Women's History Month / International Women's Day | From the Desk of Maddy the Doula Lady
Women Have Always Gathered: Honoring the Birth Workers Who Came Before
Close your eyes. Picture a woman in labor. She's surrounded by other women — her mother, her sister, her neighbor. One holds her hand. One wipes her forehead. One whispers encouragement. This isn't a scene from a modern birth center. This is human history. This is what we've always done.
Happy International Women's Day. Happy Women's History Month.
This month, as we celebrate women's achievements and honor women's history, I want to talk about something so ancient it predates written records. Something so universal it appears in nearly every culture on every continent. Something so essential it's literally how humanity survives.
Women supporting women through birth.
This isn't a trend. It's not a movement. It's not something we invented. It's something we're remembering.
The Tradition That Never Died
Anthropological evidence from nearly every human culture around the world tells the same story: when a woman went into labor, other women gathered around her.
Female family members, neighbors, and experienced birth attendants provided practical, emotional, and spiritual support during labor and delivery.
In the weeks following birth, this network of women continued to care for the mother, the baby, and the household.
Birth and postpartum support isn't new. It's not alternative. It's not trendy. It's human history.
The word "doula" comes from the Greek word for "woman who serves." But the practice — continuous emotional and physical support during childbirth — is universal. Every culture has its version: the partera in Latin America, the dai in South Asia, the Grand Midwives of the American South.
Women have always known: birth is not meant to be experienced alone.
Women Worth Knowing
Women's History Month is about naming names. About refusing to let extraordinary women disappear into "history" without recognition. So let me introduce you to a few of the women who changed how we understand birth support:
Mary Francis Hill Coley
Miss Mary delivered over 3,000 babies throughout her career as a Grand Midwife in rural Georgia. She was featured in the 1952 documentary "All My Babies," which the Library of Congress later selected for the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, and artistically significant." She traveled dirt roads with her black satchel, serving families Black and white, rich and poor, charging what they could afford — sometimes accepting crops as payment, sometimes nothing at all.
Margaret Charles Smith
Over her 30-year career, Miss Margaret attended nearly 3,000 births in rural Alabama. She never lost a mother. She rarely lost a baby. In 1996, at age 91, she published her memoir "Listen to Me Good: The Life Story of an Alabama Midwife." When asked about her work, she said: "I never turned nobody down."
Maude Callen
A nurse-midwife who served the Lowcountry of South Carolina for over 60 years, delivering more than 600 babies and caring for thousands of patients. She gained national attention through a 1951 Life magazine photo essay called "Nurse Midwife." The response to that article was so overwhelming that donations poured in, allowing her to build a clinic that served her community for decades.
Onnie Lee Logan
A Grand Midwife who learned her craft from her mother and practiced for over 40 years. Her memoir "Motherwit: An Alabama Midwife's Story" is considered one of the most important firsthand accounts of traditional midwifery in the American South. She described midwifery as "a calling, not a profession."
These women weren't anomalies. They were part of a vast network of birth workers who served communities across the country — and around the world — for generations.
What We Lost
By the mid-20th century, something changed. Birth moved from homes to hospitals. From communities to institutions. From the hands of women who knew us to the hands of (mostly male) strangers.
By the 1950s and 1960s, state regulations and deliberate campaigns shut down lay midwifery in most places.
Grand Midwives — Black women who had served their communities for generations — were systematically pushed out of practice.
The community-based, woman-centered care they provided was replaced by hospital protocols and fragmented medical care.
And what happened when women stopped gathering around laboring women?
Maternal mortality increased. Especially for Black women.
Today, Black women in the United States are 2-4 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. The erasure of community-based Black birth workers — and the system that replaced them — is directly connected to this crisis.
The Revival
But here's the hopeful part: we're remembering.
Across the country, women are reclaiming birth support. Doulas are trained by the thousands. Midwifery is growing. Community-based organizations are rebuilding what was dismantled.
Doula training programs are growing, especially those focused on serving communities of color
Medicaid is beginning to cover doula services in states across the country, including Louisiana
Research continues to confirm what Grand Midwives always knew: continuous support improves outcomes
Community-based organizations like Mary's Hands Network are training doulas from within the communities they serve
We're not starting from scratch. We're continuing what was interrupted. We're standing on the shoulders of Miss Mary and Miss Margaret and Maude and Onnie Lee and thousands of women whose names we'll never know.
Women Supporting Women Today
At Mary's Hands Network, we train community members to become doulas. We match them with families in their regions. We believe the best birth support comes from people who understand the communities they serve.
230+ trained volunteer doulas serving Louisiana Regions 1-5
50% of our doulas are Black — serving communities most impacted by the maternal health crisis
Team-based support means families have multiple doulas they know and trust
Mother-daughter doula teams, sister doula teams, neighbor doula teams — carrying on the tradition of women training women
When you're supported by a MHN doula, you're not just getting one person. You're getting a whole network of women who've committed to showing up for families like yours.
This is what the Grand Midwives did. Multiple women, from the same community, working together to support laboring mothers. We're not inventing anything. We're remembering.
Be part of the tradition.
Become a doula. Carry the legacy forward.
You're Part of This Story
If you've ever held a friend's hand during labor. If you've ever brought a meal to a new mother. If you've ever sat with someone while they cried about their birth experience. If you've ever asked "how are you, really?" and listened to the answer.
You're part of this tradition. You're doing what women have always done.
This Women's History Month, I want to honor:
• The Grand Midwives who caught thousands of babies and never lost a mother
• The women who trained the next generation by bringing them along to births
• The researchers who documented what community support does for outcomes
• The advocates who fought for Medicaid coverage of doula services
• The doulas who answer the phone at 2am when labor starts
• The friends and family members who show up, even when they don't know what to do
• Every woman who has ever said, "You're not alone. I'm here."
Women gathering around laboring women. It happened in ancient Egypt. It happened in rural Georgia. It happens today in hospitals and birth centers and bedrooms across Louisiana. This is not a trend. This is who we are. This is what we do. Women supporting women. Always have. Always will.
Love,
Maddy the Doula Lady 💙
Carry the tradition forward.
Become a doula. Support a family. Honor the women who came before.
Support Our Work
Mary's Hands Network is Louisiana's largest volunteer doula organization.
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