Today we’d like to introduce you to Yenny James.
Yenny, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My life’s journey and story is like an intricate map. Every road that I have taken, including failures and successes, have all led me here to this moment. My love and passion for helping expectant families goes back to May 28, 2005, when I had the privilege of witnessing the birth of my youngest brother, Joshua. Seeing my mother’s strength and self-confidence during an unmedicated labor, as well as listening to my newborn brother’s first cry, is a feeling that I still can’t describe. I feel so honored to experience this feeling every time that I am invited to share space with families who ask me to be their doula.
I began my career in the medical field while I was in high school. During my junior year, I became certified as a Medical Response Technician and then became a Certified Nursing Assistant during my senior year. I focused on working with patients who were on hospice after graduating high school and while attending college. As physically demanding as this job was, I loved getting to know my patients, listening to their stories, and spending their final moments with them.
While attending college, a classmate asked me if I had ever thought about joining the military. He told me about a medical opportunity in the Navy and how I could make a difference doing something that I loved. That conversation changed my life. During my time in the military, I worked with expectant families and children. It wasn’t until I became pregnant that I realized the lack of support and resources for active-duty service members and military spouses who were pregnant. I gave birth to my son via an emergency cesarean that was preventable, experienced extreme postpartum depression, and had no community support. During my time of healing, I understood that I wasn’t the only one who experienced this. In fact, many people are unaware of the maternal health crisis that women in our country are facing, specifically BIPOC women. There are many families who have limited access to resources and quality maternal/perinatal healthcare during their pregnancy. Black and Indigenous women are dying at a rate 2-3 times higher than that of White women. In some cities, Black and Indigenous women are dying at a rate 9 times higher than that of White women! I was determined to make a difference, not only for the military community but for all expectant families in underserved and underrepresented communities.
After moving to Texas, I worked in various roles in community hospitals and clinics. I focused on providing services to marginalized families including pregnant teens, refugees, military families, LGBTQIA+ families, surrogates, victims of human trafficking, families who were either adopting or placing their baby for adoption, and pregnant women facing homelessness. In 2018, I was presented with an amazing opportunity to work at a midwifery clinic in Seattle, WA. This is when my perspective on maternal/perinatal healthcare truly shifted. For the first time in my career, I witnessed the tender care that the midwives provided to everyone, including expectant parents on Medicaid. They listened, provided education, made sure that the patients were connected to community resources, and most importantly, they treated everyone with respect regardless of socioeconomic status or what was written in their demographics. The patients and my clients didn’t have to fight to be heard. They didn’t worry about not being treated equally based on their race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. I knew that their model of care was everything that Texas needed, and what I would advocate for when I moved back.
When my family and I moved back to Texas at the end of 2020, I was 20 weeks pregnant and had to apply for Medicaid for the first time in my adult life. I began to look for community doulas, community health workers who focused on maternal-child health, and midwives who accepted Medicaid. Not only was I trying to find resources for myself, but I wanted to find like-minded people who were passionate about improving birth outcomes and help reduce maternal and infant mortality rates.
I had my birth plan ready; I knew exactly what I wanted, and was enthusiastic about having a different experience with my second pregnancy 9 years later. What did I end up with? No doula, a doctor who didn’t care about my desires or birth plan, and a prenatal and birth experience that I am still processing through today. My birth experiences, along with the lack of community doulas and community health workers who focus on maternal-child health in our area, led me to create my business, Paradigm Doulas.
I created a curriculum that combines birth and postpartum doula training with a focus on community health work. The Certified Perinatal Coach™ program focuses on the maternal health crisis that we are facing in our country, and ways to improve birth outcomes and reduce maternal and infant mortality rates. The program is virtual and inclusive, and we discuss important topics including trauma-informed care, cultural competency, and cultural humility. Through partnerships with nonprofit organizations, the doulas that I train and certify are able to provide free or low-cost doula services to families who cannot afford a doula. This allows doulas not only to impact families in underserved communities but also to be an active community health worker and have the opportunity to become a certified community health workers through the state.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road was not easy, but every obstacle that my family and I faced were all part of the journey. My family and I endured a lot of loss and failure. The first obstacle that I had to face was my military career being cut short because of things that I experienced during my pregnancy. At that time, the military did not have resources, nor the support necessary for pregnant active-duty service members. Instead of providing help, I was honorably discharged before my enlistment was completed while I was 35 weeks pregnant.
