We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ana Rodney. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ana below.

Ana , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

When my son was born 3 months premature, weighing 1lb 5oz, my first thought was “I’m a doula, my doula community will help me” but unfortunately at the time, no one was talking about emergency c-sections or elongated NICU stays or anything other than natural births with no interventions. No one in my doula community was equipped or willing to support me through the six months of our NICU stay and my 3 morbidities. I felt isolated and as if no one cared, I encountered numerous instances of discrimination and implicit bias from medical providers assigned to caring for my son. I struggled to manage my own anxiety and diagnosis stemming from my traumatic birth while managing daily tasks and responsibilities, and being responsible for the care of my child, I was overwhelmed. After each interaction with a doctor where I felt I needed to recite my resume for respect, I would think about the other mothers who didn’t have a resume to “redeem” them. Once, Aiden and I were discharged home, I took a moment to get used to being with my son without the specialists, beeping monitors, and machines. While I was processing my own traumatic birth and postpartum I began to think about what I needed and didn’t get, what I needed and did receive and from whom I received those needs from. After losing my sister during her postpartum period(she was pregnant at the same time as I was) I began to research the Black Maternal Health crisis. I decided to create an event that focused on the self care of Mothers. My intention was to create a safe space and community for mothers to process their births, focus on self care and celebrate their motherhood journey. When thinking about the organization I was to build into MOMCares I wanted families to be spared of the heartache my own family experienced with my birth experience and the death of my sister. The more work I did to build MOMCares, the more aware I became of the Black Maternal Health crisis. MOMCares had to be more than an organization focused on self care, MOMCares needed to become an organization that employed holistic approaches that relied on macro and micro interventions to support and advocate for Black mothers. MOMCares had to be an organization that served mothers directly but also educated community and advocated in the medical institutions where our mothers were. Honoring my sister and honoring the prayers I prayed when I was in the NICU with my son are what drive me and push me to continue to grow and scale this organization even when I am tired.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I began practicing as a doula by accident after pledging to support a friend through her pregnancy 16 years ago. After that fist birth, I began supporting friends and family through birth. It wasn’t until 2013 when I finally began to look into an actual certification program for my doula work. By that time I had become a Reiki practitioner. It wasn’t until my own traumatic birth that I began to look at special circumstances and postpartum doula work. Just before MOMCares began to gain traction in the Baltimore community, I became a yoga instructor and was able to incorporate the lessons of yoga into my service to mothers. I have a background in education and have always been interested in holistic healing modalities. We provide support to our mothers as it pertains to the social determinants of health. We focus on the alleviating the immediate needs of our families while providing community education and institutional advocacy around institutionalized racism and its affects on our families. We provide low barrier services to our families, understanding that access is not the overarching burden on our families but the implicit bias and racism that affect outcomes for our families. I am currently the Chair of the Maternal mortality board in Baltimore City. I am most proud of the team that has gathered around me and the work of MOMCares, what began as a one woman show has expanded to a 7 person team with 40 trained doulas, 3 interns, and a host of dedicated volunteers. I want the people reading this article to know that MOMCares is dedicated to treating our families as humans. Compassion is at the crux of our work and our message. The work of reversing the Maternal Health crisis is dependent on our collective commitment to address and dismantle institutionalized racism and commit ourselves to equity. It is my belief that if we truly were to examine how we would want to be treated and turned that expectation outward as behavior towards others, we could reverse the disparities that have plagued us since maternal statistics began being documented. Expecting compassionate human centered care is not revolutionary, it is baseline behavior that should be afforded to each person in this country. MOMCares centers its work on black families because the national and local statistics stipulate that that is where the work lies.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I believe my entire story is a story of resilience. When I started this work, I was housing unstable, with no income, no vehicle, and depending on Social security and Medicaid to provide for my sons needs. We navigated homelessness, i escaped an abusive relationship, struggled to make decisions between paying bills, buying diapers and wipes, and purchasing food all while battling anxiety and depression. My struggle to maintain some type of healthy lifestyle while building a business took an inordinate amount of tenacity. Choosing to push through the ugly, terrifying, hopeless times is what has given me the tools to develop MOMCares into the organization it is now. Being at rock bottom blessed me with a tenacity and fearlessness that helps me stay the course when the business is going through rough times. Facing literal death on behalf of myself and my son and surviving has given me an optimism and belief in “what’s next” that I could have never fathomed having access to. My tenacity is what i loan out to families as I do the work of making sure birthing and parenting is easier and safer for the families navigating it today as opposed to those navigating it 5 or even 10 years ago. We are taking our births back and working to reverse the disparities that are killing our communities and I have the energy to do it because I can always say “I’ve seen worse” , surviving is the best thing i could have done, my resilience makes me unstoppable, despite being knocked down and out many times over, I know its not over. That is what being a business owner is about, its about stalking the failure and the lessons stalking you, tempting it to consume you and triumphing over it. Being a Founder/ business owner requires grit and blind faith that things will always turn around. Even when it is the end, its not.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Being ever present and loud helped me build my reputation in the market. I showed up to every town hall, made sure i asked questions or offered a comment. I announced myself in each and every room I entered. I sought out relationships and connections with people who were influential in helping create avenues for more work, exposure, and opportunities to share with others who were aligned with my work. I created content, in blogs, videos, social media posts and other media to position myself as the content expert I am. I wrote abstracts to present at conferences, I applied for speaking opportunities, I wrote for fellowships. I think my relentlessness in the arena is what helped me build my reputation. I sought out opportunities to learn and teach at the same time.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.momcares.org
• Instagram: @momcares_baltimore
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MOMCaresBaltimore/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anarodney/
• Twitter: @momcares_balt