Asian Birth Collective
Asian Birth Collective
Asian Birth Collective is a resource for birthworkers & families who identify as part of the Asian diaspora. We connect, share our offerings, and receive understanding and support within the Asian community around reproductive & parenting experiences.
The collective was started by three Asian doulas based on the unceded lands of the Ohlone and Tongva peoples in the Bay Area & Los Angeles. In our own respective journeys, we were struck by the lack of Asian-identifying birthworkers who could support a birthing community strongly influenced by growing up in hybrid cultures, having immigrant parents, and living in cultures with deep patriarchal influences that affect our perspectives around birthing.
We hope that our collective works to provide community, educational resources, birth stories, a safe and loving space for birthing families and people to share and exchange thoughts, questions, etc.
Our vision
We envision a world where birthing people and their families are free. We know that patriarchy, racial inequity, class hierarchy, colonialism, xenophobia, heteronormativity, cisnormativity, fatphobia, ableism, and language barriers — among other forces — shape our birthing and parenting experiences at every level, from the interpersonal to the systemic. We envision a world where families of the Asian diaspora receive understanding and support from within the Asian community throughout their reproductive and parenting journeys.
Our mission
Aligning ourselves with the Reproductive Justice and the Birth Justice movements, all people have the right to personal bodily autonomy, to have children, to not have children, and to birth and parent their children in safe and sustainable communities; and all people have the right to be empowered during pregnancy, labor, childbirth, and postpartum to make healthy decisions for themselves and their babies.
Toward this vision, ABC brings together Asian-identifying birthworkers striving for reproductive and birth justice in our communities. Based on the Huichin lands of the Ohlone people in the Bay Area, CA, our collective trains members in ancestral care practices, shares communal resources, and collaborates with existing health systems to bring culturally relevant, safe care to families.
Our values
Our work supporting Asian families is part of wider movements toward reproductive and birth justice, including Indigenous sovereignty, and toward transforming the healthcare systems that continue to fail QTBIPOC families.
We support families and birthing people of all backgrounds, genders, sexualities, body types, abilities, immigration statuses, family structures, and beliefs.
We are committed to educating ourselves and each other on the intersecting issues disproportionately impacting BIPOC families. We acknowledge the wealth of diversity within the Asian diaspora, and that the category of "Asian" has been used by white supremacy to reduce this diversity to a monolith — simultaneously positioning Asian people higher up within the racial hierarchy while weaponizing that position against other BIPOC communities. We reject these inaccurate and racist constructions and their systemic impacts.
We actively combat discriminatory and biased information and practices.
We are committed to building the care infrastructure our communities deserve — one that honors our ancestors, serves our families, and makes room for every body and every story.
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