Malia Delancy – The BIPOC Doula Journey Bursary Award -Scholarship Winner March 2022

Malia Delancy – The BIPOC Doula Journey Bursary Award

Written by Malia Delancy

Malia Delancy – The BIPOC Doula Journey Bursary Award Scholarship Winner March 2022

Hi, my name is Malia Delancy. I am a mother to one beautiful princess. I am from the Bahamas and I am also a senior in university completing my bachelors of science in nursing.  I am so blessed and happy to be a Bebo Mia scholarship recipient and I’m so excited to write this post for the world to see. 

I was robbed of the beautiful birthing experience I dreamed of when I had my daughter.

I know that my experience would’ve been one million times better if I had a maternal support practitioner. I believe that I went through this experience to steer me in the direction of becoming a doula. Finding Bebo Mia while researching courses is the best thing that could’ve happened, they are the best organization you can certify with. 

I am so happy that I won this scholarship because this is where my passion is.

I know that if mothers have the proper support, care, guidance and practice based knowledge there would be better outcomes during pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum. I want to be the change in my community to improve mother’s and families prenatal, birth, and postpartum experiences.

My main goal is to support mothers through their birth and prepare them for a successful postpartum period. I believe that if a mother is prepared and has adequate support throughout pregnancy and birth, she will have a smoother postpartum journey. I also plan to support mothers who only need me during postpartum if they are having a difficult time (whether I assisted them with their birth or not), if they have a history of postpartum depression or simply need the support and care of a birth worker.

The Bahamas has excellent prenatal care that is offered at clinics, the public hospital and at other facilities. However, the care that is offered during labor and delivery, and postpartum needs drastic and immediate improvement. I plan to propose a contract to the Ministry of Health in The Bahamas to work on the maternity wards as a doula in our only public hospital (I will have set days for this). Most mothers in The Bahamas give birth alone with absolutely no support (not even the support of their partner / spouse) in this hospital.

I plan to open my own business, but I would like to give back to my community as much as possible, so getting a contract with our government would keep the cost at $0 for mothers.

I also plan to give a research proposal to the Ministry of Health to investigate if mothers who have a birth worker have better outcomes than mothers who do not (I will conduct this research while working in our major public hospital). 

There are so many reasons to love Bebo Mia.

I wanted to train with Bebo Mia specifically because there is ongoing support, there is a tight knit inclusive community, this is an international certification, there is so much diversity and representation in Bebo Mia, and I love that they offer an online course. I have been in the course for three weeks now and I feel like this is where I belong. Everyone is so understanding, helpful, down to earth, respectful yet cool and chill in the best way possible. I love this program so much, honestly the value I am getting far exceeds any monetary value. Bebo Mia is equipping me with the best knowledge and skills to prepare me for my BIPOC  journey and the support I receive is so amazing! I graciously accepted Bebo Mia’s BIPOC Doula Journey Bursary scholarship to the Maternal Support Practitioner Course for Spring 2022 and it is the best decision I have made.

Malia