CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — “Hello, sweet boy,” said Alycia Fuller lovingly to her five-week-old son, JonJoel, while he rocked back and forth between meals.
The 33-year-old mother welcomed him into the world on Dec. 30, 2023. He completes their family of six.
“It’s a blessing to be charged with being a mother and have these little people you look after,” she said.
Fuller and her husband own a catering business named after her late grandfather, but being a mom is her most rewarding job. Navigating motherhood and birth has looked a little different for each of her children, ages nine, five, two, and most recently, the birth of JonJoel.
“Every child is different, and every birth is different and labor too,” Fuller said. “I labored with him for 31 hours.”
When she hired a doula for her third child, her overall experience improved.
A doula is a trained professional who guides and supports pregnant women before, during, and after childbirth. They don’t have medical training and won’t deliver your baby, but they work with a midwife or a clinical care provider.
“It makes all the difference in your confidence that someone is going to advocate for you even if you can’t speak for yourself,” Fuller said.
Because of her experiences, Fuller’s doctor invited her to serve on the advisory board for the R.I.S.E. Atrium Community Doula Program. R.I.S.E. stands for reducing inequities and supporting empowerment.
The program’s goal is to offer doula support free of charge for black female patients. Atrium Health is in the final stages of launching a community program for black mothers. The statistics remain grim surrounding black maternal health.
The program meets a dire need
Black women are two to three times more likely to suffer pregnancy-related deaths. It’s all an effort to help reverse these trends.
Raquel Washington is a doula and serves as the program coordinator.
“My biggest hope is folks have empowered birth experiences, and those are transformational. We want to improve outcomes and make sure mothers and babies can go home and thrive,” Washington said.
In North Carolina, black babies are two and a half times more likely to die than white babies. State officials say Black women experience almost twice the rate of maternal mortality than white women.
“When you consider how far we’ve come with science and technology, a lot of these deaths are preventable, and something can be done,” added Washington, who knows it takes a team to improve outcomes.
“I’m going to speak as much as I can about it to whoever I can speak to. I want to advocate for them,” Fuller said. “It felt incredible. I didn’t know the initiative started, but my O.B. acknowledged my concerns, and for her to say I think you’d be good at this… it means I’m seen, and my opinions matter.”
With Truist Bank funding the program through an $800,000 grant, the hope is to hire ten doulas to support 100 patients through pregnancy and after birth. Hiring someone is often prohibitively expensive and not something families can add to the expense of having a child.
The program will roll out at North Park and Myers Park clinics.
Fuller feels seen and heard. She wants to help other mothers make memories and be there for their growing families.
“It’s the most strenuous and rewarding job, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” she said.
