Latona Giwa (she/they) is a Birth Doula, Registered Nurse, Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant, and birth justice advocate. In 2011, they co-founded Birthmark Doula Collective, Louisiana’s largest, and the only worker-owned birthworker organization. In 2017, they co-founded the New Orleans Breastfeeding Center, Louisiana’s first freestanding breastfeeding clinic. Latona has elevated Louisiana Black birth worker and parent advocacy to channel regional and national media and policy action on the Black maternal mortality crisis. In 2023, they became the Executive Director of Midwest Access Project, which fills the gaps nationwide in comprehensive sexual and reproductive healthcare clinical training.  
 
Latona is a natural instigator and loves collaboration for liberation. Some of their recent collaborative projects include a statewide network of lactation support circles for families of color, a community-led, queer pregnancy and parenting project, and a perinatal emergency preparedness training program. They have served on the Louisiana Pregnancy Associated Mortality Review, the New Orleans Maternal Child Health Coalition, and reproductive health- related legislative commissions. 
 
Latona’s analysis builds on their personal experience as a Black parent and survivor, as well as their clinical experience serving perinatal families in homes, community clinics, and hospitals. Their reproductive justice impact has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, CBS’s 60 Minutes, and Yes! Magazine. Their writing has been published in The Nation, Rewire News Group, and Huffington Post. Their forthcoming chapter on cooperative birth worker organizing in Information, Power, and Reproductive Health will be published 2025 with Library Juice Press. 

Publications:

In Louisiana, Women Struggle to Get Maternal Health Care (CBS News, 2023)
 
For Birthworkers and Advocates (Abortion in America, 2024)
 
We Can Ensure Parents, Children, and Birth Workers Thrive (The Nation, 2023)
 
Black Mothers Are Dying. The Least We Can Do Is Listen to Their Stories (The Nation, 2022): 

Recommended Media: 

No Body Criminalized by Repro Legal Defense Fund 

“Singing Healing Songs to Humpback Whales” by Michaela Harrison