Ep. 79: Radical Care: Birth Work, Abortion & Reproductive Justice - with Sara Bakr.

In this deeply grounded and liberating conversation, we speak about birth work, abortion, and reproductive justice through the lens of doula work, activism, inclusivity, and embodied experience. My guest, Sara Bakr invites us to rethink who birth support is for, what care can look like, and why bodily autonomy must be at the center of it all and a free Palestine.

Sara is a Black, mixed, pro-abortion full spectrum doula. She created Ancestral Birth out of pure necessity as people need and deserve better support through all pregnancy outcomes. In short, she radically supports and gently nurtures individuals and families through life transition. Her personal mission is to improve sexual and reproductive health services as she believes in reproductive justice and bodily autonomy for all.

In this conversation we talked about:

• Sara’s multicultural upbringing between Egypt, Norway, Sudan and now North London — and how learning to embrace change from a young age shaped her path into birth work.

• Living in a fat, mixed-ethnicity body and what it means resisting the somatic norms that teach us which bodies are acceptable and which are not.

• What a doula is, what full-spectrum support means, and why care must include all pregnancy outcomes.

• How continuous support and advocacy can impact safety, communication, pelvic health, and overall birth experiences.

• The financial privilege of accessing doula care and the systemic inequalities within maternity services.

• Abortion doula work, supporting loss without shame, and why reproductive justice and bodily autonomy are at the heart of Sara’s activism.

I hope you enjoy this conversation!