Maiysha Kramer
maiyshakramer@gmail.com
Mission Statement:
To be a force for women and their families during their childbearing year.
Certified doula, doula trainer and mentor, childbirth educator, breastfeeding counselor, maternal health activist, community doula and mother of two adult sons based in NYC, USA.
Serving: NYC, Nassau County, Westchester and nearby New Jersey.
I work both with private clients and through the department of health By My Side Doula program where where we are focused on tackling the high maternal mortality rates of black women. We work in specific zip codes in Brooklyn where the maternal mortality crisis is at its worse.
I am honored to a committee member of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee. The committee was established in 2017 with the aim of eliminating preventable maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity and thereby contributing to the broader goal of reproductive justice and racial equity in maternal health outcomes in NYC. The NYC DOHMH Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee (M3RC) consists of over 40 members and meets nearly monthly to conduct a multidisciplinary expert review of each maternal death in NYC from both a clinical and social determinants of health perspective. The members are from variety fields, such as OBGYNs, midwives, doulas, mental health providers, community members, first responders, maternal-fetal medicine specialists, and pathologists.
My care is always bespoke to what you need. If you choose to work with me, our structure often looks like this:
- Interview
- One in-person meeting before the birth
- Unlimited virtual meetings leading up to the birth
- Birth support often beginning at your home and traveling together to the hospital or birth center
- 1-2 In person visits after including breastfeeding support and continued unlimited virtual support
Doula support is about the family. In my work as a doula I strive to better meet the needs of each family as their birth journey unfolds. I want them to realize their own strengths and the expertise they bring to their birth and growing family. As a doula educator, I work to help new doulas realize their greatest potential in the field.
I started supporting new moms breastfeeding in 1999 and I attended my first doula birth in 2002. After five years in the corporate world working in communications and marketing, I transitioned to full-time birth work in 2010. In 2010 I was invited to be an assistant for the beloved homebirth midwife Marcy Tardio (now retired) where I was lucky to have an amazing intimate training on natural undisturbed birth and how to manage surprises. I have since worked with two homebirth midwifery practices (Midwifery Care NYC) as a homebirth assistant as well as being a doula. I love the work, and I've been blessed to feel the work love me back. How many births have I supported? I don't know. Hundreds. Enough to know, enough to teach, enough to realize there is always more to learn.
My doula style is to meet my client where she is. Listening. No judgement. Just listen. Leave my stuff at the door, and go deeper into my listening.
If you are seeking a doula mentor who is both evidenced based, supports the medical community and works as a team member at any hospital--and who also keeps a sage sachet at the door--I am the doula mentor for you. I am also pretty tough. I don't accept excuses for why you weren't able to answer your client's phone call or why it took you so long to get back to them. That is because the birth you are at is the most important one and it only happens once. This is not like any other work where you can have a bad day. You have to be your best every single time. I care so much about all the families and new babies, and I care so very much about the quality and education of the next generation of doulas.
I'm often asked why or how I became a doula. I'm not sure you can become a doula, you either are or you aren't. There were mentors and teachers and births and moms and babies and grandmas and my own two now grown sons in my life who helped me figure out how to be a better doula, but the calling was always there. Because I am a doula, and that's just the way God made me.
Visit me on YouTube and watch some personal birth stories with my clients!