OUR MENTORS
Who We Are
SisterWeb Community Doula Mentors provide crucial, on-call support and ongoing mentorship to SisterWeb Doulas so they have the guidance and support needed to provide exceptional care to the communities SisterWeb serves (Latinx, Pacific Islander, and Black/African American birthing families)
Our Mission
To promote equity in access to doula care and to promote financial sustainability and longevity in the birth workforce for doulas from historically un-supported communities in San Francisco, through robust doula education and mentorship support to Latinx/Native, Pacific Islanders, and Black/African American identifying doulas as phenomenal birthworkers.
Commitment to Sisterweb Doulas
We believe in each one of SisterWeb’s doulas ability to excel as birth workers, through identifying their strengths, assisting them in identifying their own support systems, modeling boundary setting/communication skills, and creating doula centered goal plans. Our hope is to inspire confident, knowledgeable, and skilled birth workers and that our shared wisdom augments their ability to contribute to their clients feeling of being well supported. We hope to provide strong support between our in-person mentorship sessions, our monthly education workshops, and our 24/7 on-call phone support while doulas attend births. We are dedicated to supporting doulas goals, promoting safe and robust doula care, and providing guidance in navigating the interdisciplinary relationships in birth work. We encourage doulas to provide us with feedback to further strengthen our ability to be mentors. We strive to develop meaningful and long lasting relationships with each doula to deepen the SisterWeb.
Jen Madanat
Doula Mentor
Jen began as a doula in 2011 after experiencing her own loss, which led her interest to holistic approaches in maternal health and wellbeing. She soon learned what a doula was and never turned back! Jen believes wholeheartedly in the body's innate wisdom and a mother's right to informed consent and unconditional support throughout her experience. Her love for birth, families and connection fuel her work and have helped her serve 500 families in the Bay Area and internationally at home, birth centers and hospitals. Jen is also a licensed midwife.
I'm in SW because my heart lies with mothers and babies. They are the future, and the future (generation) is in our hands today. How do you want to make the world a better place? My purpose lies here and this is where I choose to put my privilege to work.
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
-Marielle Franco
Karen Lopez-Acero
Doula Mentor
Karen Lopez-Acero was born in Colombia - rooted in her native Muisca ancestry - and raised in the Mission district of SF. Karen has been working as a community birth worker and healer for the past 8 years in her NYC community. Recently she moved back home to start her journey to becoming a midwife and nurse practitioner at UCSF. She committed to serving her community as a health provider while integrating the sacred knowledge of ancestral healing medicine. Karen's journey toward health equity and community healing started as a community organizer. Karen has been supporting immigrant workers, womyn of color, urban youth of color, and low-income families over 10 years as an organizer, interpreter, and trainer.
I am so excited to be part of SisterWeb because I completely believe and am invested in the mission and vision of birth justice! I love mentoring and cultivating the leadership of women in my community to become birth workers. I believe this work is needed and has the potential to transform our communities. I love that SisterWeb acknowledges the power of our cultures to continue to build resiliency and healing!
Shannon Padlog
Doula Mentor
I have had the pleasure of supporting families as a birth doula for 10 years and can’t imagine doing anything else. In addition to working as a birth doula, I teach Birthing From Within Childbirth classes and have been mentoring new doulas for about 6 years. As a birth worker, I am driven to help change the landscape and institution of birth in our culture to one that empowers birthing people, honors their wisdom, and protects their dignity and agency.
Being part of SisterWeb feels like the most important and valuable chapter of my journey as a birth worker to date. I am deeply honored to be the mentorship coordinator, as well as a mentor within the program. Having a mentor as I began doula work was a crucial part of my ability to show up for families and myself and to continue growing in work that is demanding and transformative at every level; physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. The fact that mentorship is built into the fabric of SisterWeb really highlights how special this organization really is. I feel grateful to be supporting mentors and doulas in work so aligned with my values of community, dignity and respect for ALL birthing families. I am excited to watch this program grow, to continue learning and to bear witness to the transformation of the birth landscape of our city.