View all Women’s Health Heroes. Voting closes May 14. Background info here

Entrants: Nikki Hatza and Farnaz Farhi
Nominee: Jill Wood, Senior Lecturer in Women’s Studies at Penn State University

As our undergraduate educations draw to a close, and we reflect back upon the classes and people who have most influenced our lives, one professor stands out in particular.

Dr. Jill Wood, a senior lecturer in the Women’s Studies department at Penn State, is far more than the professor whose Introduction to Women’s Studies class inspired us to major in the area. Jill has empowered us, through her classes, her mentoring and her friendship, to be in control of our bodies and our lives.

Taught from an open-minded, inviting, and yet unapologetically feminist perspective, Jill’s eye-opening courses on women’s health and critical issues of reproduction have given us the tools we need to remove our blinders and see the ways in which society has objectified, over-sexualized, commodified and exploited women’s bodies — our bodies. In doing so, she has shown us the strength in understanding the power dynamics of our bodies as women, and has empowered us to take control of our lives through this knowledge of ourselves.

As starry-eyed, young freshmen in Jill’s Introduction to Women’s Studies course, (though today we are embarrassed to admit it) we had never even heard of home birth or midwives, while Diva Cups and home-made eco-friendly sanitary pads were foreign to us as well. Growing up in mainstream American society, we had never imagined an alternative to the institutionalized, medicalized vision of birth.

Learning about the cascade of interventions and disempowerment associated with medicalized hospital birth shook our foundations. We distinctly remember asking ourselves, if we had never heard of home births, what else is there that we don’t know? And what about all the other young women who won’t take this class with Jill and gain this integral knowledge of women’s health? We were at once captivated, shocked and inspired — driven to share the knowledge Jill gave us with the other women in our lives: friends, mothers and sisters alike.

This class was just the beginning. We dove into Women’s Studies, signing up for all of Jill’s higher-level women’s health courses. As we discussed politics of reproduction, issues of infertility and alternatives to medicalized birth, our understandings of women’s health within the context of our own lives grew exponentially. Informed with knowledge and empowered with a sense of agency, we took on the challenge of sharing this knowledge with fellow women at Penn State through activism projects that extended far beyond Jill’s classes and had lasting effects on our communities and ourselves.

Jill’s teaching style, a true embodiment of the democratic and open-minded nature of feminist pedagogies, has provided a unique and multi-dimensional educational experience. With her courses centered on the true stories of real women, Jill has invited us to reflect upon our own experiences. Connecting with our peers in understanding our own struggles with our bodies and our lives has validated our experiences as women. By highlighting women’s stories within an academic setting, presenting facts and encouraging students to reach their own conclusions and understanding, Jill has given us, her female students, a gift of independence in a way that our society has systematically failed to do.

Jill has shared her stories with us and has guided us as an academic and personal mentor, supporting us as we grew from uninformed freshman to educated, critically thinking, and driven young feminist women. Her influence on our lives is invaluable, and will be deeply reflected as we step forth into the word, armed with the information that will empower us to understand our bodies, our health and our lives.

As we carry her lessons with us, Jill’s dedication to women through her feminist women’s health teachings will span generations and touch many lives in tremendous ways. Our nomination for Jill Wood is in thanks to her, for giving us the knowledge we needed to control our bodies and live our lives.

View all Women’s Health Heroes. Voting closes May 14. Background info here.

Entrant: Carol Paris
Nominee: Margaret Flowers, Citizen Activist

Margaret Flowers is a Maryland pediatrician who for the past several years has devoted all of her energies to speaking out and organizing for a truly universal and comprehensive health care program, one that goes far beyond the law just enacted by Congress.

Rebelling against the daily injustices inflicted upon children and their families by a profit-driven health industry – especially the big insurance and drug companies – she left active medical practice in 2006 and resolved to work full time for a health plan that guarantees everyone the quality care they need and deserve.

