Content Warning: This post contains discussions of miscarriage, pregnancy loss and abortion.
At Brood we believe you can’t talk about pregnancy, birth and postpartum without talking about miscarriage, pregnancy loss and abortion. Sharing about the full spectrum of reproductive care is one piece of the puzzle in helping to eliminate the stigma when it comes to topics like miscarriage and abortion. We’ve created an abortion toolkit designed to help the emotional, logistical and mental impacts of being a care workers in the abortion space. Caregiving for someone who is seeking out, experiencing or has had an abortion is fundamental work that we want to support in any way we can.
Why is it important to focus on care workers?
We understand that navigating the abortion landscape can impact your emotional and spiritual self. Our goal is to uplift and support folks in the abortion space — as this ideally leads to more well rounded care for all. This is what drew us to create this toolkit, full of resources to help you understand and celebrate your experience, while sharing in community with fellow care workers. There are a lot of resources on how to access abortion, and we want to amplify those resources instead of creating new ones!
Is this toolkit for you? Ask yourself…
- Are you a friend, family, or community member that is supporting someone through an abortion(s)?
- Are you working in a high volume abortion clinic?
- Do you provide abortion care at any gestational age?
- Are you seeing a few patients a month to provide post-abortion (mental health) support?
- Are you a full spectrum doula supporting people through abortion aftercare?
- Are you considering offering abortion counselling to people seeking an abortion, but haven’t started to yet?
- Are you providing your first ever medical abortion because someone approached you and couldn’t access care elsewhere?
- Have you in the past supported someone through any abortion, in any way, shape or form?
- Are you curious and want to learn more about the experience of abortion care workers and providers?
- Do you work in the prenatal / postpartum / birth space and want to become more comfortable with abortion? Or how to talk to your clients about abortion?
If you answered YES to any of these questions, then this toolkit is for you!
So what can you expect?
In this toolkit you will find exercises and prompts throughout, ending with a list of resources. We start by sharing why we created it, and some context and statistics. We address, name and acknowledge your experiences and work. We work on integrating these experiences and then finding more resources for stability within your work, and end with a list of resources.
A reminder, this guide is not focused on how to access abortion – it is a guide that dives into the emotional, logistical, and mental impacts of being a care worker in this space.
Throughout, there will be prompts to make notes and reflect – for you to take to your support team, community of care, and wellness practitioners. We are not medical professionals, or a replacement for your family doctor, mental health care providers, or wellness team.
