Veronica Fregoso and another doula begged their patient, who was in labor, to go to the hospital. The patient was terrified of leaving her home and possibly encountering immigration agents. Her husband had been deported weeks earlier, leaving the woman alone in the U.S. with their 5-year-old child.
Eventually, Fregoso got the patient to the hospital, where she safely delivered her baby. But she was so traumatized by her husband’s deportation that she only stayed for a day before returning home — behavior Fregoso is seeing more and more from her pregnant clients.
Fregoso has worked as a doula in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2018. She loves the work she does and finds it extremely rewarding. But Fregoso’s work has shifted dramatically in the last year. The type of support her clients now require has intensified — she is increasingly spending time counseling patients who are too scared to seek maternal health care because of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“It’s very hard for us, because how can we completely say that you’re gonna be fine? We cannot do that,” Fregoso said. “So what do we say? We say God is going to protect us and we’re here for whatever you want to do.”
Fregoso is the director of Birth Companions Community Center, which oversees nearly 70 doulas who aid women throughout their pregnancies and postpartum care. Last year, the organization supported 746 newborn deliveries for its patients, 95% of whom were low-income immigrant families.
