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HomeHealthDana Bear aims to give Osage women support for healthy and safe...

Dana Bear aims to give Osage women support for healthy and safe births

Bear is studying to be a Doula and hopes that someday pregnant Osage women will have the option of her services

Doula services for pregnant mothers have risen since the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

A doula is a non-medical professional who is trained to help support mothers pre-birth, during birth, and postpartum. Doula services include advocating for the mother on how they choose to give birth, offering support both emotionally and physically, and providing resources for mothers. The doula also helps support the family as a whole during this time.

A doula differs from a midwife, as midwives are licensed medical personnel who aid during the birthing process.

According to the United States Government Accountability Office, the maternal mortality rate has increased over the last five years. It’s risen from 20.1 deaths per 100,000 births in 2019 to 32.2 in 2021. The number is higher for women of color.

Osage tribal member Dana Bear started doula training in 2021 and is currently working on being recertified through the state for SoonerCare reimbursement. She owns Tallchief & Co., which provides doula services.

“Fifteen years ago, I could not find workers that were women of color,” Bear said. “With my youngest child, I really wanted to go the more natural route, and I did not get that option because there weren’t those options at the time.”

Bear decided that when she retired she wanted to be a doula to help other women while they were pregnant. One of her favorite artists, Erykah Badu, is also a doula, and Bear started researching what organizations she had worked with to start training to be a doula.

“I put it on a post-it and tacked it up on my wall of goals, that one day I would find a training that I felt like fit me and that I would do it,” she said. “In my head for a really long time, I thought it was not going to be until way later in life.”

The door for doula training opened up for Bear sooner than she expected. In 2020, she found training with the organization Birthing Advocacy Doula Training which offered online courses.

“At that time, I was trying to figure out what things I wanted to keep in my life and what things I wanted to do,” she said. “And the things I wanted to do later in life, I decided to start working toward those goals full time.”

Bear witnessed her first birth at 7 years of age when a close family friend had a child. Her mother was a registered nurse in surgery, and Bear was allowed to watch the birth through the window.

“I think back on that sometimes and think, ‘Oh this is kind of something that’s always been dear to me,’” she said.

Growing up, she took care of her siblings and many of her cousins after they would come home from the hospital. She learned about postpartum care from the women in her family.

“It took a while for me to draw those lines, but it’s something I’ve been naturally inclined

to,” she said.

Dana Bear works with a classmate during her doula training. Courtesy Photo

Bear saw that mothers needed support, not only during pregnancy but during the postpartum process as well. Doula care is especially important after birth and can help a new mother not feel overwhelmed and decrease the risk of postpartum depression.

“In my adult life I have a narrative of trying to support women as much as I can,” she said. “Those two things go hand in hand being able to help new families, help moms, because when you have a baby, the focus is on the baby. The doctor might go over a few little things with Mom, but for the most part, everybody is anticipating this birth for the new baby. Sometimes mom, the birthing body, gets kind of left in the wake, and they’re just kind of expected to fall into the new routine, and to know exactly what to do and to be able to withstand sleep deprivation. It’s not always easy to sneak in a meal when you have a newborn, and all these other things.”

An expecting mother can start looking for a doula as soon as she finds out she’s pregnant. It is best to find a doula that a mother can connect with.

“As soon as the mom finds out she’s with child and she starts to make plans, the idea is that we’re all going to be a team together,” she said. “That means once they start to establish what doctor is going to provide their care, are they going to have a midwife, what would that look like; do they want to have a home birth, do they want to have their birth in a hospital or a birthing center. Doulas are all a part of that conversation.”

Mothers who choose to use a doula are less likely to have a cesarean section. According to DONA International, having a doula during pregnancy can reduce cesarean sections by up to 28%.

According to a 2022 report by the Oklahoma Maternal Health Morbidity and Mortality Annual Report, between 2019-2021 maternal mortality rates rose to 31 per 100,000 births. From 2018-2020 the number was 25.2 per 100,000.

The maternal mortality rate among black women is significantly higher than other ethnic groups. The National Center for Health Statistics reported that in 2021 the mortality rate for non-Hispanic black women was 69.9 deaths per 100,000 live births.

“The state took notice and people started to notice that this organization started forming to figure out how we change that and how we combat that, and what is the cause,” Bear said. “How do we get to the root of why this is happening, specifically to women of color, not necessarily as often as white women in Oklahoma.”.

Doulas are becoming more accessible to low-income expectant mothers. According to the Oklahoma Healthcare Authority, as of July 1, 2023, doula services are covered by SoonerCare with a doctor’s referral.

Bear is working on being recertified through state-sanctioned doula training to provide services and be paid through SoonerCare. She is doing her recertification through the Tulsa Birth Equity Initiative. When she nears the end of training, Bear will do an apprenticeship through TBEI.

