Press and Media Features
Stevie has been featured in a number of publications, interviews, and media outlets. Feel free to explore the publications below and learn more about Stevie and her dynamic interests!
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PUBLICATIONS & ARTICLES
Shoutout LA: Meet Stevie Merino: Full Spectrum doula, birth worker, lactation professional.
Meet Stevie Merino: Full Spectrum doula, birth worker, lactation professional.
School of Reproductive Resistance: Resistance in Action
"The work I do as a Birthworker/doula/trainer are unapologetically rooted in my political principles and activism."
VoyageLA: Meet Stevie Merino of Sol and Roots Doula
"I wanted to help address birth disparities, equip those having babies with knowledge surrounding their rights, and to just act as extra support."
FEATURED Press
Signal Tribune: With inequalities faced by pregnant black women in white-dominated hospital settings, Long Beach based Birth Workers of Color Collective provide support and advocacy for POC
“The mission of this collective of birth workers is to reclaim our medicine, share our knowledge with our community, and heal. Together, we are bringing unique skills, resources and experiences to our work as birth workers, healers and people of color.”
- Stevie on The Birthworkers of Color Collective via Signal Tribune
LAist: What Do Doulas Do -- And How Can I Find One In LA?
"Long Beach doula Stevie Merino emphasizes she wants to provide non-judgmental support to clients. 'I'm not going to project what I want for you, onto you,' she said."
The Atlantic: COVID-19 Is Upending Parents’ Birth Plans
“While some hospitals in her hometown of Los Angeles had preexisting rules that restricted the number of delivery-room visitors to just two, [Stevie] said, ‘if they get restricted to one, that will definitely cause a lot of people to reconsider having doulas.’”
Long Beach Business Journal:
Awareness, affordability remain
challenges for parents of Color to
access doulas
“Hospitals and medical professionals need to do real community work to improve their relationships and their legacies in certain communities,” Merino said. “That’s criminal that someone can be more at risk because of racism.”
LAist: How to advocate for yourself
during pregnancy
"what often happens is that we have birth trauma, because things happen to us rather than with us, right, especially in hospitals. And so having this…plan B to the plan A of what you envision, or at least talking through them, can be really empowering and really helpful.”
VIDEOS & MEDIA
UCLA Health x Midwifery Townhall
In 2020, Stevie co-organized a Community Townhall and email campaign to call for accountability, transparency, and acknowledgement of the trauma and impact that UCLA-Health’s actions have had on the midwives, patients, and community at large. Watch the Townhall meeting below, and learn why Stevie’s work as an activist and community organizer is radical and necessary.
Celebrating World Doula Week
Here's a snippet from the Pacific Islander Health Board of Washington during World Doula Week 2021. Stevie says, “Happy world doula work to all the doulas I get to be in community with (near/far, virtual/in person), to BIPOC doulas, to my Pacific Islander doulas, to all the doulas who don’t have access to their lineage stories/traditions/elders because of slavery/genocide /imperialism/colonialism/ militarization, etc, to all the doulas who are doing the real work—I see you & I honor you.”
Providence Health Equity Webcast: Centering Native Hawaiians and the Pacific Islander Community
The webinar takes a closer look at the health disparities experienced by Pacific Islander communities, especially during a pandemic. The discussion includes highlighting the many different and distinct cultures found in the Pacific as well as how these groups are represented, politically and socially. In this webinar, Stevie discusses the identity and history of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NH/PI) communities. She also explores the nuance of language and customs that are present in these communities. Citing census data, she explains the relationship between the US and NH/PI access to healthcare within the US.
Access to this webinar is available upon request please email intern@solandroots.com.
Blood, Sweat and Breastmilk Podcast
Ep 5: The Magical Placenta
“The placenta is magical...It's one of the only organs that is created for a function and once the function is over it dispels itself from the body...it’s beautiful, it’s amazing, it’s created to sustain life.”
Supporting pregnant and postpartum people during COVID-19
Helpful tips to support pregnant and/or postpartum people during social distancing and COVID-19 restrictions.
The problem with Doula certification requirements & COVID protocols
Clip from discussion “Birthwork as “nonessential” labor: Birthworkers of Color practicing on the frontlines during Covid-19” on why its problematic & how ‘mainstream’ (read white) doula organizations have been working with certain hospitals that have been implementing arbitrary doula certification requirements to be considered an “essential part of birth team”.
Capitalism is not beneficial to public health
This is a clip of my response to a question during a phone interview on birthwork/being a small business in these times/& public health during Covid-19 pandemic.
Via email
Any and all questions, inquiries, and requests can be directed to the emails below.