Join the conversation by letting us know what you think about the episode!

*** Correction: "I did notice one mistake at the end of the conversation regarding a statistic. I said that maternal mortality is 4 women per 1,000 live births in The Netherlands versus 1,000 out of 1,000 live births in other countries. What I meant to say was 4 per 100,000 and 1,000 per 100,000 live births." - Liselotte

May 5 is International Day of the Midwife and the theme this year is "One Million More Midwives". The message is simple but urgent: the world is facing a critical shortage of midwives, and without investment in the workforce, women and newborns will continue to pay the price. Every two minutes, a woman dies from pregnancy or childbirth complications, most of them preventable. Evidence shows that with one million more midwives, we could prevent 67% of maternal deaths, 64% of newborn deaths and 65% of stillbirths — saving more than 4.3 million lives by 2035.

To discuss all of this and more, our guest this week is Liselotte Kweekel - a midwife with 15 years of experience in community-based care in the Netherlands, including home births and running an independent midwifery practice. She currently works as a Midwife Advisor at the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM). Alongside her clinical work, Liselotte has worked for and with midwives’ associations for many years, supporting their development and strengthening their role at national and international level. She has extensive experience building partnerships through twinning, supporting long-term exchange, learning, and collaboration between midwives across different countries and care settings. In recent years, her work has focused on supporting midwives and midwives’ associations in humanitarian and crisis-affected contexts, working closely with UN partners and national stakeholders to strengthen midwifery leadership and response capacity. Liselotte also volunteers with Doctors of the World in the Netherlands, supporting undocumented migrants in accessing appropriate sexual and reproductive healthcare. She is also a mother of two daughters.

Where to find more information:

International Confederation of Midwives website: https://millionmore.org/

ICM petition: https://millionmore.org/petition/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/world_midwives/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/international-confederation-of-midwives/posts/?feedView=all

Support the show

Be part of the conversation by sharing your thoughts about this episode, what you may have learned, how the conversation affected you. You can reach Raquel and Jennifer on IG @madnesscafepodcast or by email at madnesscafepodcast@gmail.com.

Share the episode with a friend and have your own conversation. And don't forget to rate and review the show wherever you listen!

Thanks!

Join the conversation by letting us know what you think about the episode!

This month's installment of our Banned Books Series is Kirsten Miller's novel Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books. Joining the discussion this month is fan and friend of the pod Charie Procter (who also happens to be one of Raquel's sorority sisters from their alma mater Vanderbilt University). This month's book is a testament to the importance of books, the influence of librarians, and the significance of finding the right book at the right time. Tune in to hear the discussion and let us know what banned book found you at a time that was significant.

Support the show

Be part of the conversation by sharing your thoughts about this episode, what you may have learned, how the conversation affected you. You can reach Raquel and Jennifer on IG @madnesscafepodcast or by email at madnesscafepodcast@gmail.com.

Share the episode with a friend and have your own conversation. And don't forget to rate and review the show wherever you listen!

Thanks!

Join the conversation by letting us know what you think about the episode!

GLP-1s, trad wives, fat phobia, body policing, thinness as a moral imperative, performative masculinity and femininity. Everywhere you turn someone is talking about weight and fascism; but are the two related? We dive into the connection in this week's episode. Join us down this rabbit hole, won't you? What are your thoughts about body fascism?

Consulted for this episode:

Let Us Explain: Body Fascism – Scalawag

Feminism, Fascism, & the Future podcast - No Fat Soldiers episode -https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/12-no-fat-soldiers-the-fascist-war-on-the-body/id1712028499?i=1000745807985

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/far-right-radicalise-thin-skinny-fat-shame-women-girls-social-media-tiktok/

We Are in a Period of Body Fascism, and It Is Completely Intentional – The Catalyst.

OP-ED: The People’s Ozempic: Thinness, White Supremacy, and Fascism | AFROPUNK.

Big Back Panic: Fatphobia's Rebrand - In These Times

Support the show

Be part of the conversation by sharing your thoughts about this episode, what you may have learned, how the conversation affected you. You can reach Raquel and Jennifer on IG @madnesscafepodcast or by email at madnesscafepodcast@gmail.com.

Share the episode with a friend and have your own conversation. And don't forget to rate and review the show wherever you listen!

Thanks!