Margaret has since become one of our nation’s most prominent advocates for a single-payer health program, an improved and expanded Medicare for All. Unlike the health bill that was just passed, a single-payer plan would cover everyone without exception, allow free choice of doctor and hospital, and require no co-pays or deductibles. It would also cover the full range of women’s reproductive health services.

Margaret has shown great courage and determination in pursuit of this goal, and has inspired me and countless other women (and men) by her example. She encourages others to speak out and to take action because, as she often stresses, millions of lives depend on the outcome.

A year ago, at the outset of the health care debate, she and I were among eight persons who challenged the exclusion of the single-payer model – a model that is supported by a solid majority of the U.S. people – at a key congressional hearing.

Margaret writes: “On May 5, eight health care advocates, including myself and two other physicians, stood up to Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and the Senate Finance Committee during a ‘public roundtable discussion’ with a simple question: Will you allow an advocate for a single-payer national health plan to have a seat at the table? The answer was a loud, ‘Get more police!’ And we were arrested and hauled off to jail.”

Here’s some footage of her interview with MSNBC’s Ed Schultz shortly afterward (her appearance starts at 3-minute mark) and an opinion piece that she wrote about the experience that appeared in the Baltimore Sun.

Thus began her long odyssey of speaking engagements, rallies, testimony before other congressional committees (Sen. Baucus never invited her back!), television appearances and travel from one end of the country to the other. A retrospective on how she views the past year of struggling for a truly humane health care system appears in the current issue of Tikkun magazine and in an interview on Bill Moyers Journal.

Dr. Flowers obtained her medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and did her residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She has worked as both a hospitalist in a rural setting and in private practice. In addition to her present work as congressional fellow for Physicians for a National Health Program, she is active in Healthcare-Now of Maryland and a co-founder of the state’s Conversation Coalition for Health Care Reform.

Margaret Flowers is a tireless advocate for her patients and for a humane health care system, often making great personal sacrifices to advance our common interests. She’s a women’s hero in my book and a women’s hero in the eyes of millions of Americans.

View all Women’s Health Heroes. Voting closes May 14. Background info here.

Entrant: Merritt Tierce
Nominee: Lynn Jackson, Intake Director for the Texas Equal Access Fund

This Sunday, more than 150 million Mother’s Day cards will be exchanged in the United States. Most of these cards cost between $4 and $5.

Now imagine what would happen if you donate that $5 to your favorite nonprofit in honor of Mom. We could change the world.

But wait, you may be wondering how $5 can change anything. Five dollars ensures that future generations of girls grow up with reliable health information. Five dollars helps create a community of support and a place to turn for questions. Five dollars gives us the ability to provide tools that enable girls and women to become better health advocates. Five dollars changes everything.

Consider making a gift to Our Bodies Ourselves in honor of all the moms in your life. And if you’re thinking a $5 donation doesn’t make a difference, think again. If every one of our blog readers and Facebook supporters made a $5 donation in honor of their mom or loved one this Mother’s Day, we’d raise more than $75,000. That’s right — $75,000.

We all know the value of accurate health information, and I know that you care deeply about women’s health issues. So this Mother’s Day, when you’re contemplating which card to buy, honor your mom with a gift to Our Bodies Ourselves.

With every $5 donation, we’re on our way to changing the world.

View all Women’s Health Heroes. Voting closes May 14. Background info here.

Entrant: Alan Trachtenberg, MD, MPH
Nominee: Duchy Trachtenberg, MSW, LCSW-C, County Council member — Montgomery County, Md.

Council member Duchy Trachtenberg (D-At Large) was elected to the Montgomery County Council in 2006. She is chair of the Management and Fiscal Policy Committee, responsible for county economic and fiscal policy; government administrative departments; cable and telecommunications; and technology issues. She also serves on the Health and Human Services Committee.

As MFP Chair,  Trachtenberg’s primary mission is the stewardship of the county’s fiscal health. She guides the yearly budget-making process to ensure the protection of the county’s long-term stability while funding essential priorities and protecting the vulnerable with transparency, equity and fiscal responsibility.

