Advocacy Stickers

This selection of stickers reflects the activist spirit present in the field of midwifery. In the midwifery community, activism, allyship, and advocacy are tools historically used to fight against healthcare injustices experienced by mothers, parents, and babies. From opposing inequitable access to healthcare, to advocating for a patient in the delivery room, to being in community with a group of new mothers and parents, the lived experiences of the midwives who worked for the Duke Midwifery Service exemplifies a drive to help patients become advocates.

Stickers related to midwifery from “Midwifery ephemera, undated”, Box 3, Duke Midwifery Service Records, Duke University Medical Center Archives

“…I learned that you just can’t do anything alone. That being in partnership and also that listening to women – whether you were a poor woman and sat in a crowded waiting room in a health department and waited for hours for your five-minute visit, or if you were someone with good insurance and went to the private practice and waited for your five-minute visit – you know that everyone was deserving of being seen, and heard, and cared for.” -Amy MacDonald

“…I was an advocate in the military for my patients. An advocate at the county for my patients. And I was a school nurse. I got into so much trouble being a school nurse, because I broke every rule there was. But I told them, “I will go to the Mayor.” And actually did. I would go to the School Board if I felt that one of those students was being mistreated, or they had been mistreated, I was gonna go to somebody that would listen to me.” -Ann Milligan-Barnes

“…when I came to college and was exploring these different modalities, one of the things that struck me was that I wanted to create change. And I wanted to find a way, a profession, that not only was practicing in a different way, but practicing in a way or within a context where there was greater capacity to change the healthcare system. And so I think from connecting that, I just had a strong conviction that healthcare could be better, or should be better. And when I learned about midwifery from Amy, I think what struck me was she was practicing midwifery, which at its heart is philosophically quite radical.” … “Healthcare is an exchange, and partnership. Exchange and partnership. And I think the power of that – to now be in a role that held such great responsibility – was quite humbling. And it was also learning that because I had the benefit of working with people largely from cultures different from my own – a lot of immigrant families – I got to experience more directly what it was like to have the health care provider conceptualized as a community member. As someone who, I don’t know, became a part of something, right? It was a joining.” -Kim Đâu