SPRINGFIELD — Springfield Mayoral Aide Shenell Ford was recently chosen to participate in the inaugural year of Vital Village Networks National Birth Justice Fellowship Program, an 18-month initiative that aims to advance birth equity across the country.
Ford, who founded the community-based lactation practice called Heart2Heartbeat Lactation & Wellness, is one of 11 people from across the country chosen for the program. The participants were chosen based on the work they have done to actively engage in initiatives aimed at eliminating health equities and injustices experienced by birthing families.
According to the Vital Village Networks website, the fellowship has two primary goals during its 18 months: first, for each participant to make significant progress on a key birth justice initiative through tailored support by applying skills and insights gained throughout the program; and second, for the fellows involved to work collaboratively to co-create a resource that will advance the birth justice field as a whole, especially across the country.
In an interview, Ford said she is excited to work with others who are entrenched in the birth justice sphere because she believes the work they will do will bring more visibility to where systemic inequities still lie in maternal and infant health, and how change is being fostered.
Ford mentioned that the networking aspect to the fellowship is especially key to this program.
“So many individuals are doing phenomenal work across the country, but we’re often working in silos, so we don’t even know what’s happening on the other side of our state, let alone our country,” Ford said. “So, the fact that our fellowship is bringing us all collectively together on this national resource is just amazing.”
Ford is a frequent leader in lactation advocacy efforts in Springfield. Her community practice, Heart2Heartbeat, offers a range of services from culturally informed clinical breastfeeding management, equity in lactation training facilitation and community-centered breastfeeding advocacy and education.
According to the Heart2Heartbeat website, Ford has helped a little over 30 families through their feeding journey.
Her inspiration to start her journey in birth equity was borne out of her own experiences breastfeeding her two children.
She said the support she received from her family during those times was “absolutely amazing,” and she called the experiences “beautiful,” but Ford also noted that there were some difficulties in finding support from the community.
She talked about how she encountered bias, discrimination and even blatant racism in many of the birthing spaces she went to, and she vowed that no other family would experience what she felt, again.
“The supports that I had and the supports that I wish I had and felt I deserved, were absolutely a springboard to wanting and needing to ensure that families didn’t experience the same thing that I did,” Ford said. “I want to make sure I’m doing my part to carve out a space for families so they can explore their options and let them know that they have options to begin with.”
Ford said that she has developed a “heart of service” thanks to her mother and grandmother as well as the bond she developed with her children during her own breastfeeding process, and now, she is translating that same heart to her own work.
She said that she is very thankful of her mentors and heroes that were doing this work before her as well as the ones that are continuing to carry that mantle. Ford touched on the importance of the many collaborators, like Springfield Family Doulas, that are doing their best in creating a safe and welcoming environment for families experiencing the phases of pregnancy.
She added that the goal of this fellowship and the work she does locally is to continue to advance equity in this realm of infant and maternal health, because inequities still exist.
“We need this space of equity, and justice and liberation,” Ford said. “We all deserve to walk into these spaces of birthing and feeding our children and not be fearful when we walk out… because this work is literally life or death in so many ways.”
Outside of her community practice, Ford is also an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant and serves as the co-chair for the city’s Maternal Child Health Commission through the Department of Health and Human Services, where she spearheads lactation advocacy efforts in the city, like National Breastfeeding Month and Black Maternal Health Week celebrations.
She is also a member of the Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition Board of Directors as well as a member of the US Breastfeeding Committee CRASH Committee, and a steering committee member of Birth Equity and Justice Massachusetts.
Ford said that she has already met with the other fellows in the cohort over Zoom to break the ice and learn about each other’s expertise and what they hope to accomplish over the next 18 months.
She talked about how the camaraderie has felt very natural so far and she is excited to see what the cohort comes up with as they continue to meet monthly.
“We have that range to be able to decide what that national resource [regarding birth equity] is based on our conversations and based on the needs of the families,” Ford said.
According to the Vital Village Networks website, “community changemakers” were chosen for the fellowship based on their commitment to advancing community power to address birth equity, especially when it comes to addressing structural and social injustices affecting historically marginalized populations.
Readers can learn more about the program by visiting vitalvillage.org/projects/national-birth-justice-fellowship.
