
Carla Michael, MSW, CD, CPD, CLE
Community and Professional Education Coordinator
I was born in Hollywood and raised in Pomona, CA. I am a mother to three girls and is well aware of the necessity of love and care during pregnancy, labor, and the postpartum period.
My passionate desire to work with children and families led me to a career as a social worker and to obtain a Masters in Social Work at California State University Los Angeles. Craving a more personable relationship with families while exploring “birthing and babies”, I decided to take a different route and become a full circle doula.
I obtained my full circle doula training with Shafia Monroe Consulting’s Full Circle Doula Training® (an intensive 30-hour prenatal, labor and postpartum doula training course). This distinctive training is built on the legacy of the 20th century African American Midwife, who provided holistic perinatal services with birth and postpartum rituals and mothering skills building confidence and leadership abilities within families to improve birth outcomes and increase breastfeeding duration rates.
I mirror this model of care in my practice as a doula, which is improving birth outcomes by reducing prematurity, increasing breastfeeding rates and duration, reducing infant mortality and I have also completed an extensive 14-hour training regarding perinatal mental health and is well versed on the seldom-discussed mental health needs of mamas after birth.
As Communications Director for the non-profit organization, Hammer Hunger Inc., I am an incredibly valuable resource to the organization and the families served. My compassion towards children and families has guided me to work within this organization whose mission is eradicating hunger in the working family’s household.
With my first baby, I had no support with breastfeeding and always wanted to work for an organization such as La Leche League, not knowing that a career in breastfeeding was actually attainable. Therefore, in addition to my work as a doula, I received my certified lactation education specialist training through Breastfeed LA’s 95-hour program, and am now currently on the pathway to becoming an IBCLC (international board-certified lactation consultant). This is critical because there are no statistics on how many Black IBCLCs there are in the United States. I believe that increasing the amount of Black IBCLC support will increase the rates of Black women’s breastfeeding outcomes, which is so crucial to their bundle of joy’s overall health in life. I enjoy instructing breastfeeding classes to pregnant mamas to prepare them before even before their little babies enters the world, and I currently teach Happy Mama Healthy Baby’s breastfeeding education classes.
I am also currently a student midwife working in a birth center. I am a believer in women-led births and that, with the proper support, education, and by istening to her intuition, a mama can have the birthing experience she’s always dreamed of. I am always honored to support a mama in this memorable, life-changing journey.
Remember: it’s your body and your birth!
- Carla.Michael@motherbabysupport.net
- 626-388-2191 ext. 1
- 909-326-0233