Season 2 on Fit As A Fiddle is opening up as strong as ever! We have a unique season premier, with 3 guest speakers. The ladies you’ll be hearing from on this show, Nicole JeanBaptiste, Carmen Mojica, and Evelyn Alvarez are the founders of Bx (Re)Birth and Progress, a collective of Bronx-based Black birthworkers who build solutions that protect and honor birthing people in the Bronx and their families. They discuss how racism impacts every element of our lives and how deep rooted it is in healthcare in this country. Our guests highlight the reality of how fear-based medicine robs black individuals of the opportunity to make choices. I personally gained so much from chatting with these ladies. For more information on their work, visit www.bxrebirth.org.

A bit on our guests:

Nicole JeanBaptiste is a mother of two, a full spectrum community based doula, lactation counselor, yoga instructor, and oral historian.   Of Southern American and Caribbean ancestry and based in the Bronx, NY, she strives to center the borough and the Black experience in the birth and social justice activism in which she engages.  Nicole is currently a Community Doula Consultant for the New York City Health Department’s COVID-19 Perinatal Taskforce. She is the founder of Sésé Doula Services and co-founder of the Bx (Re)Birth and Progress Collective. 

Carmen Mojica is an Afro-Dominicana born and raised in the Bronx. She is a certified professional midwife, writer and reproductive justice activist with a particular focus on birth justice. The focus of her work is on the empowerment of women and people of the African Diaspora, specifically discussing the Afro-Latina identity. She utilizes her experience as a midwife to raise awareness on maternal and infant health for women, highlighting the disparities in the healthcare system in the United States for women of color. 

Evelyn Alvarez is a Mom, Doula, Trainer who leads sessions about parenting, race, and restorative practices. Evelyn is Founder of Prom King, a non-profit, and Co-Founder of Radio Caña Negra, a podcast about Blackness in Latin America.