How Chanel Porchia-Albert, Doula and Mother of Six, Is Advocating for Black Maternal Health

Chanel PorchiaAlbert stands with her four daughters outside Ancient Song Doula Services in BedfordStuyvesant.

On a charming walk in historic Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, the New York location of Ancient Song Doula Services is perfectly tucked away. That’s where Chanel Porchia-Albert, the birthing doula and mother of six, greeted me with a hug, and I was quickly reminded just how much human interaction we’ve missed this last year; how hard it’s been to feel comfortable, safe, and invited anywhere. But I had come to the right place: Porchia-Albert has made it her life’s work to bring all those qualities into spaces for women and children.

It was Porchia-Albert’s first pregnancy that pivoted her path in life. After experiencing what she describes as a “sterile” experience within the traditional medical system, she knew that wasn’t the experience she wanted. She quickly enlisted a Black doula to support her through birthing and postpartum. “It was very fluid, I was able to do what I needed to do without any restrictions,” says Porchia-Albert. “It was like the freedom to just be free, to be in your body, to be in your emotions.”

Ancient Song got its start in 2008 in Porchia-Albert’s Brooklyn home, where she had three kids of her own. At a time when it was still normal to ask “What even is a doula?” Porchia-Albert wanted to make birthing support available and accessible to women who needed personalized care the most. (Research has found that maternal morbidity rates for Black women are more than three times higher than their white counterparts, while other statistics reveal that a saddening 60 percent of deaths among Black women during childbirth may have been avoidable.) As the center’s services expanded, Porchia-Albert moved Ancient Song to a room in the historic Stuyvesant Mansion, then owned by the family of Dr. Josephine English, the first black woman gynecologist to open a private practice in New York, and who delivered the children of Malcolm X. A fire would eventually displace the small center, but with communal support and a bit of making it work in different spaces, Ancient Song was established at its current two locations in Brooklyn and New Jersey.

Over the course of her career, Porchia-Albert’s work would reveal the inequality of the medical system, the strength it takes to advocate for women and babies, and the importance of teaching autonomy.

A sign from the Brooklyn center.

Photographed by Stephanie Mei-Ling

Being a Doula During a Pandemic

It was on her way home from the unveiling of the Momnibus Act at the Black Maternal Health Caucus in February 2020 when Porchia-Albert felt a shift in the atmosphere around her. Coronavirus had reached New York and New Jersey. “We were getting this influx of calls from folks who were asking ‘what do I do, do I go to a hospital, do I not go to the hospital, do I birth at home by myself, do I get a home-birth midwife, I can’t get a home-birth midwife,’ so this was also the unraveling of understanding the poor infrastructure of maternal health care and highlighted the fact that we need more midwives,” says Porchia-Albert. “We hurried up and put together resources to answer questions and immediately switched to an online platform. People needed something, there’s high anxiety and a lot of fear and now a pandemic. We wanted to create a safe space that centered community. Even with a lot going on, we still wanted to center hope.” Ancient Song’s donation closet has offered 50 to 70 boxes of groceries and supplies to families on a monthly basis since March of 2020 and is still actively donating today with the support of the community.

Chanel Porchia-Albert sorting through donations at Ancient Song.

Photographed by Stephanie Mei-Ling

...While Also Being a Mother of Six

With children of her own to care for, Porchia-Albert’s work is never done. “It is [a journey] of trying not to be self-critical of myself, it’s one of wanting to show up for community, knowing on one hand you want to help and on the other hand knowing you have these children who need you. A lot of my time is trying to balance it out. I try to include my children in the work that I do and I want folks to know that it’s not easy,” says Porchia-Albert, tears forming in the corner of her eyes. “There’s no way that you can do both perfectly. I sometimes find myself wanting to be reclusive, but life doesn’t work that way. I’m thankful for my children because my children also inform my work. They are the reason why I got into the work and they are the reason why I continue to show up for folks because I want people to show up for them,” Porchia-Albert explains. “I want them to know that I had a love of something and that you don’t have to separate yourself from those things in order to do those things.”

