NATAL)

In our season finale, Dallas-based mother and doula, Trish, demonstrates what agency from day one looks like for Black birthing parents: Trish shares what inspired her to become a birthworker, as well as the story of her home birth experience, including the phenomenal care she received from her Black midwife and doula. And Congresswoman Alma Adams (D-NC), co-founder of the Black Maternal Health Caucus, tells us why care for Black birthing parents is personal for her and how she's fighting on Capitol Hill to improve policy and protections for them.

In this episode we mention: Homebirth midwives, Congresswoman Alma Adams (D-NC), The Black Maternal Health Caucus and Momnibus Act of 2020, Expectations placed on Black pregnant women at work, Where you can rewatch the NATAL Summit

Follow NATAL on social media: @natalstories

Join our Facebook Community to connect with other parents, birth workers, and advocates.

NATAL is produced by You Had Me at Black and The Woodshaw. Listen to You Had Me at Black wherever you get your podcasts.

This week we’re at home with Alexius Hill, a Memphis-based young mother who chose to give birth at home despite her family and friends’ concerns about doing so. We discuss the stigma around home births, and explore the radical work of full-spectrum doulas and the ways they strive to provide quality perinatal support for all birthing parents.

In this episode we mention: Homebirths, and their costs, safety and legality; Positive home birth outcomes for low-risk birthing parents; Full-spectrum doula practice; Charlie Monlouis Anderle of Nourishing Seeds Doula; The NATAL Summit

Follow NATAL on social media: @natalstories

Join our Facebook Community to connect with other parents, birth workers, and advocates.

NATAL is produced by You Had Me at Black and The Woodshaw. Listen to You Had Me at Black wherever you get your podcasts.

After receiving subpar care with OBGYNs at her local hospital, Brittany pursues pre-natal care with a midwife. In this episode, we explore alternative care models for Black birthing parents, and hear from Demetra Seriki, a midwife in Colorado.

In this episode we mention: Midwives, Birthing Centers, The Business of Being Born Documentary, and Demetra Seriki of A Mother’s Choice Midwifery

Follow NATAL on social media: @natalstories

Join our Facebook Community to connect with other parents, birth workers, and advocates.

NATAL is produced by You Had Me at Black and The Woodshaw. Listen to You Had Me at Black wherever you get your podcasts.

Marilyn and Yvonne are two parents determined to grow their families. When pregnancy loss disrupts their plans, they turn to their faith. Please note, this episode contains graphic details about miscarriage and stillbirth.

In this episode we mention: Miscarriage, Stillbirth and Sleeping Babies, and Black Millennial Marriage Podcast. For resources for coping with pregnancy loss, visit the Mayo Clinic, CDC, and NATAL Resource Hub. For support following a loss, visit Still Birth Day and Sisters in Loss.

Follow NATAL on social media: @natalstories

Join our Facebook Community to connect with other parents, birth workers, and advocates.

NATAL is produced by You Had Me at Black and The Woodshaw. Listen to You Had Me at Black wherever you get your podcasts.

Today we’re airing a special episode from the Bodies podcast. Their show follows women and non binary folx on their journeys to solve the mysteries of their bodies.  In this episode you’ll hear from Kalalea. After more than a decade of suffering, KalaLea discovers that the cause of her painful periods is common for Black women, but far from normal.

In this episode we mention:

• Fibroids
• Weathering

Follow NATAL on social media: @natalstories

Join our Facebook Community to connect with other parents, birth workers, and advocates.

NATAL is produced by You Had Me at Black and The Woodshaw. Listen to You Had Me at Black wherever you get your podcasts.

After trying to conceive for 10 years, Shellie was finally having her dream baby, but the challenges of motherhood slowly evolved into a silent struggle with postpartum depression. Reproductive psychiatrist Dr. Sinmi Bamgbose shares how she's working to expand mental health resources for Black birthing parents.

In this episode we mention:

• Mind Over Melanin Podcast
• Dr. Sinmi Bamgboshe of Cedars Sinai Medical Center
• Postpartum depression and reproductive psychiatry

In solidarity with the uprisings, and in honor of the countless victims of police and state-sanctioned violence, we are holding off on publishing this week's episode. We'll return Wednesday, June 10.

In this episode we mention three organizations whose work you should support:

• #FreeBlackMamas
• Survived & Punished
• LGBTQ Freedom Fund,

Follow NATAL on social media: @natalstories

Join our Facebook Community to connect with other parents, birth workers, and advocates.

NATAL is produced by You Had Me at Black and The Woodshaw. Listen to You Had Me at Black wherever you get your podcasts.

We head home for a final good-bye to hear how Anasia, Ciara, Erick, Shayla and more are building new legacies exactly where they are.

Featured guests: Crystal Starr Flowers, Katy Kozhamminil, PhD, DaLyah Jones and Tanya Smith-Johnson

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Follow NATAL on Twitter and Instagram.

Facing unplanned pregnancies in their 20s, Mikah and Cecilia's hospital births reveal how access to childbirth education, support systems, and the lack of standardization of care shaped their individual journeys to becoming parents for the first time.

In this episode we mention: Birth Stories in Color podcast, The Depo-Provera shot, and Intrauterine Devices (IUDs)

Follow NATAL on social media: @natalstories

Join our Facebook Community to connect with other parents, birth workers, and advocates.

