Carla was raised in Los Angeles County in the Inland Empire. She is a mother of three girls and is well aware of the necessity of support during labor. Her desires to work with children and families initiated her career in social work. Always wanting a more personal relationship with families while exploring birthing and babies, Carla decided to take a different career route as a full spectrum doula. A full spectrum doula is able to provide both labor and postpartum doula services for a “full spectrum” of doula care. With her first child, Carla had no support with breastfeeding and always wanted to work for “La Leche League,” not knowing that a career in breastfeeding was actually possible. In addition to her work as a doula, Carla is now currently on the pathway to becoming an IBCLC, or an international board certified lactation consultant. This is critical because there are no statistics on how many Black international board certified lactation consultants (IBCLCs) there are in the United States. The membership association doesn’t compile that information and the registering body (International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners) fails to provide this information as well. Carla believes that increasing the amount of Black IBCLC support will increase the rates of Black women’s breastfeeding outcomes, which is so crucial to their baby’s overall health in life.
Education
Carla obtained a masters degree in social work from California State University Los Angeles (CSULA) in 2014 and is currently a Children’s Social Worker, providing case management services to children who are medically fragile and/or with special needs. Her work within this agency has allowed for a wealth of knowledge on community resources and programs, of which she disseminates to families. Carla has served on several committees, one of which included focusing on eliminating racial disparity and disproportion in the child welfare system. Carla obtained her full spectrum doula training with Shafia Monroe Consulting. The Full Circle Doula Training® is an intensive 30-hour (3.5 days) prenatal, labor and postpartum doula training course. This distinctive training is built on the legacy of the 20th century African American Midwife, who provided holistic perinatal services with birth and postpartum rituals and mothering skills (Wilkie, 2003) building confidence and leadership abilities within families to improve birth outcomes and increase breastfeeding duration rates. SMCs model of care is to improve birth outcomes by reducing prematurity, increasing breastfeeding rates and duration, reducing infant mortality and recognizing postpartum depression. SMC believes that every pregnant woman deserves a SMC Full Circle Doula Birth Companion to support them throughout the entire pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experience. Carla mirrors this model of care in her practice as a doula.
In addition, she has done volunteer work for several organizations, including ‘Alternate Avenues’, where she assisted with the intake of incoming pregnant patients for medical services. Doula’s often times advise women of nutritional needs during pregnancy, which may be hard to obtain for disadvantaged working families. As Communications Director for the non-profit organization, Hammer Hunger Inc., she is an incredibly valuable resource to the organization and the families served. Her wealth of knowledge and experience dealing with the needs of working families helps bring about strong solution based results. Carla’s compassion towards children and families has guided her to work within this organization for eradicating hunger in the working family’s household.
Carla is a firm believer in women-led births and that with the proper support and education and mother can have the birthing experience she so desires while listening to her intuition. It’s your body and your birth!