Arizona Medicaid now covers traditional healing. It’s helping Native communities preserve tradition

Natasha Bowman is a Navajo doula and student midwife. Her work centers around revitalizing traditional birthing through practices that have been overshadowed by Western medicine.

In traditional spaces, families are often there, supporting the mother through labor and birth. One of Bowman’s clients was the first woman in her family to have a home birth since her great-great-grandmother. The client was in the company of other women in her family and for the first time — her father.

Before the woman’s home birth, her father wasn’t allowed to be present for the births of his own children. His wife would labor at the hospital while he was at home and then return with their babies.

It was very different while his daughter was in labor. He was invited into the space and able to console her, ru