Upon joining County Council, Trachtenberg became a leader in creating the Family Justice Center to bring coordinated and effective government services to domestic violence victims.  The Family Justice Center is a one-stop-shop approach to responding to domestic violence, eliminating the burden on victims of time and travel to offices scattered throughout the county for different services, which can take days or even weeks to fully engage. The Montgomery County Family Justice Center opened in the summer of 2009 and in its first four months served over 500 families from 39 countries.

As a public health professional, council member Trachtenberg has a special interest in addiction treatment services and public health policy. Her landmark regulation prohibiting the use of artificial trans fats in Montgomery County restaurants was the first such action in the United States adopted on a county level.

She recently proposed new regulations to protect the environment and public health that requires a completed and evaluated Health Impact Assessment prior to the final decision-making on all county and state road construction projects in Montgomery County.

Council member Trachtenberg had been an effective grassroots activist for over 20 years on women’s equality, mental health concerns and public health issues. She offers a strong track record of successful community networking and believes building coalitions is an effective tool in bringing about political reform.

Her dynamic leadership style reflects her genuine commitment to full equality for all women. She sat for several terms on the board of directors of the National Organization for Women as the Mid-Atlantic regional director, and also for six years as a Progressive Maryland board member.

Trachtenberg holds a masters degree in social work. Prior to her election, she maintained a private practice specializing in adolescent addiction. She is a past governing councilor and chair of the alternative medicine section within the American Public Health Association (APHA).

She has received numerous honors and distinctions, including the Spirit Award for Humanitarian Advocate from the National Center for Children and Families (NCCF), the “Heroes” Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) of Montgomery County, and the “Ally for Equality” Award from Equality Maryland. Trachtenberg recently completed the program for senior executives in state and local government at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.

View all Women’s Health Heroes. Voting closes May 14. Background info here.

Entrant: Deborah Forhan Rimmler
Nominee: Katherine Stone, peer advocate for women with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders

Katherine Stone was a beacon of light during the darkest time of my life. I suffered from postpartum obsessive-compulsive disorder (that is a postpartum mood disorder where you get terrible, scary thoughts that won’t go away) that began after the birth of my son Henry a year ago.

I was lucky to get professional help early due to the support system I had in my life, yet I still suffered tremendously. Not even the best psychiatrist in the world can help you heal totally from the horror of having had awful thoughts that sometimes involve images of hurting your own child.

One night in despair I stumbled upon Katherine’s blog, Postpartum Progress. Finding Katherine and the amazing community of postpartum mood disorder survivors she has created helped me find peace. I felt for the first time since my son was born (and not just from my therapist telling me) that I was not alone on my occasional forays to the dark side of this disease; in fact, I’m in the company of some pretty amazing women!

Unfortunately, not all women have the support network I had to get professional help to stop their suffering. Those tragic stories we hear on the news of women taking their own lives or harming their children are the result of a general lack of education about the many forms of this disease and its successful treatment.

Postpartum depression and perinatal mood disorders will affect over 800,000 women this year in the United States alone, and Katherine Stone is a full-time peer advocate for these women through her blog and her other activist work, such as being a contributing blogger for PBS’ “This Emotional Life” site, and guest editor on postpartum depression for BlogHer, a popular community for and guide to blogs by women. Katherine currently serves on the board of directors of Postpartum Support International and the advisory board of the Perinatal Depression Information Network.

Some studies show that one in eight women suffer from postpartum mood disorders, and a majority of them go undiagnosed. Clearly many women are scared to admit to their family, friends or doctors what is happening to them, but many will turn to the privacy of the internet. And this is why I know in my heart that Katherine has created a forum to help new mothers like me find our way back to the joy of our families and even, for some of us, to save our lives.

