Have you received services, support or training from the Alaska Native Birthworkers Community? If so, we would love to hear from you! As we reflect on 2022 and plan for 2023 and beyond, we would greatly appreciate and value any feedback you can provide us. We ask for your feedback to ensure our work is driven by, and reflects the needs and desires of, our community. We also use this information to share the impact of our work with our donors who generously fund the support we are able to offer free of financial charge to the families we serve. Complete THIS entire feedback form (including the testimonial) by December 15 to be entered into a drawing to win an 8th Generation Baby Blanket!
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What does it mean to be an Indigenous birthworker? What does it mean to offer peer support? We use these terms to describe the same kind of support that our people have been offering to one another for generations - mothers, aunties, grandmas, sisters, cousins surrounding the birthing person with love, care, wisdom and encouragement during this sacred time of transformation and rite of passage into parenthood. We are so honored to get to do this work for our community and for our relatives.
Our organizing and our commitment to providing this peer support stems directly from the expressed needs and wishes of our community and we are guided by their feedback and needs - our young women want aunties to guide them through their transition into womanhood, our mothers want support to navigate pregnancy and childbirth, our sisters want someone to sit beside them while learning to care for a newborn and grow their families. For millennia our social and community structures demanded ceremonial rites of passage, that a new mother be cared for by everyone surrounding her, and that care was offered locally by people whose wisdom and medicine passed on from generation to generation. This has changed and we are looking for a way back.
Our work in action is illustrated below during our second childbirth preparation retreat. Abra Patkotak, ANBC co-founder and Indigenous Birth Helper sits beside her cousin Ally Terzioski, both Iñupiaq of Utqiaġvik, who she prepared a prenatal herbal footbath for during the retreat on November 19, and who she has offered continuous peer support for during her pregnancy.
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Comfort measures during labor practice station during the childbirth preparation retreat on November 19.
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We are currently inviting Native birthing families to register for our next retreat in January. We will offer these retreats every other month. Partners are welcomed and encouraged to attend as part of our commitment to whole family wellness and preparedness for pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum! Partners in our last retreat enthusiastically shared back with us: “I feel more prepared to support my wife through labor, birth, and postpartum,“ and “I feel a lot more prepared to help my wife give birth!
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Information for each event is also located on our website or Facebook page.
Please share with your relatives!
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Preconception, Prenatal and Postpartum Talking Circle
>>> Saturday, December 10, 2022 starting at 11AM AKST
Register to attend here | Facebook Event
These are safe spaces for conversation and community. If you are part of an Alaska Native family or Indigenous family living in Alaska looking to build community while pregnant, trying to get pregnant, breastfeeding, parenting, healing from pregnancy or infant loss, or closely supporting someone in any of these phases of life, please join us!
Please note - our regularly scheduled biweekly circle falls on December 24 this month, but we will not be hosting a circle this day due to the holiday. If you can’t make the circle and would like to connect 1x1 with a birthworker, please email us nativebirthworker@gmail.com!
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Beaded Medicine Bags with Gwich'in Artist Rochelle Adams
Saturday, December 17, 2022 from 1:30PM-4PM AKST
In-Person in Anchorage, AK | Register to attend here | Facebook event
PLEASE NOTE THE NEW DATE! This event has changed from December 10 to December 17. ANBC is hosting an in-person workshop in Anchorage to make small beaded medicine bags. Participants can use this bag to hold their baby’s belly button stump after it falls off, a plant medicine of your choice such as sweet grass or sage, or to be used as desired to hold something sacred and special to the birthing parent and their baby. No previous beading or sewing experience required. This event is open to Native birthing families who are currently pregnant or who have given birth within the past year. Space is limited and registration is required.
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Childbirth Preparation Retreat
Saturday, January 21, 2022 from 10AM-5PM AKST
In-Person in Anchorage, AK | Register to attend here | Facebook Event
This event is for Native birthing families who will be in Anchorage on January 21 to prepare for childbirth, build community with others, and connect with Native birthworkers for peer support. Topics include, but are not limited to: self-care during pregnancy, what to expect during labor and birth, comfort measures, wellness and healing, advocacy, lactation and postpartum care.
Where: Native Movement Office, Anchorage, AK
Lunch is provided. Prenatal and Postpartum gift bundles available for participants.
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> Center for Indigenous Midwifery
Weekly zoom at noon. Every Wednesday at 11AM AK.
We are so happy to have a circle of families who join us each week! Join us every Wednesday for unique informational presentations each session! All discussions welcome! Zoom in!
Virtual Childbirth Education Class: Pre-Registration Required
This workshop is open to all Indigenous families at no cost. We will cover: stages of labor, comfort measures, preparing for baby, and so much more! Herbal care kit included.
December 16th, 9:00 am - 12:00 pm AK
REGISTER HERE
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