Doula: A doula is a non-medical support person who provides physical, emotional, and informational support and advocacy for people experiencing birth, miscarriage, abortion, adoption, or any other pregnancy or postpartum outcome. In addition to personalized patient support, doulas work to support communication between medical professionals and their patients.
Birth Doula: A birth doula supports people during any or all parts of their pregnancy, labor, and postpartum experience. Pregnant people interested in receiving doula care typically hire birth doulas independently, but there are some medical institutions that partner directly with birth doulas services.
Abortion Doula: Abortion doulas provide support for people through their abortion experience. While birth doulas are often hired by individuals, abortion doulas are typically integrated into clinic infrastructure as volunteers. For security reasons, patients at most clinics are not allowed to bring any family or friends with them into the internal waiting, procedure or recovery rooms. The doula, then, serves as the only specifically non-medical persona in the space with the patient and works to provide personalized support to each patient for non-medical needs. Doulas also can serve as a liaison between patients and medical staff, actively advocating for patient needs and aiding the communication process for both patients and staff. Some abortion doulas also support patients through medical (non-surgical) abortions in their own homes.
End-of-Life Doulas: End-of-life doulas provide emotional, informational, and physical support and guidance to people throughout the dying process. End of life doulas strive to bring deeper meaning and greater comfort to dying people and their loved ones. Check out the International End of Life Doula Association (INELDA) for more information.
Full-Spectrum Movement: The Full-Spectrum Movement refers to the network of doulas and organizations that work to provide care for any pregnancy outcome, whether they are experiencing birth, miscarriage, stillbirth, termination for fetal anomaly, abortion, infertility, adoption, or parenting. The full-spectrum movement operates on the core belief that all pregnant people should have access to continuous, non-judgmental support, safe health care, and agency over their own bodies.
Reproductive Justice: Based upon a fundamental understanding of intersectionality between the impacts of race, class, gender, and sexuality, the Reproductive Justice Movement works to contextualize abortion and reproductive health within the larger conversation of social justice. It urges for a more intersectional understanding of reproductive rights and works to empower to communities historically oppressed by systems within and beyond the world of reproductive healthcare. As the movement argues, reproductive freedom includes both the right to not parent – the right to access safe and non-judgmental abortion – and also the right to parent – and to raise children in safe and healthy environments.
Reproductive Health: Reproductive Health is the area of health care that pertains to reproductive and sexual processes experienced throughout one’s life. Movement-building around reproductive health specifically tends to focus on issues of access to medical services.
Reproductive Rights: Reproductive rights refers to a framework for fighting reproductive oppression that addresses the legal issues associated with reproductive justice, health, and health care.
Provider: A provider refers to a professional who provides abortions through a private practice or public health center. This could be a doctor – typically an Obstetrician/Gynecologist or Family Practitioner – or, in some states, a nurse midwife.