Her website provides not just a comprehensive resource on the topic of these illnesses, but a personal sharing of her experiences and process of recovery; Katherine suffered postpartum OCD herself after the birth of her first child. The feelings of fear, isolation and shame she experienced inspired her to take create this blog, which is now the most widely-read blog in the United States on mental illnesses related to pregnancy and childbirth. And it was this fearless intimacy about one of the most shameful diseases that gave me the courage to truly stand up to it and that I’m sure has helped other woman to do the same, including getting the professional help and support from their families they desperately need.

Postpartum Progress now has more than 10,000 unique visitors each week from all over the world, and Katherine personally responds to the emails she receives daily from women who suffer, as well as from clinicians. She uses her voice every day, through writing and speaking, to ensure the voices of all mothers with postpartum depression are represented and to help eliminate stigma.

Postpartum Progress has a Surviving & Thriving Mothers Photo Album, the only public photo album displaying pictures of moms who have survived perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. This album combats the negative images of postpartum depression and psychosis shown in the media, and is a symbol of hope for recovery. I know when I’m feeling down about what happened to me that I will always feel inspired by logging on and viewing these beautiful families.

Katherine also leads the charge in speaking out assertively against unbalanced or misleading medical coverage of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. In 2009, she wrote a letter and gathered the endorsements of nearly 50 clinicians, survivors, authors and advocates in response to a misleading article in Time magazine about postpartum depression screening. Time chose it as one of its 2009 Letters of the Year.

I am nominating Katherine Stone as my Women’s Health Hero as she is bringing light and truth to one of women’s oldest and most closeted diseases, and love and hope to those of us affected by it.

View all Women’s Health Heroes. Voting closes May 14. Background info here.

Entrant: Amanda Davis
Nominee: Wendy Chavkin, MD, MPH, Professor of Clinical Public and Family Health and Obstetrics and Gynecology at Columbia University

Wendy Chavkin, MD, MPH, is a tireless advocate for women’s health.

As a medical student in Chicago in the late 1960s, Dr. Chavkin occasionally loaned her apartment to the Jane Collective, an underground abortion network. She later said that her experience with the Jane Collective “pushed me towards becoming a doctor.”

Dr. Chavkin decided to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology. She began practicing medicine shortly after Roe v. Wade legalized abortion, and has advocated staunchly and openly for reproductive rights ever since.

In her dozens of publications, she exposes the disparities in the medical care for women and men as well as the obstacles preventing women from obtaining reproductive health care. Much of her research has examined maternal health and mortality, especially for low-income women.

Last year, Dr. Chavkin joined forces with other public health experts to make the case for reorienting the U.S.  medical system so that women receive all of the care they need throughout their lives. That report, Women’s Health and Health Care Reform, was a touchstone for members of Congress as they shaped health reform legislation over the past year.

Dr. Chavkin has helped countless doctors and students use their medical expertise and experience to support reproductive health care in the legislatures and the media. As a founder and the second board chair of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, she led her colleagues in a campaign against the so-called partial-birth abortion ban. In 2007, she co-founded an initiative called Global Doctors for Choice that so far has enabled physicians from 20 countries to share strategies for expanding access to reproductive health care.

Through her research, teaching of public health students, and organizing of fellow physicians, Dr. Chavkin ensures that women’s health remains a priority for governments around the world.

View all Women’s Health Heroes. Voting closes May 14. Background info here.

Entrant: Renae Kulas
Nominee: Sharon Ostalecki, Director, Helping Our Pain & Exhaustion

Fibromyalgia has been nicknamed “The Invisible Disease” because it is not perceptible to others. The face of fibromyalgia is every face, and unless you were told, you could not tell who has it and who does not.

Twenty years ago I spent my days searching for a reason for the pain that was taking over my life. My physician and family could not understand why I was in constant pain and lived with constant fatigue. It was difficult because I had begun to question myself, and then one day I heard a radio program about a condition called fibromyalgia.  The gal being interviewed not only seemed to understand but also lived with the condition. I contacted the radio station and made contact with Sharon Ostalecki — a patient, doctor and author.

