Black
Nativity
Portland
theater group
presents
powerful play
‘City
of
Roses’
Volume XLVI • Number 48
Remembering
Steve Jones
Local standout
had impact in
two pro leagues
See story, page 14
See A&E, page 7
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • November 29, 2017
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Culturally competent doula training in Portland is geared toward reducing health disparities in and improving birth outcomes in the African American community and
increasing the number of doulas of color. Long time Portland doula and midwife Shafia Monroe (right) leads the training session providing education, resources and
emotional support.
Improving Birth Outcomes
direction, Monroe is taking over the group’s Full Circle
Doula Birth Companion training program as a private
business. Under the nameplate Shafia Monroe Consulting/
Birthing Change, she becomes the only woman and mi-
nority-owned emerging small business owner in Portland
providing doula training.
Monroe told the Portland Observer she is “ecstatic and
proud” to take on this new role.
The word “doula” is Greek and literally means slave
women. In the late 1970s, research confirmed that when a
laboring woman has a female support as a doula, her labor
shortens, with reduced intervention, less Caesarean sec-
tions, better breastfeeding rates in the first hour of birth,
and the mother and father felt more satisfied with their
birth experience.
Monroe said doulas are not medical staff, they are
not midwives or doctors, but work with them to help the
mother during labor and birth. Doulas offer education,
resources and emotional support, and help with writing
birth plans and what to bring to the hospital. Doulas can
come to your home after the birth to help with postpar-
tum support with baby soothing tips, light house-keeping,
A new journey
for a Portland
entrepreneur
by
d ana L ynn b arbar
the PortLand observer
A Portland midwife, public health expert and business
woman with decades of culturally-competent birth expe-
rience has taken on a new role in her journey to improve
health disparities and reduce infant mortality in the Afri-
can American community.
Shafia Monroe moved to Portland in 1991 and found-
ed the International Center for Traditional Childbearing
(ICTC), a non-profit to honor the legacy of the 20th Cen-
tury African American midwife, reduce infant mortality
and increase the number of midwives and doulas of color.
Now as the non-profit organization grows into a new
Shafia Monroe
C ontinued on P age 5