PATOIS 2023: Give Light: post-screening discussion with Louisiana birth workers
Channel: subversions
Date: 2023-05-08

From PATOIS Film Fest 2023.
Give Light: Stories from Indigenous Midwives. Directed by Steph Smith.
Indigenous midwives from five continents discuss the benefits and challenges to their profession.
Post-screening discussion with filmmaker Steph Smith and Louisiana birth workers. Moderated by Shana griffin.
See more at patoisfilmfest.org.

SPEAKERS:

Shatamia Webb, BS, CPM, LM; Founder and CEO of Baby Catcher Birth Center in Lafayette, LA: Tammy has been a part of the birth community here in Lafayette since 2012. She is licensed both in the state of Louisiana and nationally as a Certified Professional Midwife. She trained at the birth center in Lafayette, LA and finished her apprenticeship in a home birth practice. Her experience includes over 150 births. She maintains certification every 2 years with the American Heart Association in Basic Life Support and CPR for healthcare professionals (AHA BLS), and American Academy of Pediatrics in Neonatal Resuscitation (AAP NRP). She also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from McNeese State University and an Associates Degree in Midwifery from South Louisiana Community College. Her standing as a leader in the maternity care community has been solidified through dedication to her craft and her patients. She is also the proud mother of 2 children.

Audrey Stewart, Midwife with New Orleans Midwives: Audrey Stewart is an advocate, educator, birth worker and mother. Originally from Mississippi, she has lived in New Orleans for more than a decade. Over the past 15 years, she has advocated for a just hurricane recovery; led a variety of criminal justice, educational equity, and reproductive justice initiatives; and supported dozens of birthing families as a perinatal health and breastfeeding advocate, doula, and student midwife. Audrey is an abolitionist. She serves as a faculty member on the Louisiana Perinatal Quality Collaborative and is a member of the Healthy Moms Healthy Babies Advisory Council. She is the former co-editor of the New Orleans Parents Guide to Public Schools and served as the interim local director at the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice. She is the former advocacy director for the ACLU of Louisiana. Audrey is passionate about building a world where all families can birth safely and with dignity.

Ashley Hill Hamilton is mother of three, ages one to nineteen and a native of Uptown New Orleans. She is the Policy Manager for the Louisiana Center for Children's Rights, and the former Advocacy and Outreach Director of Birthmark Doula Collective + The New Orleans Breastfeeding Center.Ashley is a doula, lactation consultant and activist, and has an extensive background in Women’s Health and Justice. She is a bold advocate for liberatory practices and meets her work in juvenile justice advocacy at the intersection of her work in Reproductive Justice- which aims to protect and create safe environments for children.Ashley has worked extensively with parents, families, community members, physicians, medical students and legislators to dismantle inequities in the healthcare system using evidence based care and a harm reduction framework in caring for Black people entering the medical industrial complex. She has served on the NOLA Momnibus, The Institute of Healthcare Improvement, Maternal Child Health Coalition, Racial Equity Board of LIFT Louisiana, and is an ASCEND parent advisor with The Aspen Institute.Ashley led equity labs organizing hospital administration, physicians, community organizations and people of lived experience to implement evidence based practices in hospitals to reduce complications and improve equity, dignity and safety to ultimately improve outcomes for Black mothers during the perinatal period. Ashley was instrumental in the Medicaid Reimbursement bill for Doulas and Midwives and was instrumental in the development of HB190 with other advocates at the local and state level. She participated in study resolutions for HCR85, which aimed to examine policies relative to certain health issues of women prisoners, worked with the Department of Corrections towards implementation of The Prison Doula Project and served on the workgroup for the Louisiana Stop Solitary Coalition.