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Resources

Below you will find resources for:

- Alaska or Indigenous Birthing and Reproductive Health Resources

- Childbirth & General Information

- Resources for Healthcare Workers & Providers

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Click the underlined verbiage to access the resource links.

Birthing/Repro Health

Alaska or Indigenous Birthing and Reproductive Health Resources:

Alaska Native Birthworkers Community

  • The Alaska Native Birthworkers Community seeks to formalize and grow a network of Alaska Native birthworkers who feel confident, competent and grounded in cultural values to support Native birthing families for better health and wellness outcomes for parents and babies, while also advocating for systemic change to better support Alaska Native birthing families. We do this through offering free direct services to Native birthing families, free access to capacity building and training for current and aspiring Indigenous birthworkers, and by building partnerships for collective impact on a statewide, national, and international scale. 

 

Center for Indigenous Midwifery (Washington)

  • “Honoring ancestral wisdom and reclaiming culturally-rooted midwifery care.” Offers a zoomcast exploring topics and sharing stories of Indigenous birth and family life, a fathers circle, and online childbirth education.

 

National Aborignal Council of Midwives (Canada)

 

National Indigenous Midwifery Alliance

  • The mission of the National Indigenous Midwifery Alliance (NIMA) is to gather the collective power of Indigenous midwives, to uplift the wellbeing of Indigenous childbearing families, calling on our ancestral practices in defense of future generations. We do this by supporting and developing Indigenous midwives, bridging cultural teachings, and reclaiming birth sovereignty within Native communities. 

 

Changing Woman Initiative

  • Changing Woman Initiative is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with the mission to renew cultural birth knowledge to empower and reclaim indigenous sovereignty of women's medicine and life way teachings to promote reproductive wellness, healing through holistic approaches and to strengthen women's bonds to family and community.

 

Mewinzha Ondaadiziike Wiigaming

  • Women building community around healthy birthing practices.

 

Free Indigensous Birth Affirmation Posters (Seattle)

  • Daybreak Star Doulas and Wakeah Jhane are so proud to share these beautiful affirmation posters with communities across Turtle Island and beyond.

 

Indigenous Birth Knowledge and Stories for My Baby Journal by Seventh Generation Midwives and Well Living House (Anishinabek)

 

Postpartum Healing Lodge (Ojibwe) - online classes

 

Urban Indian Health Institute, wild plants as foods and medicines

 

Moon Cycle Tracking

  • Ka’anani’au - Traditional Understandings of Time and Place

 

Alaska Birth Collective - Provider Guide

  • The Alaska Birth Collective was established as a resource for Alaskan families during the prenatal, birth, and postpartum period. They are a non-profit, community based, volunteer organization that helps educate, empower, and support childbearing women and their families. Their mission is to support parents and care providers by providing information, education, and advocacy for Mother Friendly care.

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Free Introduction to Cultural Safety Continuing Education Course (3 CE’s) by Dorene Waubanewquay Day and Dr. Erin Tenney, CNM, through Frontier Nursing University until 3/31/22

  • The purpose of this course is to Introduce the concept of cultural safety and to explore the three main aspects of it, which include:  Learning about the history and impacts of colonization on Indigenous people in the U.S.; Being self-reflective on our identities as health providers who may care for Indigenous people; Centering the Indigenous patient experience and listening as the patient defines what safe care is.

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Postpartum Support International, Alaska Chapter

Alaska Tears Foundation

Zero to Three

Alaska Native Youth Wellness and Sexual Health Resources

Native Youth Sexual Health Network

Identity Alaska

National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center

Data for Indigensous Justice

Alaska Native Epidemiology Center Maternal Child Health Data

Native Movement: Untangling Colonialism - Decolonizing Advocacy 

 

Books:

  • Red Medicine: Traditional Rites of Birthing and Healing by Patrisia Gonzales

  • Reproduction on the Reservation: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Colonialism in the Long Twentieth Century by Brianna Theobald

  • Indigenous Experiences of Pregnancy and Birth edited by Hannah Tait Neufeld and Jaime Cidro

  • Mothers of the Nations: Indigenous Mothering as Global Resistance, Reclaiming, and Recovery edited by D. Meme Lavell-Harvard and Kim Anderson

  • We Are Dancing for You: Native Feminisms & the Revitalization of Women’s Coming-of-Age Ceremonies by Cutcha Risling Baldy

  • Making Space for Indigenous Feminism edited by Joyce Green

  • Indigenous Women and Feminism: Politics, Activism, Culture edited by Cheryl Suzack, Shari Huhndorf, Jeanne Perreault, Jean Barman

  • Critically Sovereign: Indigenous Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies edited by Joanne Barker

  • Birth and Rebirth on an Alaskan Island: the life of an Alutiiq Healer by Joanne Mulcahy

  • Grandmothers Council the World by Carol Schaefer, Pg. 43 Rita Pitka Blumenstein