Her story is similar to many of us who have struggled to understand and find answers of how to continue on through the pain and daily exhaustion. But Sharon reaches out through her books, support group, Facebook and endless phone calls to fibro patients to help them on their journey to wellness. She has been a tireless advocate not only for patients but spouses, as well.

Because the condition also affects teens, Sharon speaks to teachers and administrators at high schools, to help them understand the struggles these young adults face and to help them fulfill their dreams of graduating while enduring the pain and fatigue.

We all need someone to help us in our struggle with chronic pain, for it is not an easy road to travel. Sharon is that “someone” in the lives of many fibromyalgia patients.

View all Women’s Health Heroes. Voting closes May 14. Background info here.

Entrant: Sara
Nominee: Angela Shipp, Author of bluehealer diary

Having worked as regulatory affairs manager and managed care expert for more than 20 years, I have learned the importance of understanding connections between health and communicating with healthcare staff. Angela Shipp, author of the bluehealer diary, is an advocate for the power that personal health knowledge has in health care decisions. She believes that health knowledge empowers consumers to better manage their own health and as they interact with health care professionals when they need care.

Angela strives to maintain a healthy lifestyle for herself and is tireless in her efforts to engage more consumers in taking responsibility for their health and wellness. She works long hours at her full-time job, then contributes to a blog and other social media to share her message. She is also very active in the community and is passionate about helping others.

Having overcome fears about sharing her own bad experiences with managed care and a personal illness, Angela started a blog called health-e inspiration. Whether she writes about a personal experience with ulcerative colitis or posts a press release about other health and wellness issues, I always leave the blog feeling empowered and inspired.

Angela’s blog provides coverage of issues pertaining to general health and wellness, specific illnesses, domestic violence, and more. I’m confident that Angela is making a big difference in the lives of health care consumers.

View all Women’s Health Heroes. Voting closes May 14. Background info here.

Entrant: Crystal M. Wilson
Nominee: Jenni Saake, Author of “Hannah’s Hope,” Founders of Hannah’s Prayer ministry

Jenni Saake is author of “Hannah’s Hope: Seeking God’s Heart in the Midst of Infertility, Miscarriage and Adoption Loss.”

She and her husband, Rick, established Hannah’s Prayer, a ministry that has since reached tens of thousands of families worldwide with comfort, hope, encouragement and support in the face of fertility challenges.

She also keeps up a blog that offers further encouragement, bridging two very different worlds of 10+ years of infertility (including three miscarriages and seven failed adoption attempts), followed by motherhood of three living miracles.

“InfertilityMom” Jenni Saake shares about her daily life working at home, writing, homeschooling and juggling chronic health challenges including endometriosis, polycystic ovaries (PCOS), fibromyalgia and myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) / chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) / XMRV Associated Neuro-Immune Disease (XAND).

View all Women’s Health Heroes. Voting closes May 14. Background info here.

Entrant: Emilia Gianfortoni
Nominee: Promotoras de la Salud Sexual Community Educators

The Latino community experiences vast sexual health disparities nationwide. Latinos disproportionately experience high rates of teen pregnancy and STIs compared to other ethnic groups. In Massachusetts, Latinas have a teen birth rate that is six times higher than non-Latinas.

The communities of Holyoke and Springfield experience the highest teen birth rates in the state, at 95.4 and 84.3 per 1,000, respectively, compared to 22 per 1,000 for the state as a whole.

As studies clearly show, teen pregnancy and birth rates are much related to high school drop out rates. Holyoke and Springfield are no exceptions with the two highest drop out rates for Latino teens in the state (34.9 and 33.3 per 1,000, respectively, compared to 22.8 in MA overall).

In Latin American countries and culture, health care is often provided in a more personal and informal way than in the United States. Promotoras offer customized health information from volunteers with first-hand knowledge of the communities they serve and the experiences they have that effect their health care knowledge and access.