“What Tulsa Birth Equity Initiative does is provide doula services for free to mothers that meet a specific criteria,” she said. “Like if you’re a woman of color, if you’re a teen mom, if you live in certain zip codes in Tulsa, they’re going to provide doula services for free.”

TBEI serves different communities throughout the Tulsa area to provide free doula services to mothers who qualify for services. Mothers have to fill out an application and a coordinator will contact them to see if they qualify for free doula services. After that is complete, the project program manager reaches out to them to explain the program and interviews with them. If a mother meets the criteria for services, they start the process of picking the perfect doula for a mother’s needs. For expectant mothers, the form can be found on the TBEI website.

“TBEI prioritizes specific community groups,” Shamika Antwine-Boone TBEI Project Program Manager said. “We are of and from the same community, and so you would be matched with a doula that looked like you, from the same neighborhood as you, or have shared life experiences.”

Dana Bear with her classmates at Tulsa Tech’s Blossoming Birth Doula Training. Courtesy Photo

Curriculum and training manager, Martyne Farris, works with women training to be doulas. The goal is to train women so they can go out and be doulas on their own.

“Everyone on our staff who is a doula has gone through our training,” Farris said. “It’s open to anyone in the community, although we prioritize the communities we serve. Dana is currently going through the training, so the training is the first step toward certification as a community-based doula.”

The community-based training is 60 hours and meets twice weekly for three-hour sessions. The training focuses on the skills needed to become a doula and support a woman prenatally, during birth and postpartum. Other skills include culturally concordant care, communication with clients, trauma and healing and antiracism and reproductive justice.

Bear has gone above and beyond in her training with TBEI and has the compassion to serve others within the community through her work as a doula.

“I recognized immediately the passion she has for the community and her community,” Boone said. “And how giving back to her community in the right way has been a part of who she is.”

In the training process, Bear is always open to learning new things and also shares with other women who are going through their training.

“In class, it’s very clear that she’s very passionate about the work,” Farris said. “She is very engaged in the learning process, and often she will share from her own experience because she has served women. She brings that experience to share with the other classmates, some of whom have never done anything doula-related before, so that’s been pretty cool to see her share that and share her passion with other people. She’s clearly interested in completing the course and doing the best work she can.”

Bear hopes that next year she will be training other women to be doulas in the area through another program TBEI offers and provide Osage women with doula options. Eventually, the hope is for women to be referred to her through the WahZhaZhe Health Center to receive services.

“I’ll be able to train members of my community to provide doula support for other Osage women,” she said. “The long-term goal is that we can create a network of doulas that are also Osage and are providing support to Osage families.”

Bear also realizes the need for more doulas who are women of color, and that is something that is important to her.

“When I speak to people about doula work and birth work, I remind them that brown bodies were birthing babies on this land before white men in white coats showed up and told us to lay down and give birth or lay down and let them cut us open,” she said. “For me, it feels like a return to tradition and it is turning toward the community to provide support because community-based care has been scientifically proven to be beneficial in communities of color. We thrive when we’re able to receive care from people that look like us and come from where we’re from and understand who we are.”

Why should women choose to have a doula to advocate for them during pregnancy, labor and postpartum?

“Everyone deserves a healthy, safe birth,” she said. “Everyone deserves to give birth on their own terms in a way they see fit and suits them and their family.”

Outside of her work as a doula, Bear also owns Tallchief Designs LLC and sells jewelry and herbs. Inquiries can be made at danabear@tallchiefandco.com. Her website is tallchiefandco.com

Author

  • Collyn Combs

    Collyn Combs is a multimedia journalism student at Oklahoma State University. She is a member of the Osage Nation, and her family is from the Grayhorse district. Combs is from Ponca City, Okla., and attended school in Bartlesville, Okla., where she graduated in 2017. She served on the newspaper staff at Bartlesville High School from 2016-2017. She attended Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa after graduation and wrote for The Maverick newspaper from 2017-2020, and served as editor from 2018-2019. She currently lives in Stillwater, Okla., and is involved with O’Colly TV as the weather reporter, OSU Native American Student Association and is secretary for the Omega Phi Alpha National Service Sorority.

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Collyn Combs
Collyn Combshttps://osagenews.org
Collyn Combs is a multimedia journalism student at Oklahoma State University. She is a member of the Osage Nation, and her family is from the Grayhorse district. Combs is from Ponca City, Okla., and attended school in Bartlesville, Okla., where she graduated in 2017. She served on the newspaper staff at Bartlesville High School from 2016-2017. She attended Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa after graduation and wrote for The Maverick newspaper from 2017-2020, and served as editor from 2018-2019. She currently lives in Stillwater, Okla., and is involved with O’Colly TV as the weather reporter, OSU Native American Student Association and is secretary for the Omega Phi Alpha National Service Sorority.
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