  • Into These Hands: Wisdom from Midwives edited by Geraldine Simkins, Pg. 79 Katsi Cook

Childbirth & General Info

Childbirth & General Information:

Pregnancy week-by-week:

 

Information by topic for informed decision-making:

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Other Resources for Preparing for Childbirth and Parenting:
 

 

Free Hypnobirthing Recordings:

 

Birth Plan Templates:

 

Breastfeeding:

 

Your Guide to Breastfeeding 

 

Nutrition:

 

Herbs:

 

Babywearing:

 

LGBTQIA2S+ Perinatal Health Resources:

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Loss:

 

Birth Control:

 

Data, Policy, Rights:

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Books: ​

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Pregnancy

  • Nurture: A Modern Guide to Pregnancy, Birth, Early Motherhood and Trusting Yourself and Your Body by Erica Chidi (2017)

  • Midwifery for Expectant Parents: A Modern Guide to Choosing the Birth That’s Right for You by Aubre Tompkins, CNM (2020)

  • Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn by Penny Simkin (2018)

  • Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth (2008)

  • Real Food for Pregnancy: the science and wisdom of optimal prenatal nutrition by Lily Nichols (2018)

  • The Mama Natural Week-by-Week Guide Pregnancy & Childbirth by Genevieve Howland (2017)

  • Mama Glow: A Hip Guide to Your Fabulous Abundant Pregnancy by Latham Thomas (2012)

  • Mama’s Little Baby: The Black Woman’s Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby’s First Year by Dennis Brown and Pamela Toussaint (1998)

  • Having Your Baby: for the special needs of Black mothers-to-be, from conception to newborn care by Hilda Hutcherson, M.D. (1997)

  • The Ultimate Guide to Pregnancy for Lesbians: Tips and Techniques from Conception through Birth by Rachel Pepper (2005)

  • Journey to Same-Sex Parenthood by Eric Rosswood (2016)

  • Where's the Mother?: Stories from a Transgender Dad by Trevor MacDonald (2016)

  • Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin (2003)

 

Birth Preparation

  • The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin (2018)

  • The Labor Progress Handbook by Penny Simkin (2017)

  • The Doula Book: How a Trained Labor Companion Can Help You Have a Shorter, Easier and

  • Healthier Birth by Marshall and Phyllis Klaus (2012)

  • When Surivors Give Birth: Understanding and Healing the Effects of Early Sexual Abuse on Childbearing Women by Penny Simkin and Phyllis Klaus (2004)

  • Mindful Birthing: Training the Mind, Body, and Heart for Childbearing and Beyond by Nancy Bardacke, CNM (2012)

  • Hypnobirthing: A Natural Approach to a Safe, Easier, More Comfortable Birthing by Marie Mongan (2015)

  • Birthing from Within: An Extra-Ordinary Guide to Childbirth Preparation by Pam England and Rob Horowitz (1998)

  • Childbirth Without Fear: The Principles and Practice of Natural Childbirth by Grantly Dick-Read (2013)

  • Birth Matters by Ina May Gaskin (2011)

  • Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering by Sarah Buckley, M.D. (2008)

  • Gentle Birth Choices by Barbara Harper, R.N. (2005)

  • The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer (1999)

 

Postpartum

  • The Fourth Trimester: a postpartum guide to healing your body, balancing your emotions & restoring your vitality by Kimberly Ann Johnson (2017)

  • The First Forty Days: The Essential Art of Nourishing the New Mother by Heng Ou (2016)

  • After the Baby’s Birth: A Complete Guide for Postpartum Women by Robin Lim (2001)

  • Placenta the Forgotten Chakra by Robin Lim (2016)

  • Boost Your Breastmilk: An All-in-One Guide for Nursing Mothers to Build a Healthy Milk Supply by Alicia Simpson, MS, RD, IBCLC (2017)

  • Your Amazing Newborn by Marshall H. Klaus and Phyllis H. Klaus (2000)

  • The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two by William Sears, M.D. and Martha Sears, R.N. (2013)

  • The Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp, M.D. (2015)

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Other BIPOC Resources:

  • My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem (2017)

  • Delivered by Midwives: African American Midwifery in the Twentieth-Century South 1st Edition by Jenny M. Luke (2018)

  • Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty by Dorothy Roberts (2016 or later)

  • Black Fatherhood: Trials & Tribulations, Testimony & Triumph by Khalid Akil White (2016)

  • The Big Letdown: How Medicine, Big Business, and Feminism Undermine Breastfeeding by Kimberly Seals Allers (2017)

  • Skimmed: Breastfeeding, Race, and Injustice by Andrea Freeman (2019)

  • How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (2019)

  • So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo (2019)

  • What Does It Mean To Be White, Developing White Racial Literacy (the Revised Edition) by Robin DiAngelo (2016) 

  • Shafia Monroe Consulting Full Circle Doula Reading List

Resouces for Healthcare & Providers

Resources for Healthcare Workers & Providers

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