Double award-winning doula and birth activist Mars Lord has been a birth keeper for well over a decade. After attending the Paramana Doula course with Michel Odent and Lilliana Lammers, a spark was lit within her and the passion that she discovered for birth and supporting parents has fired her soul ever since. She has had the privilege of working with hundreds of families. A birth activist, with a desire to see the ‘colouring in of the landscape of birth’ and finding out the reasons for the maternal and neonatal morbidity rates amongst the BAME community, Mars created Abuela Doulas a doula preparation course primarily, but not exclusively, for women of colour. Her desire for reproductive justice led to the creation of the ‘Reproductive Justice Retreat’. Mars was recently recognised in the Mayor of London's Hidden Credits campaign and continues to speak out about cultural safety and reproductive justice. Mars is the mother of 5 children, including twins, and a new Nonna to her little grandson.

In this episode, we talked about:

Self-care and time out after supporting at a birth

Doulas and burn-out
Mars considers the most important quality of doulaing as the ability to ‘be’ and walk alongside the woman/ couple
Mars became a doula mentor and went on to create her own doula training that’s culturally safe
There’s more to a culture than what it looks like on the surface
Black and Asian women are more likely to die during birth
Abuela means ‘grandmother’ in Spanish and Abuela Doulas is the name of her doula training
Mars’ best buddy aka ‘the wife’, Nicola Goodall- here’s her episode with me
Profiting from traditional practices such as baby-wearing and co-sleeping
The impact of colonisation on birth and motherhood
Inclusivity in marketing material
Supporting and lifting one another up
Learning to take ownership about your body
“You’re a Queen, not a handmaiden”
Navigating a new relationship with her daughter now that she’s a new mother
The stereotype of the ‘angry black woman’
The dynamics that happen in groups and online regarding talking about race
Eunice Olumide- black model and activist from Scotland
Being in a heard in a system that’s not meant for you
Dr Christine Ekechi, obstetrician working to reduce racial disparities in healthcare
Blaming black and brown bodies for poor outcomes
Research already shows that pain relief is given at lower rates as it’s believed that black women have higher pain tolerance
Intergenerational trauma is considered, yet enslavement trauma isn’t addressed
Modern gynaecology progressed by experiments of enslaved women
Knowing your importance doesn’t put others down, it brings everybody up
Mars’ self-care includes theatre, red wine, good books, trusted friends, dinner and dancing.
Reproductive Justice Retreat