Through a partnership with the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, the Promotoras, or community health workers, in Springfield, Mass., have been providing sexual health education to their community in group and individual settings to raise awareness and increase access to sexual health information and services.

In just four short months, and with strong leadership and dedicated guidance from Iris Coralí, the Latino community health education coordinator from Planned Parenthood, the promotoras have connected with over 1,300 individuals in their community through charlas, health and community fairs, and family and friends. Each person they connect with receives accurate information about sexual health from someone they can identify with, along with answers to questions they may have and referrals to health services in their community. The promotoras include:

* Maribel Cabrera is 32 years old and was born and raised in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. She recently moved to the United States, to Springfield, and is studying English at the Massachusetts Career Development Institute. For Maribel, being a promotora means being a leader in her community and a confident advisor. As promotoras, she believes she can access and attain knowledge, information and resources to advise the Latino community. Maribel has two sons who are her main reason to keep moving forward.

* Paola Figueroa is 25 years old and was born and raised in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. She came to the United States to achieve some of her greatest drams, which included seeing snow and having a better life – both of which she has achieved. Paola is studying English at the Massachusetts Career Development Institute to be able to have a better job in the future. She loves being a promotora de salud sexual because she believes it is a very important topic for our children and their future and to be able to give advice to the community. As a promotora she has the skills to give correct information and be knowledgeable about the health services.  For Paola, being a promotora signifies the confidence in her community. She has a very intelligent 5-year-old daughter, Lenalisse, and a wonderful supportive husband.

* Jessica Rivera was born and raised in Arecibo, Puerto Rico and is 29 years old. She decided to come to the United States to find a better job and to give her sons a better future. Jessica has two sons who, along with her family, are her biggest love; they are 8 and 9 years old. She has a bachelors degree in Elementary English from Puerto Rico and is currently studying English at the Massachusetts Career Development Institute. Jessica likes to help other people, and to talk a lot. Being a promotora means she is an example for the community to give correctly information about sexual health and sexuality to help the community. Through her knowledge as a promotora she can help other people in need be able to have a healthy future.

* Sandy Soto was born in 1969 and raised in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. She completed her law degree from the Universidad Technologica de Santo Domingo and moved to the United States in 2006 after visiting a few times before. Sandy has always liked to work with people to help them and she believes that by being a promotora she can do that. Being a promotora means she can advise her community about how to protect their physical and mental health and how they can help their families. Sandy has three sons and one grandson.

So far, they have received very positive feedback, and it is clear many community members are appreciative of the information they are receiving.

A woman staying at a homeless shelter in West Springfield, where she lives with her two children, took a bus to the Center’s recent Three Kings Day Celebration. The woman was 35 years old and moved to Massachusetts from Puerto Rico six months ago after divorcing her husband and escaping domestic violence. As part of the process for signing up for toys at the Center, the woman attended a charla and filled out a subsequent evaluation. On the evaluation form, the woman mentioned having little knowledge of birth control options and STI prevention. She also listed that she had never had an annual gynecological exam.

After listening to the charla, the woman was very happy to have received such helpful information and commented that she felt many in the community could benefit from it. She also wrote that she would like to become a Promotora herself, and provided her contact information.

View all Women’s Health Heroes. Voting closes May 14. Background info here.

Entrant: Bailey Delves
Nominee: Kathie Lindstrom, LCCE,CD,CDT Coordinator of Perinal Studies Douglas College

Kathie Lindstrom (pictured in the middle) has been THE guiding force in perinatal education in Canada.

She has been a doula and an educator for many years. She is a great teacher and an inspiration to anyone aspiring to make a difference in maternity care.

I cannot say enough good things about her. She is humble, she is strong, and she has truly made a difference in the lives of hundreds (maybe thousands) of women, babies and their families worldwide.

Ask anyone in Canada’s birth community, and they will all tell you — Kathie is fantastic.

View all Women’s Health Heroes. Voting closes May 14. Background info here.

