Traditional Birthwork and Maternal Health Impacts by Covid-19

How is Native birthwork and maternal health impacted by Covid-19? Nicolle Gonzales and Helena Benozaadleyo Jacobs discuss culturally-rooted ways they are responding to their communities’ needs and navigating birthkeeping during these times.

Nicolle, Diné – Navajo, is the Executive Director and Founder of Changing Woman Initiative, a Native American women-led health collective. She received her Bachelor’s of Nursing and Masters of Nurse-Midwifery at the University of New Mexico. She is a member of the American College of Nurse Midwives and is certified with the American Midwifery Certification Board. Nicolle has over 15 years’ experience as a nurse and has worked as a Nurse-Midwife doing full-scope midwifery for the last 9 years. Through the years, she has worked on several community projects around birth equity, and has served as the founding board president and vice board president of two birth centers in New Mexico.

Helena, Koyukon Athabascan, was born in Fairbanks with ancestral ties to Ruby and Kokrines on the central Yukon River, and now lives and works in Anchorage, Alaska on Dena’ina land where she and her husband are raising their family. She has been supporting mothers through birth and postpartum care for over a decade and helped co-found the Alaska Native Birthworkers Community. She is also the owner and principal consultant of Benozaadleyo Consulting LLC focusing on collective impact approaches to positive social and systemic change, as well as elevating equity, access, wellness and wellbeing within the Alaska Native community.

To learn more about or Support the Projects featured today:
Website: www.changingingwomaninitiative.com
IG: @cwi505
Facebook:Changing Woman Initiative

Website: www.nativebirthworkers.org
IG @alaskanativebirthworkers
Facebook: Alaska Native Birthworkers Community