This forced me to rethink my career plans. I decided to go to nursing school while working at a community hospital and failed. I was devastated! As an honor roll student, I never once thought that I would fail nursing school. As silly as this may sound, failing nursing school opened opportunities for me that impacted me greatly. I started working at a community clinic where I made amazing connections with doctors, long-lasting friendships, had a supervisor who believed in me to do greater things, and had the opportunity to complete an associate degree.
While working at the community clinic, my family and I were faced with the tragic murder of my brother-in-law, Donnie. His death was difficult to accept and process. The pain that we felt pushed us to want to start over and move to a place that was new and unfamiliar to us. This is when I accepted an opportunity to work with a midwifery team at Swedish Midwifery First Hill in Seattle, WA. I learned so much during my time there and was even presented with a scholarship from Swedish to become certified as a doula since I was not certified before. In 2020, we faced so much uncertainty during the pandemic. I still remember the first reports of Covid-19 in a town over from us, working in a zone where there were riots daily, and seeing national guards on the street, all while pregnant with my daughter. We made the decision to move back to Texas only to find ourselves in a house market that made it nearly impossible to find a home and a job opportunity that fell through. We were so fortunate that my cousin opened her home to our family while we searched for jobs and had the opportunity to buy our first home 4 weeks before my due date!
After having my daughter and making the decision to start my business, we lost two grandparents, and I was hospitalized with Covid. Being hospitalized with COVID was one of the scariest moments of my life and a major setback for my business. Trying to recover from Covid, pneumonia, and blood clots, forced me to slow down but I didn’t want to give up. God truly gave me the strength to get through and recover faster than the providers thought I would. I was able to complete my curriculum and launch my program 3 months after my hospitalization.
As you know, we’re big fans of Paradigm Doulas. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
At Paradigm Doulas, I offer doula training and also birth and postpartum doula services. A portion of the funds received from training and doula services goes towards a scholarship fund and donated to nonprofit organizations who partner with Paradigm Doulas and whose mission is to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates. Thanks to a collaboration with a nonprofit in TX, the doulas that I train, as well as myself, are able to provide free doula services to families across the state!
In an effort to increase diversity in the birth community, partial scholarships are awarded every month to anyone who identifies as Black, Indigenous, Person of Color, LGBTQIA+, and/or associated with the military (active duty, veteran, military spouse, or immediate family member). A group discount is available for groups of 5 or more. Cross-training is also offered at more than half the price, for those who have attended a different training or certified through a different organization but would like to certify with Paradigm Doulas. For organizations that partner with Paradigm Doulas and want to implement a community doula program, a heavily discounted rate is provided to them so that doulas who volunteer through their community doula program can be trained and certified.
We exist to create a paradigm shift in our birth communities! Even though I am based in DFW, I seek to make an impact throughout our state and across the country. Every family should have access to doula services regardless of socioeconomic status. This includes those who are incarcerated, refugees, foster teens, those facing addiction, homelessness, or victims of human trafficking. If you are an organization, regardless of where you are in Texas, and provide services to any expectant mothers/birthing folks who are incarcerated, refugees, foster teens, facing addiction, homelessness, or are victims of human trafficking, please reach out so that we can discuss ways to provide doula services and childbirth education to them. I am also open to partnering with organizations outside of Texas who want to implement community doulas programs.
Certifying doulas who are passionate about improving birth outcomes is only a small first step. True change will take place through collaborations and partnerships with organizations who are working to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Being passionate and persistent about creating change is important to our success. I may be a single-member LLC, but Paradigm Doulas doesn’t represent just myself. It represents doulas who are tired of seeing a community suffer because of negligence and want to be doulas who are shifting the culture!
A recent study found that 89% of maternal deaths in Texas were preventable. Statistics like this, and seeing maternal mortality rates rise each year in our country, is the reason why we exist. It’s the reason why we have no option but to succeed, so that stories may be told, voices may be heard, every family may be supported, and communities may be changed.
Contact Info:
- Email: yenny@paradigmdoulas.com
- Website: www.paradigmdoulas.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paradigmdoulas/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paradigmdoulas
