Virginia Prison Birth Project Fall Newsletter
Together we shipped nearly 10,000 ounces of breastmilk!
Thank you to our cherished supporters for making this possible!!!
Beyond the unreplicatable nourishment that each ounce of breastmilk possessed, it also contained infinite love and hope and promise of connection for the moms that consistently sat at their pump around the clock to nourish their babies from their prison cells. These shipments were a great blessing for the families we serve, especially given the formula shortage and high cost of feeding babies with formula. Thank you to our donors for making this possible!
Virginia Prison Birth Project has been serving pregnant and postpartum people in prison with perinatal support programs since 2019. Our programs include one-on-one birth doula support throughout pregnancy, labor & delivery, during separation from baby and postpartum back at the prison. We provide lactation support, including weekly shipments of breastmilk to babies from their mothers behind bars. We lead weekly perinatal wellness peer-group sessions.
Please support Virginia’s most vulnerable segment of birthing people and their babies this giving season and make a tax-deductible donation today! You can donate directly using this link https://square.link/u/wgboOjSd by visiting our website www.virginiaprisonbirthproject.org and hitting the donate button, or by mailing a check to 312 7 ½ St SW Charlottesville, Virginia 22903.
COVID 19: Meeting Clients Where They Are
Movement across facilities halted, volunteer access to the prison was restricted and programs were paused at the start of the pandemic. Our lactation program and birth doula support at the hospital resumed in July of 2021. This year we were allowed back into the prison to resume one-on-one doula visits and perinatal peer-group sessions.
Since movement from jails to prisons resumed in July 2021, we’ve been seeing fewer pregnant people arriving at the prison than in previous years. It seems the pandemic has slowed down sentencing to prison and pregnant folks are instead cycling through jails or being released on bond to state-sanctioned rehabilitation facilities, recovery houses, or back into their communities on house arrest until they have their babies. We pivoted to offer them services where they are.
We expanded services to a county jail in Richmond!
We lead weekly peer-groups and offer birth doula support at a county jail in Richmond. These 90 minute peer-group sessions include perinatal education and promote the hallmarks of perinatal wellness: nutrition, hydration, rest, social support, stress management, removal of toxins, and movement. The doulas facilitate peer-led discussions about a range of topics, such as navigating the challenges of pregnancy and parenting while incarcerated, preparing for reunification with their children and re-entry. Every session includes prenatal yoga and/or guided meditation and breathwork. With permission from the Sheriff, we bring in healthy, nutritious meals for the people who participate in these groups– a longtime dream of ours!
Another dream came true– the Sheriff agreed to accommodate ‘a separation visit’ for our clients at the time of discharge from the hospital after birth. To date, upon discharge from the hospital, a person who gives birth while in custody hands the baby to a nurse to take to the designated infant custodian. For clients we support at the prison, the infant custodian spends a few hours at the new mother’s bedside and she introduces her baby to them herself. We explained to the Sheriff the value of this bedside visit for the families involved and she has agreed to permit these special visits.
Team Expansion, Research and Education
We expanded our Executive Board to include Leean Regland, a Richmond-based social worker and part-time doula who has lived experience of having been incarcerated. She works at VCU Health with a program called ‘Project Empower’, supporting victims of human trafficking and domestic violence. We’ve partnered with this project to serve our clients at the county jail. We’ve also expanded our team to include three new doulas.
We’re in our second year of contributing as one among five other sites across six different states to an NIH-funded research project called Enhanced Perinatal Programs for People in Prison. Contributing to research is a key part of making this work sustainable and integrated into prison systems throughout the country.
Earlier this month four of our team members attended advanced prison doula certification training in Montgomery, Alabama. Our trained doulas are now certified to offer perinatal support in carceral settings and will begin leading peer group sessions at the jail this winter.
Plan and Wish List for 2023
We will continue to serve the prison and jail with our existing programs. We will onboard and integrate our new team of certified prison doulas.
November 2022 the Department of Corrections (DOC) opened a facility called the Family Reunification House. This is a home-like environment where incarcerated parents preparing to re-enter society have extended, structured and secured visitation with their minor children. This time is meant to help the parent and child prepare for reunification and to provide parents with skills to help them navigate parenting when they are released. Virginia Prison Birth Project doulas will facilitate parent-child activities and offer peer-group support with parents to process how visits are going.
We wish to expand perinatal peer-group sessions to a state sanctioned rehabilitation facility where many of our clients from the jail go directly after they’re released. This will enable our doulas to provide continuity of support during this transition. Peer-group sessions give clients more time with their doulas outside of the standard three one-on-one prenatal visits prior to labor. We believe this extra time to connect helps to build trust and optimize support. This year we supported a client at the jail, then virtually at the rehab facility, eventually in-person when they moved into a recovery house, and later into the community. Over the course of her care we learned about various ways this population requires specialized support as they navigate the challenges of re-entry and preparing for new parenthood.
We are drafting a proposal to collaborate with the DOC and the Health Department to improve perinatal nutrition for our clients at the prison.
We are planning a fundraiser– stay tuned for our spring newsletter to learn more.
Please donate this Giving Tuesday!
You can donate directly using this link https://square.link/u/wgboOjSd
by visiting our website www.virginiaprisonbirthproject.org and hitting the donate button, or by mailing a check to 312 7 ½ St SW Charlottesville, Virginia 22903.
Virginia Prison Birth Project is a 501c3 non-profit EIN 87-1038388