Who We Are
Sista Midwife Productions provides education, training and consultations for communities, birth workers and organizations that work with child bearing families. We work to improve pregnancy and birth experiences and eliminate perinatal disparities by increasing the numbers of black birth workers, teaching families about their patient rights and creating transparency and accountability within childbirth education and the medical obstetrical system. We are dedicated to increasing the numbers of black birth workers and birth workers trained to support families in a culturally holistic way. We know that this is an integral part of the solution to eliminating perinatal disparities.
What We Do
We use edutainment events and customized seminars as a way to educate communities and move them toward a paradigm shift to change the ways they think about conception, pregnancy, birth, and mothering. We are working to create a full paradigm shift around the culture of birth.
We also provide doula training and consultations to professionals and many local and national birth agencies. We've worked with organizations such as Healthy Start New Orleans, Birthing Project USA, The Intune Mothering Project, Birth Rite New Orleans, Community Birth Companion, Orleans Parish WIC, Birth Mark Doula Collective, The Global Infant Safe Sleep Center, and The International Center for Traditional Childbearing.
Locally, we are a network of leading birth advocacy experts throughout the New Orleans area. With the help of our partners we produce community events to educate child-bearing families and communities and to connect birth professionals to each other and to communities as a whole.
Train with Us
Supporting women during pregnancy and birth can be a rewarding career. The Sista Midwife Birth Sister/Doula training can serve as a wonderful introduction to birth work or it can be used as continuing education for those who have already been trained.
Our training is taught by Nicole Deggins, a Certified Nurse Midwife and experienced labor nurse with over 25 years of experience working with birthing families. Our training is full of insight and wisdom obtained while working directly on “the inside”. Based on the model of the community health worker, the SMP Community Birth Sister (doula) Training takes a multicultural approach and puts the experiences of black women at the forefront. This high energy, interactive training includes 40 hours of instruction.
As with any training, ours is not the end of your learning path but only the beginning. While there are no national regulations for the certification of doulas, we do have a certification process in place and we will guide you through the early stages of your learning and help you kick start your birth work career. The decision to become certified is a personal one and we hope that you will seek certification as a commitment to your continued growth and learning in this work.
