TaKiesha Smith CD(DONA), CLC, CCHW

TaKiesha is a proud mother and wife from central Indiana. She is a DONA-certified birth doula, CLC, CCHW, and owner of A Caring Doula. She is passionate about birth, education, and advocacy. As the Indiana ambassador for Count the Kicks, she educates clients and others on stillbirth prevention.

Session

Doulas and Stillbirth Prevention

In the United States, every day, sixty-five babies are stillborn. While SIDS is certainly an issue, stillbirth is six and a half times MORE common than SIDS. Even worse, Black women and Asian Pacific Islanders are 2 – 3x more likely to experience a stillbirth than white women

There are many tools that birth workers use to combat this statistic. Count the Kicks (CTK) is an evidence-based stillbirth prevention program. By integrating it into doula care and educating clients, there is no doubt that babies will be saved from preventable stillbirths.

In this session, TaKiesha will share how she integrates CTK into her work as a doula, dispels myths, and challenges the use of antiquated language. Implementing these changes and including the evidence-based stillbirth prevention program has improved the workflow in a large Indiana hospital and is an example of how doulas and CTK work together to save babies.