Abstract - Reclamation as Birth Reparation: Apprentice Models for BIPoc Birthworkers

Abstract

A holistic, career life-cycle approach towards workforce development for the healthcare industry can promote longitudinal shifts in economic empowerment across the spectra of healthcare careers. Complementary educational interventionists such as Patients R Waiting, (PRW) can additionally provide professionalization, advocacy, and consultancy to concentrically influence health outcomes for vulnerable BIPoc populations and improve disparities in early career burnout for non-White clinicians.

Apprentice models provide not only practical skill building , but also personalized repertoire development during any phase of the healthcare career. For complementary medical interventionists, such as the doulas served through the Diversifying Doulas Initiative, PRW’s apprentice model approach works to further optimize doula care efficacy and enhance the entrepreneurial model for doulas as independent agents. The unique nature of this collaboration not only calls for a reckoning of types of practice within the sphere of reproductive health, but also respects types of knowledge utilized by both the doula and OB/GYN, further improving reported patient experiences. As reproductive justice activists, this model further enforces a self-appropriated reparation of retracted rights of early American Black birthworkers. The life-saving intervention of community doulas breathes new life into a quietly dynamic radical movement in traditional clinical practice in ways which further demands a reclamation of r

espective dignities for Black clinicians, nationally reporting types of early career burnout and micro aggressive corporate exploitations in the name of culturally resonant care and DEI. PRW’s response to this phenomena began with their Pipeline Dre

ams program, designed for K-Graduate students to provide exposure to different aspects of healthcare fields, but also an opportunity to participate in the development and application of real community health initiatives. These types of opportunities are crucial in creating a more competitive workforce for BIPoc early career professionals .