Transcript
A (0:10)
This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. We continue this hour of concert previews with a benefit called Mama Was a Rolling Stone, A night with Domino Kirk and fellow mama musicians. That's right, an all mom concert organized by singer, songwriter, and trained doula Domino Kirk.
A (1:02)
The show happens on December 17th at National Sawdust, and Kirk will host a lineup that includes Rachel Price of Lake Street Dive, Joan is Policewoman, and other performers who are musicians and they happen to be moms. The show will benefit Kirk's organization, Carriage House Birth, which provides doula services and training and childbirth education for families. Domino, welcome to all of it.
B (1:27)
Hey, thanks so much for having me, Alison.
A (1:29)
So you founded Carriage house birth in 2012. What was the original goal of the collective?
B (1:36)
The goal of the collective was to create community around pregnant families and pregnant people. And I think it was just at a time when people were starting to second guess giving birth in the city and how to create their teams. They didn't want to only deliver in hospitals. They wanted to give birth sort of back to the people. And doulas had been around since the 70s, but sort of went away. And of course, it's an ancient art, you know, being bedside with someone giving birth. But I feel like the collective was. Was created to sort of recreate the village or you know, community around such an intense, you know, initiation.
A (2:21)
What inspired you to train to be a doula?
B (2:24)
I had a birth that went not as planned, okay. As many of them do. And I really just fe lack of care, this gap in my care. And there were a couple of doulas that I had met through being pregnant. And I was 25 when I was pregnant, so I didn't have a ton of parents around me. I was a musician, and I was working.
B (2:50)
Just odd jobs really, as a musician. And so I just didn't have a lot of people around me that were knowledgeable about birth and the birthing process. So I just sought out the care of someone who. Who was, you know, more knowledgeable than me, that was non medical. And I found out that that was a doula. So when I got my own doula or met a handful of them, I decided that I didn't know it at the time, but I was suddenly really, like, interested in that, in that as a job. But I had to give birth first. So I gave birth and I was like, wow, like, I can't do this in my mind. You know, many people can be doulas. It's all about energy and space holding. Right. So it Doesn't. You don't have to have given birth to be good at it, per se. But I felt like, for me, I had to give birth to really feel ready to hold that space and to be in that role. So once I gave birth and it went the way it did, I went, wow, I really needed many doulas holding me because people just don't give birth in community anymore. Everyone is. So it's. There's so much individualism, and everyone's so siloed, especially in New York City, where very few people are actually from. They don't have their family around them. So I just was like, wow, I want to be that person for a family or a person giving birth, because I feel that is the missing link, because we just. We don't live in, you know, intergenerational homes anymore. Everyone's just doing what they need to do for themselves and a partner. Right? So I just was like, I have to. I have to just train, and who knows where it will lead me. And then I met a couple of other doulas and we formed a collective.