NATAL is produced by You Had Me at Black and The Woodshaw. Listen to You Had Me at Black wherever you get your podcasts.

Martina explores the historical roots of modern obstetrics and gynecology. Dr. Joia Crear-Perry and Dr. Mimi Niles explain how flaws in medical education and research contribute to the Black birthing crisis.

In this episode we mention: Dr. Joia Crear Perry of the National Birth Equity Collaborative;  Dr. Mimi Niles of The Birth Place Lab;  and Healing Circle Podcast.

Visit natalstories.com to learn more about NATAL, access our resource hub, and donate to our production fund.

Follow us social media: @natalstories, and join our Facebook Community to connect with other parents, birth workers, and advocates.

NATAL is produced by You Had Me at Black and The Woodshaw. Listen to You Had Me at Black wherever you get your podcasts.

Myeshia is a married, 34-year-old cis Black queer woman with a PhD. Two weeks after giving birth to her first child, things take a turn for the worse in a Southern California emergency room.

In this episode we mention: 

* California cuts its maternal mortality rate in half

* CA Senator Holly J. Mitchell's bias training bill

* California as a "global reproductive technology hub"

* Postpartum preeclampsia

* Sisters in Loss podcast

Visit natalstories.com to learn more about NATAL, access our resource hub, and donate to our production fund.

Follow NATAL on social media @natalstories. Join our Facebook Community to connect with other parents, birth workers, and advocates.

NATAL is produced by You Had Me at Black and The Woodshaw. Listen to You Had Me at Black wherever you get your podcasts.
 

Visit www.natalstories.com to learn more about NATAL, access our resource hub, read our community blog, and donate to our production fund.

Follow NATAL on social media:
www.instagram.com/natalstories
www.twitter.com/natalstories

Join our Facebook Community to connect with other parents, birth workers, and advocates:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/natalstories

NATAL is produced by You Had Me at Black and The Woodshaw:

Listen to You Had Me at Black wherever you get your podcasts

Visit www.natalstories.com to learn more about NATAL, access our resource hub, read our community blog, and donate to our production fund.

Follow NATAL on social media:
www.instagram.com/natalstories
www.twitter.com/natalstories

Join our Facebook Community to connect with other parents, birth workers, and advocates:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/natalstories

NATAL is produced by You Had Me at Black and The Woodshaw:

Listen to You Had Me at Black wherever you get your podcasts
 

Alabama Birth Collective founding member, Nadia Gramby, on the sisterhood of birthwork.

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Follow NATAL on Twitter and Instagram.

The parents adjust to life postpartum and the powerful transformations they've undergone.

Guest featured this episode: Crystal Starr Flowers

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Follow NATAL on Twitter and Instagram.

The babies are coming. 

For more on birth plans, listen to our NPR Life Kit episode.

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Follow NATAL on Twitter andInstagram.

From the physical to the emotional, all four parents navigate the highs and lows of pregnancy – and for some, even during a pandemic. 

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Follow NATAL on Twitter and Instagram.

Alabama Birth Collective founder Jasmine Merritt on answering the call to serve.

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Follow NATAL on Twitter and Instagram.

Ciara explores the multitude of care options after learning she's pregnant.

Guests featured this episode: Oriaku Njoku, Quita Tinsley Peterson, and Tanya Smith-Johnson

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Follow NATAL on Twitter and Instagram.

Season Three continues with new episodes next week. In the meantime, let us know what you think about Parts One and Two. Head to our IG @natalstories, or email us hello@natalstoris.com.

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Use code NATAL15 for 15% off at baby-yams.com

In our season finale, we pass the microphone to U.S. Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-MO) and reproductive justice activist, abortion storyteller and writer Renee Bracey-Sherman for a heartfelt discussion about the stories we tell, believe and redefine about our bodies and abortions. The two discuss their own abortion experiences, the moments in pop culture that shaped their understandings of pregnancy, what local abortion wins (shoutout Missouri!) mean for the future of care and so much more. This episode also features abortion doula, community organizer and reproductive justice consultant Ash Williams, who narrates an excerpt from WHOLE, a narrative for abortion freedom.

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Follow @natalstories on Twitter and Instagram.

Learn more about:

• Congresswoman Cori Bush and her abortion testimony before Congress
• Renee Bracey-Sherman and her book Liberating Abortion
• Ash Williams
• WHOLE

Special thanks to Erica M. Freeman from Sisters in Loss, as well as Sarah Idrissu and Marina Chafa.

Use code NATAL15 for 15% off all baby quilts and home goods at baby-yams.com

We pass the microphone to Jenice Fountain, executive director of the Yellowhammer Fund, and midwife Tanya Smith-Johnnson, executive director of Birth Future Foundation. From mutual aid to midwifery, they discuss their organizing work, the power of relationship building, and why the Deep South is forever their North Star.

For transcripts and more, visit natalstories.com. Follow @natalstories on Twitter and Instagram

Learn more about Jenice Fountain

Learn more about Tanya Smith-Johnson

Learn more about WHOLE

Special thanks to Marz Lovejoy at the Black Homebirth Initiative

Learn more about Tatyana Ali, and use code NATAL15 for 15% off at baby-yams.com