Janiya Mitnaul Williams is an international board certified lactation consultant, a registered lactation consultant, and a certified lactation counselor who has been supporting nursing families since 2007. She holds degrees from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and Union Institute & University in Speech, Language Pathology in Audiology, and Health and Wellness with a concentration in Human Lactation.

Janiya is the program director of the Pathway 2 Human Lactation Training Program at North Carolina A&T State University. She also works for the Women's and Children's Center at Cone Health as a perinatal educator researcher, community liaison, and doula services coordinator. In 2015, Janiya created Mahogany Milk Support Group in order to promote, encourage and normalize nursing for Black and Brown families. That same year, Janiya also became the first person of color and non-registered nurse to be hired as a lactation consultant for the hospital system at Cone Health. 

Janiya is very passionate about creating diversity, equity, and inclusion within the field of lactation to promote better health outcomes for Black and Brown marginalized and underprivileged families because they have the greatest lactation barriers to overcome.

We will talk about challenges Janiya experienced during her journey to becoming a lactation consultant. We also talk about cultural barriers in lactation, the importance of Black Breastfeeding Week, and creating her own Pathway 2 Human Lactation Training Program at North Carolina A&T State University.

Content warning: We will discuss the cultural barriers and historical trauma (i.e. slavery) in the field of lactation.

RESOURCES:

Learn more about Janiya Mitnaul Williams’ Pathway 2 Human Lactation Training Program at NC A&T State University here (https://www.ncat.edu/caes/departments/family-and-consumer-sciences/lactation-cert.php). Follow Janiya on Instagram here (https://www.instagram.com/janiyamwilliams). Follow Mahogany Milk on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/mahoganymilk/) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mahoganymilk). 

Learn more about NC A&T State University here (https://www.ncat.edu). Follow NC A&T State University on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ncatsuaggies/) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ncatsuaggies). 

Learn about Union Institute & University here (https://myunion.edu/). 

Learn about the Mary Rose Tully Training Initiative at UNC-Chapel Hill University here (https://sph.unc.edu/cgbi/lactation-consultant-training/). 

Learn about International Board of Certified Lactation Consultant Examiners (IBCLE) here (https://iblce.org/). 

Learn more about Black Breastfeeding Week here (https://blackbreastfeedingweek.org/). Follow Black Breastfeeding Week on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/BlackBreastfeedingWeek), Twitter (https://twitter.com/BlkBfingWeek), and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/blkbfingweek/). 

For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth®, visit www.ebbirth.com. Find us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EvidenceBasedBirth/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ebbirth/), and Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/ebbirth/). Ready to get involved? Check out our Professional membership (including scholarship options) (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/become-pro-member/). Find an EBB Instructor here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/find-an-instructor-parents/), and click here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/childbirth-class/) to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class.

On today's podcast, we are talking with Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class parent, Kathryn Remivasan, about her experience giving birth to a posterior-positioned baby. Kathryn and her husband, Dushyant, are graduates of the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class with EBB Instructor and doula, Julie Fors. Dushyant and Kathryn are software engineers. They live in Chicago with their two cats, dog, and now beautiful baby girl, Elakshi, who Kathryn gave birth to in January 2021. We talk about Kathryn’s use of a “marathon training” mindset to have an unmedicated birth during the pandemic. We also talk about Kathryn’s experience of including medical interventions during her birth, as well as how she coped with postpartum recovery after a long labor.

Content warning: We talk about COVID, infant/labor trauma, the use of medical interventions while in labor, and postpartum anxiety/recovery.

RESOURCES:

Learn more about Julie Fors here (https://journeyforwardbirthandparenting.com/). 

Learn more about Rush University Medical Center here (https://www.rush.edu/). 

Learn more about Spinning Babies here (https://www.spinningbabies.com/).  

Listen to EBB 101 episode with Spinning Babies found, Gail Tully here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/ebb-101-gail-tully-of-spinning-babies%ef%b8%8f/). 

Listen to EBB 165 episode with Ann Marie Gilligan here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/fetal-position-during-labor-with-ld-nurse-ann-marie-gilligan/). 

For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth®, visit www.ebbirth.com. Find us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EvidenceBasedBirth/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ebbirth/), and Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/ebbirth/). Ready to get involved? Check out our Professional membership (including scholarship options) (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/become-pro-member/). Find an EBB Instructor here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/find-an-instructor-parents/), and click here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/childbirth-class/) to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class.

On today’s podcast, we have the pleasure to talk with our honored guests, Dr. Monica McLemore and Dr. Jamila K. Taylor, about postpartum justice and the need for Medicaid coverage for the entire postpartum year. Dr. Monica McLemore is a tenured associate professor at the University of California-San Francisco in the family healthcare nursing department, an affiliated scientist with advancing new standards in reproductive health, and a member of the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. She retired from clinical practice as a public health and staff nurse after a 28-year clinical nursing career in 2019. Dr. McLemore's program of research is focused on understanding reproductive health injustice.

Dr. Jamila K. Taylor is a director of health care reform and senior fellow at The Century Foundation, where she leads TCF's work to build on the Affordable Care Act and develop the next generation of health reform to achieve high quality, affordable and universal coverage in America. Dr. Taylor also works on issues related to reproductive rights and justice, focusing on the structural barriers to healthcare access, racial and gender disparities in health outcomes, and the intersections between healthcare and economic justice.

We talk about their collaborative work with additional authors for the article, “We Must Extend Postpartum Medicaid Coverage,” which discusses the importance of extending Medicaid coverage for postpartum individuals. We also talk about the implications for the disruption of postpartum Medicaid coverage 60 days after giving birth and the importance of creating holistic, community-based care in perinatal and postpartum support.

Content warning: We will talk about postpartum, perinatal/postpartum mortality, mental health, substance use disorders, health challenges, and COVID-19.

RESOURCES:

Learn more about Dr. McLemore here (https://profiles.ucsf.edu/monica.mclemore). Follow Dr. McLemore on Twitter here (https://twitter.com/mclemoremr) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mclemoremr).

Learn more about Dr. Taylor here (https://tcf.org/experts/jamila-taylor/). Follow Dr. Taylor on Twitter here (https://twitter.com/drtaylor09). 

Learn more about the article, “We Must Extend Postpartum Medicaid Coverage,” here (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-must-extend-postpartum-medicaid-coverage/). 

Learn more about Scientific American here (https://www.scientificamerican.com/).

Learn more about The Century Foundation here (https://tcf.org/). 

For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth®, visit www.ebbirth.com. Find us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EvidenceBasedBirth/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ebbirth/), and Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/ebbirth/). Ready to get involved? Check out our Professional membership (including scholarship options) (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/become-pro-member/). Find an EBB Instructor here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/find-an-instructor-parents/), and click here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/childbirth-class/) to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class.