S1 Ep4: More than just birth, Black maternal mortality, toxic kindness and uncovering medical racism with Mars Lord

Conversations with Nova Reid

In this episode I am joined by award-winning Doula, birth worker, educator and activist Mars Lord and this episode is packed with wisdom, truth bombs and power.

Content warning: Please be mindful that Mars and I do talk about birth trauma and maternal mortality so some of this may be upsetting for some listeners personally impacted by this.
I have the pleasure of getting up close and personal with Mars and find out more about how she came to work in healthcare. We talk about toxic kindness, maternal mortality and why black women are 5x more likely to die in childbirth than white women. We also uncover medical racism and why being actively anti racist, right now, in the middle of a global pandemic, is absolutely urgent.
Mars is speaking truth to power in this episode, so if our conversation triggers you, my invitation is to lean all the way in.
Mars Lord is founder of Doula training organisation Abuela Doula teaching the next generation of Doula's to be culturally competent and able to support all maternal health needs, especially black women and offers online Doula training. If you want to find out how you can be a doula that cares about the birth rights of black women and beyond, you can connect with Mars on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/_marslord and instagram here: @_marslord and @abueladoula and Facebook
You can find out more about the MMBRACE report referenced here. You can listen to Mars featured on BBC Women's Hour here
Please don't forget to join the conversation over on instagram: @novareidoffocial and twitter @novareidoffic it's not uncommon for Mars to send some of her students my way, so if this episode has inspired you to start your anti racism journey you can find out more that here.
This episode is dedicated to Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong, aged 28 and Salina Shaw aged 37.