Chanel's four daughters (left to right)t: Jemima (11), Addis (5), Keren-happuch (10), and Kezia (11)

Photographed by Stephanie Mei-Ling

A New Generation of Doulas and Birth Workers

Studies have shown that having a doula as a part of your birth plan can dramatically decrease the need for c-sections and epidurals. “There is definitely a surge in women wanting to become doulas,” says Porchia-Albert as she recalls a time when there were far fewer women attending trainings than there are now. “I think that social media has played a huge role in being able to do that. But I also need folks to know that if we’re talking about maternal mortality that means you have to be a different kind of doula, you’re not just a traditional doula. You’re focused on a human rights framework, you’re understanding reproductive rights and birth justice. You’re understanding the intersections of care and of gender, sexuality and housing and all of these different things that show up for people when they’re seeking out care, especially in Black, brown and Indigenous populations. Folks are showing up with their histories, they’re showing up with intergenerational trauma and things that are unconscious to them that they may not even be aware of. The doula for me is someone who is like a spiritual warrior, you’re not just being taught how to center someone else but how to center yourself too because we’re not removed from traumas or different things happening to us. As a doula and as a doula of color in particular, sometimes the expectancy of doing this work is not long because of the fact that you’re dealing with so much and some of that might be triggering for you. That’s not to discourage someone from being a doula but it’s to understand the realities of it.”

Photographed by Stephanie Mei-Ling

Biggest Challenges

For anyone navigating the healthcare system, access to trustworthy care is a major challenge. For Black women this challenge is even greater. “Being a parent, if you don’t have a network of support it’s not going to happen. Some of the burden is [also] around workforce development and being able to do this work and sustain yourself because there are a lot of doulas. As doulas become more popular we have to figure out what it means to do work that is within a governmental infrastructure but maintain autonomy, to do work that is ancestral,” explains Porchia-Albert. Traditionally, doulas have filled the position of a middleman of sorts. They must be present for the mother in ways that are very personal while also ensuring that their medical caregivers are making informed decisions that are clearly communicated to and understood by the mother. “There’s also the feeling of being burnt out. A lot of it is understanding that the process is a lifelong thing. I am always learning and growing and finding out something new. As doulas who do this work you should continue to educate yourself. It's an ongoing thing.”

…And Rewards

Porchia-Albert has found immense satisfaction in “seeing someone find their full power and come into their full potential to just blossom. And seeing doulas who I’ve trained go on to do amazing things, they’re doing work to center their communities in creating things like mutual aid,” she says. These women are “creating work around maternal health and studying to be doulas and midwives, and to see folks go and do this work and develop it is beautiful to me.” Ancient Song has been a pivotal part of many families' experience and the organization's continued success and expanding reach is a testament to this. Porchia-Albert’s earliest trainings were usually attended by between three and five people, now she can expect up to 60 participants in her monthly classes. “To see the children you’ve helped bring into the world, I never take that lightly, for someone to open up to you and allow you to be in that space, for me it centers hope and centers purpose to know I’m doing work in a way that’s meaningful.”

Art at Ancient Song’s Bed-Stuy location.

Photographed by Stephanie Mei-Ling

A Successful Birthing Experience

“A successful birthing experience is when an individual comes out of it feeling like they got everything they wanted for themselves. Birth is something that is very fluid, birth is something that will throw you for a [loop]. So allowing themselves the grace to understand that and allowing them to just be, that’s when I think that someone has had a successful birthing experience. It’s not about the birth outcome. It’s about if you felt supported in the process prenatal, during and postpartum,” explains Porchia-Albert. “Doulas can’t guarantee a birth outcome, what we can do is offer guidance and information as you go through your process but ultimately the decision and the work is up to that person.”

On Having a Partnership that Works

Abba, the Hebrew word for father, is what the children in and around the Ancient Song Doula Services call Kendall Albert, Chanel Porchia-Albert’s husband. “He’s my best friend, he’s the person who tells me when I’m messing up and who has offered me guidance but in a supportive way. He is very patient and he will tell me truthfully what I need to hear. He shows up for [our kids] in ways that I didn’t experience as a child,” Porchia-Albert says. Albert is a father who homeschools, creating curriculum for his six children while still extending care to his community with great intention. He is an educator, a father and a husband that understands the importance of what it is to be present within the lives of his children, his relationship, and his community.

The Porchia-Albert family extends far beyond their spirited household of eight to all of the families whose lives they have played a role in. They’ve committed themselves to the journey of creating a space that is both caring and nurturing for folks identifying as BIPOC, and they actualize it every day.

Photographed by Stephanie Mei-Ling

The Porchia-Albert family. 

Photo: Courtesy of Chanel Porchia-Albert