EBCI Community Doulas Are Changing The Game
- Cherokee 411 Staff
- 2 days ago
- 1 min read
By Cara Cowan Watts | Cherokee 411
The Center for Native Health just dropped some incredible news — their FIRST COHORT of 12 INDIGENOUS DOULAS has now supported 13 CHEROKEE BIRTHS. 🎉
Let that sink in: 13 Cherokee babies welcomed into the world with culturally grounded, community-rooted support from Cherokee women trained in their own ways. 💕
This is what TRIBAL SELF-DETERMINATION looks like in practice. 🙌
🌱 Native-led 🌱 Native-controlled 🌱 Built with elders, first-language speakers, and community members 🌱 The fruition of a LIFELONG DREAM for EBCI community members
Executive Director Trey Adcock calls it the Center's greatest programmatic success of the past year — and it shows what's possible when Indigenous knowledge is treated as the expertise it has always been. 💯
BUT — and this is important — Adcock didn't pull punches about what's threatening this work.
⚠️ Financial sustainability is the BIGGEST threat ⚠️ The current administration's attacks on federal funding, DEI-focused organizations, and TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY are making it worse ⚠️ Native-led nonprofits on the front lines need donors and community leaders to STEP UP.
Birth work is sovereignty work. Language work is sovereignty work. Keeping our people healthy on our own terms IS sovereignty. 🔥
Want to support The Center for Native Health? Look them up, share their work, and if you can — give. The future of programs like this one depends on community backing.
Who do you know that needs to hear about this?? Tag them. Share this. Cherokee mothers and babies deserve every bit of this support. 👇
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