How many women do you know with a birth horror story?
Not one involving the process of pregnancy and birth, itself. Childbirth can be both triumphant and traumatic. But today, we’re talking about the “birth horror stories” that involve the factors outside biology. An unreasonable situation at work. A questionable medical call. Even obstetric violence.
How many stories like this have you heard?
Do you have a birth horror story, yourself?
I don’t know how many stories I’ve heard of obstetric violence. I don’t know how many workers I’ve met who’ve returned from maternity leave and immediately been put on a performance plan when they were always stellar employees before their leave. I don’t know how many violations of informed consent I’ve encountered – including personally – in the context of pregnancy and birth.
For anyone asking, “How did I end up establishing a business focused on birth rights – and why?” . . . There’s your answer.
My friends know that I’ve always wanted to use my law degree to help people. I’ve been through a few different positions on my way to trying to do just that. I always said I didn’t go to law school to “help rich people keep their money.” I was a Public Interest Fellow at the Boyd School of Law. And since graduating law school, I – Andi Orwoll, Esq. – have been a judicial law clerk, an appellate law clerk, a prosecutor, and a workers compensation attorney – not to mention what I did before I practiced law. (Jamba Juice, anyway? Come on, “It’s everything we believe in!”) I’ve been able to expand access to justice in each of those roles: to victims of crime, to injured employees, and more. I’m not leaving my day job, but I am committed to reworking the way I practice law.
In doing so, I’ve started my business – Your Legal Doula. It specifically aims to increase maternal access to legal information, support, and advocacy. Because I’ve heard one too many birth horror stories, particularly in my home state of Nevada.
This focus on maternity is not to exclude others. Everyone deserves equitable access to justice. Everyone. I know some amazingly generous and effective lawyers who have dedicated their lives to improving access to justice for everyone from those suffering mental illness to consumers defrauded by predatory companies. I’ve wanted to help these and other populations, myself.
But since becoming a mother, I have personally witnessed the way the justice system fails families, generally: and moms, in particular.
There are legal protections for us. For pregnant workers, for those giving birth, and for postpartum mothers. But some of these “protections” are little more than lip service. I know this all too well, from my own experience and from those of friends.
So, I’m working to fill this gap I see in the legal community.
If my business does one thing, it will be to help families understand, assert, and protect their birth rights. If there is just one fewer birth horror story, one less instance of violence and violated rights… I will have done what I set out to do.
Share in the comments if you have a birth horror story like this, or if you know of someone else who does. Feminists in the second wave used to get together to share stories of their everyday experiences; and so many of them came away with the thought: “It’s not just me!” (A.k.a. – We’re not the “crazy” ones! Society is!) Well, it’s just as true now. There are more of us than we know, and we are powerful together!