We’re thrilled to release Lactate With Love, our first-ever long sleeve bodyfeeding shirt, featuring art from Lauren J Turner, owner of Birth Nerds. You can also grab her awesome art on a 4” round sticker.

What You Should Know: Profits from this line are going to organizations working towards reproductive and racial justice, specifically those supporting increasing access to Black birth workers, doulas and lactation consultants.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black women across the country are 320 percent more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. 

DID YOU KNOW? When a doula is present, parents are less likely to receive interventions, less likely to use pain medications, and less likely to give birth by cesarean. Parents are also more satisfied with their labor and birth experiences, and their babies are healthier.

Who Are We Supporting: The first donation will support the work of Roots of Labor Birth Collective, working with our neighbors here in Oakland. We encourage you to visit their website to learn more about their work, and the support, empowerment and care they provide for birthing members of the

Roots of Labor Birth Collective is committed to reproductive justice, and believes that everyone deserves a doula, regardless of one’s ability to pay. They partner with Santa Rita Jail and Bay Area clinics who serve low-income and Black, Indigenous and people of color communities (BIPOC). They offer compassionate physical, emotional, and informational support to those members of the community who are most vulnerable to systemic oppression.

As white people, it is important to us to acknowledge the place we take up in the sphere of birthing, lactation and parenting, a sphere that has historically discredited, devalued and dishonored the expertise and power of BIQTPOC. It is not enough to only acknowledge the power of white supremacy and our role in it, but we must actively work to dismantle it.

Part of our work is a commitment to honor people and communities who have experienced this erasure. Black birth workers, doulas and lactation consultants are vital to the fight for Black lives and dismantling the systems of white supremacy. Profits from our Lactate With Love line will financially support more Black birth workers, doulas and lactation consultants for as long as we are in business. We make this commitment to

If you would like to join us in supporting their work but a shirt or a sticker isn’t for you, you can donate directly to them at www.rootsoflaborbc.com or follow them @rootsoflaborbc and share their posts.

 

Thank you again for being part of our community.