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On today\'s podcast, I talk with Tania Silva Mel\\xe9ndez\\xa0 and Tamara Trinidad Gonz\\xe1lez, CPM, birth workers and Evidence Based Birth\\xae Instructors about giving birth and midwifery care in Puerto Rico.

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Tania Silva Mel\\xe9ndez\\xa0 is a certified birth, postpartum, and abortion doula serving families in Puerto Rico since 2009. She\'s also a certified childbirth educator and breastfeeding/chestfeeding educator and counselor. She is the general coordinator of the team of Caderamen, a nonprofit community-based organization that works towards reducing inequalities in reproductive care, and she also supports Alimentaci\\xf3n Segura Infantil, a community-based organization born after the impacts of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 to support breastfeeding and chestfeeding families in their lactation journeys, help them relactate their children when needed. Tania is also a human rights activist and advocate in her community and part of the Observatorio de Violencia Obst\\xe9trica in Puerto Rico and Las Mingas de Aborto, an abortion doula collective that offers free support in Puerto Rico.

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Tamara Trinidad Gonz\\xe1lez, CPM, is a community parteira/midwife, perinatal educator and herbalist born and raised in Puerto Rico. Tamara is a mother of two children who were born at home with midwives and has been actively involved in birth work for 10 years. She holds a Master of Science in midwifery with foundations in botanical medicine from Bastyr University and is a certified professional midwife. Her midwifery and herbal practice is called Semilla Creciente, Midwifery & Herbalism.

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In this episode, Tania and Tamara have a very candid conversation about the realities of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum care in Puerto Rico. They speak to how Puerto Rico\\u2019s birth landscape has been negatively impacted by the island\\u2019s history of colonialism, economic crisis\\u2019, environmental changes, and changes in political power. This has culminated in a system with far too few midwives and obstetricians, as well as high surgical birth rates, low VBAC rates, high prematurity rates, and more. Both Tania and Tamara educate our listeners on these issues but also raise awareness to the community organizations who have the trust of the pregnant and postpartum families they serve and the work being done to better support the families of Puerto Rico.

Resources:

For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth\\xae, visit\\xa0www.ebbirth.com.

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