Ostara Initiative

Ostara Initiative Ending inhumane treatment + conditions inside prisons + jails for pregnant + parenting people.

As a part of our work, we often run prison birth simulations where audiences are able to witness what it looks like to h...
04/23/2026

As a part of our work, we often run prison birth simulations where audiences are able to witness what it looks like to have a doula at a prison birth vs. not have a doula.

The difference is profound and seeing it for yourself in person can really create a visceral understand for why our work is so vital.

We invite you to join us in Milwaukee!

Did you know there are several ways you can make a donation to end prison birth? This month, our goal is to raise $10,00...
04/20/2026

Did you know there are several ways you can make a donation to end prison birth?

This month, our goal is to raise $10,000 and to bring hundreds of news folks into our movement to end prison birth who didn’t know about our work before today!

Send our videos and posts to a friend and make sure to donate $26 for 2026!

We are so happy you’re here walking alongside us.

It’s still Black Maternal Health Week!👏🏿 Let’s 👏🏾Talk 👏🏽About 👏🏿Tracey Some may know her as MS. Tracey — the talented, t...
04/16/2026

It’s still Black Maternal Health Week!
👏🏿 Let’s 👏🏾Talk 👏🏽About 👏🏿Tracey

Some may know her as MS. Tracey — the talented, the one and only! She leads our team at the and she has been a well known and respected doula in the community for more than TEN years.

One of her most recent births - she used spinning babies to help one of our moms have a successful VBAC after 5 C-sections! That’s the magic of Ms. Tracey!

She has been an important role in helping us building a Mother Baby Project in Wisconsin as well and we consider ourselves lucky to have found our way to each other.

Thank you Tracey for doing this work alongside us!

🙌🏿 It’s a lot to put on a whole month of events! We are so grateful to our group of volunteers for rallying the communit...
04/09/2026

🙌🏿 It’s a lot to put on a whole month of events! We are so grateful to our group of volunteers for rallying the community to put on a whole month of events to raise funds and awareness to end prison birth!

Interrupting your scroll with some maternal outcome joy☺️Amidst all the chaos and worry in Minnesota, our team carries o...
01/15/2026

Interrupting your scroll with some maternal outcome joy☺️Amidst all the chaos and worry in Minnesota, our team carries on. Today we are dropping off more than 1,000 ounces of breastmilk pumped from inside a correctional facility to an infant in community. Breastmilk is an incredible health resource for newborns, and a form of care when mothers cannot be present in their lives, helping both mothers’ mental health and infants’ overall development. Incarcerated mothers can and do give back significantly. If you’d like to support our efforts, donate to these amazing staff and the good work that never ends, even in the most difficult and dangerous political circumstances. Link in bio

With the government closed, we’ve found ways to keep busy🐝! In Raleigh, with the HEAL team from Portland working on our ...
11/15/2025

With the government closed, we’ve found ways to keep busy🐝! In Raleigh, with the HEAL team from Portland working on our reentry clinic with OHSU, and , then to Madison for a gathering to discuss community alternatives to incarceration for pregnant moms. We followed that up with some teaching at and in partnership with , celebrated Diego winning an award for all his amazing contributions, and then accepted an award from the Wisconsin Public Defenders for our !! And finally took in some of those amazing northern lights we’ve been getting in the Midwest. Thank you🙏🏽everyone who’s been coming out to support us, partnering with us, and giving to our working during this year of profound struggle. Monday we’ll be back to births, our vocational doula program inside, and reimagining a more humane system for justice impacted birthing families.

✨ Calling WEST COAST Birth Workers ✨Are you an experienced doula, midwife, or birth worker with a deep commitment to rep...
07/29/2025

✨ Calling WEST COAST Birth Workers ✨
Are you an experienced doula, midwife, or birth worker with a deep commitment to reproductive justice and trauma-informed care?
We’re inviting you to join a powerful Prison Doula Training in Los Angeles—where your skills, compassion, lived experience and values can make a lasting difference in the lives of pregnant and postpartum justice-impacted people.
🖤 This is for you if:
— You’re grounded, experienced, and socially conscious
— You believe all people deserve dignity and support during birth
— You have space in your life and heart to show up in a deep, consistent way
🎁You’ll receive:
— Specialized training, and ongoing mentorship on carceral birth work
— Tools for trauma-informed care in restrictive settings
— A community of like-minded, justice-driven doulas
🕊️ Birth work is change work. Let’s stand together where it matters most.
📍 Los Angeles | 📅 September 16, 17, 18, 2025
🔗 Link in bio to sign up or learn more.

“Our ability to participate in government, to elect our leaders and to improve our lives is contingent upon our ability ...
03/31/2025

“Our ability to participate in government, to elect our leaders and to improve our lives is contingent upon our ability to access the ballot. We know in our heart of hearts that voting is a sacred right - the fount from which all other rights flow.”

🔥⚡️



Prison doulas battle dehumanization every day in the fight for equitable maternal and infant health care in our prisons ...
12/20/2024

Prison doulas battle dehumanization every day in the fight for equitable maternal and infant health care in our prisons and jails.

Dehumanization is the act of denying someone their full humanity, personality, or dignity. It can involve treating people as if they lack the mental capacities or human qualities that are typically attributed to humans.

Dehumanization can be subtle or blatant, and it can manifest in a variety of ways, such as:

Likening someone to an animal or robot

Denying someone fundamental human qualities, like rationality or self-control

Failing to recognize someone’s individuality or agency

Dehumanization can lead to violence, human rights violations, war crimes, and genocide. It can also have significant repercussions in everyday life.

Dehumanization can be rooted in power, prejudice, bias, irrational fears, and cognitive dissonance.

We are all human and entitled to care, love, kindness, and decency. The End.
Believe in what we do, donate. Link in bio.
📸: prison doula





Over the past 12 months, we have been building and piloting a Vocational Doula Training for Women incarcerated in the Fe...
12/13/2024

Over the past 12 months, we have been building and piloting a Vocational Doula Training for Women incarcerated in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. We proud to announce that in its first year, this program graduated 48 certified birth and prison doulas at prisons in 5 states. The power of reproductive health knowledge is truly inspiring in our mission to bring access, healing, and transformative change to these spaces and the communities our participants return to. These experiences have been logistically difficult, emotionally expansive, and at the risk of sounding hyperbolic, relational magic. Next year we will do it all again! Thank you for leading us in this effort. And thank you to all the incarcerated women who let us be their teachers and their students. Creating representative doula care is truly critical to addressing the maternal health crisis in America.





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P. O. BOX 18603
Minneapolis, MN
55418

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+16124409682

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