Entrant: Alexis Greeley
Nominee: Emily Boyes-Watson

I have known Emily since we were 5 years old. We met in kindergarten class and now, 19 years later, we are like sisters. While Emily does not work in the health field, she is my health hero.

Women’s health issues are often treated as matters that are not meant to be seen or heard, and women are taught to deal with such issues discreetly and quietly. This can lead to feelings of shame and isolation when problems or curiosity occur regarding health and sexuality. Women aren’t offered, and aren’t encouraged to seek out, very many safe spaces to talk and share about their health and sexuality. In addition, women can end up viewing their health and sexuality through only negative lens, rather than as parts of themselves to celebrate and explore.

Emily provides the necessary space for me to be open about issues regarding my health. It is truly invaluable to have a friend who I can turn to about anything and everything. I can confide in Emily about issues ranging from struggling with body image to feeling ashamed about relationship choices I have made. I don’t have to worry about judgment at all, and Emily helps me to work on my confidence and feel comfortable in myself. She doesn’t make me feel bad about mistakes that I have made, but rather helps me learn how to move forward and grow from them.

Many of my women friends have admitted lying to their doctors because they feel ashamed for choices they have made or they are too embarrassed to ask certain questions. This fear and shame can lead to mental, emotional and physical risks. When women are able to open up to one another and support each other, it usually is realized that a lot of the same themes, worries, experiences, etc., are shared in regards to health and sexuality. Emily provides me with a space to voice my concerns, share my experiences, and learn how to celebrate who I am as a woman.

View all Women’s Health Heroes. Voting closes May 14. Background info here.

Entrant: Vicki Elson
Nominee: Marianne Bullock and Lisa Andrews, Co-founders, Prison Birth Project

Marianne Bullock and Lisa Andrews founded the Prison Birth Project (PBP), which serves incarcerated mothers at the regional women’s jail in Chicopee, Mass.

PBP visits inmates prenatally and postpartum. PBP provides childbirth education classes or individual instruction, as well as time-intensive labor support (“doula care”).

PBP doulas ease transitions between jail and hospital, support single mothers and whole families, help mothers cope with labor, and help mothers to make informed decisions about medical care.  They’ve even made it possible for some incarcerated moms to breastfeed successfully.

I’m utterly moved by the two young women who saw a need, and just started going into the prison to serve these mothers. Marianne was all of 24 years old when she and fellow young mother and college student Lisa (whose background is in nutrition and organic farming) started going into the Women’s Correctional Center.

Now, in addition to childbirth education and doula care, they have taken theMotherWoman training, and they have created a program called Mothers Among Us — support groups for mothers inside and those who have been released.

Whether or not mothers and their babies are ultimately reunited, PBP believes that both mothers and children are served when pregnancy and childbirth are well supported with skill and compassion.  No matter what has come before in these women’s lives, PBP believes that there is nothing to be lost by adding loving kindness to the equation.

The collective members — especially Marianne and Lisa — work very long hours for very little pay, performing services and growing the organization. They are making a big difference in the lives of some of the most appreciative members of our community.

View all Women’s Health Heroes. Voting closes May 14. Background info here.

Entrant: Cheryl Bartlett
Nominee: Diane Legg, Co-Chair, Lung Cancer Alliance-Massachusetts

Diane Legg is a young mother of two children who was diagnosed with lung cancer over five years ago. With great determination, she is leading the charge to increase awareness and education about lung cancer, who it affects, and the status of research today compared to other cancers that all together do not have the mortality rates associated with lung cancer.

Fortunately, Diane is one of the lucky ones here to remind us that more must be done to better understand lung cancer and how to detect it early so that treatment can be curative.

With an 85 percent mortality rate, we need more people like Diane advocating for more funding to research diagnostic and treatment tools to increase the survival rates. In newly diagnosed cases, we are seeing younger and more women, espcially non-smoking related cases.

Despite her need to maintain a healthly lifestyle, she is tireless in her efforts to engage more leaders in this battle to reduce morbidity and mortality from this deadliest of all cancers.