Asmara Gebre

I am a proud Black and Latina woman. I am a Midwife at San Francisco General Hospital and Mission Neighborhood Health Center and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of California San Francisco. In the eight years prior to being a midwife, I worked in various positions dedicated to the care of pregnant persons and their families. My personal interests include being outdoors, riding my bike around the city, reading, and traveling with my daughter.

Utilizing community expertise to provide concordant & dignified doula care by fellow members of the community is an effective way to improve maternal health outcomes. SisterWeb is the dream many birth workers in the community envisioned for years. I am inspired daily by everyone’s grit and commitment to this work. It is refreshing and soul-nourishing to be part of a grassroots web of birth workers who are from the community and for the community and whose values are in line with those of Reproductive Justice. From its inception, SisterWeb members have been action-oriented, constantly molding and growing, and invested in carrying out the Network’s mission and vision. I am a part of SisterWeb because our community deserves it.  

Jen Madanat

 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. 

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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 Acero-Lopez

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.  

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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! 

Laura Perez

Laura Marina Perez is a home birth midwife (CPM, LM) based in San Francisco who practices throughout the greater Bay Area. She began birth work as a doula and placenta processor over 19 years ago. She is a member of the San Francisco Home Birth Collective and a proud Community Well practitioner. Laura strongly believes women's health must be in women's hands and birth work is a key way for women to be empowered.

As a birth worker and midwife, I consider community empowerment to be part of my mandate. We know that there are better pregnancy, birth and postpartum outcomes when women are valued, listened to, respected and well informed of their choices. I want women and families to have the priceless support and education that they are entitled to and that they get with a doula by their side.

Mayra Lizzette Yñiguez

I was born in Leon, Guanajuato Mexico, and immigrated into the US as a child, settling in San Gabriel, California.  I graduated from UCLA with a Major in Psychobiology and Minors in Chican@ Studies and Public Health. My interest in health disparities, policy, and research lead me to the Public Health Masters at UCLA. I have served as research coordinator in investigations of generational stress and racism on birth outcomes, taught reproductive health education, and lead Education and Mobilization efforts for statewide reproductive health bills with California Latinas for Reproductive Justice.  Throughout those almost 20 years, I have also been a Full Spectrum Doula, infusing afro-indigenous birth support and spirituality with every encounter I’ve supported. I have dedicated my life to diminishing health disparities specifically African American preterm birth and maternal mortality rates as well as serving as a resource for immigrant undocumented communities. Now, in the final phase of my professional development, I’m training to be a Nurse Midwife at UCSF with the hope of making a greater impact on my community clinically and through training the next generation of Community Birthworkers through SisterWeb.

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I have dedicated my life to diminishing health disparities specifically African American preterm birth and maternal mortality rates as well as serving as a resource for immigrant undocumented communities.  Now, in the final phase of my professional development, I’m training to be a Nurse Midwife at UCSF with the hope of making a greater impact on my community clinically and through training the next generation of Community Birthworkers through SisterWeb.

Shannon Padlog

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.

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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.

Deundra Hundon

Deundra Hundon is a resident of the Bayview Hunter's Point community for over 40 years. She’s currently supporting mamas and papas as a prenatal, labor/ birth and postpartum doula. Her passion and interest for doing birth work and becoming a doula and mentor to doulas began when she was a student in high school, preparing for college. Since then, she’s worked in childcare and education as a teacher, program director, family support coordinator and college advisor. Her experience working with children and their families for more than 25 years has prepared her for understanding families’ special needs and bringing calm and focus to the entire family in some of the most challenging times.

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Being a birth worker and SisterWeb mentor allows me to provide support to my community in 2 special ways: by offering personalized support to birthing people and by supporting a team of amazing and committed SisterWeb doulas as they go on to support families who would not otherwise have access to doula care. I am confident that my work as a SisterWeb mentor helps improve birth disparities within our city's most impacted communities by ensuring that their doulas are always growing, strengthening their skills and feeling supported. I believe that my role is to be their teacher, providing a course of learning and solid support.