Collected Item: “Shanika King Oral History, 2022/03/03”
Title
Shanika King
Who conducted the interview? List all names, separated by comma.
Kit Heintzman
Who was interviewed? List all names, separated by commas.
Shanika King
Email Address(es) for all interviewers. Separated by comma.
kheintzman@gmail.com
Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your oral history. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?
#ADHD, #Bible, #children, #Christian, #church, #community, #COVID+, #depression, #doula, #fear, #flu, #fostering, #fosterparent, #God, #gospel, #health, #highschool, #homeless, #hugs, #inflation, #introvert, #masking, #music, #Nebraska, #nonprofit, #Omaha, #onlinelearning, #parent, #positivity, #pregnancy, #race, #racism, #resilience, #school, #selflove, #shelter, #spirituality, #travel, #uncertainty, #vaccination, #war
What is the format of your recording?
Video
In what ZIP code is the primary residence of the interviewee? (enter 5-digit ZIP code; for example, 00544 or 94305)? In what city/town/village does the interviewee live? In what country does the interviewee live? All comma-separated.
Omaha, Nebraska
What is the gender of the interviewee? Be sure to allow interviewees to self-identify their gender in the pre-interview or interview. *Do not assign a gender identity to interviewees.*
Female
What is the age of the interviewee?
35 to 44
How does the interviewee describe their race or ethnicity? Be sure to allow interviewees to self-identify their race/ethnicity in the pre-interview or interview. *Do not assign a racial or ethnic identity to interviewees.*
African American
Describe the oral history.
Self-description:
“My name is Shanika King. I am a mom. I’m a doula. I am a leader in my community. And, yeah, I love people. I love this world. I love birthing moms. I’m just an all around loveable person.”
Some of the things we spoke about included:
Learning about the pandemic while working at a local women’s homeless shelter
Changes in at the shelter: everyone isolated in their rooms, delivering lunches and water, no permission to leave except for work, the difficulty in sharing love with clients when you can’t see them
Survival mode
Children struggling with homeschooling; how generational differences in teaching styles and school content makes it hard for parents to help their children; the loss of in-class learning experiences, like lab dissections and chemistry experiments
How fostering children changed during the pandemic: a shift to online meetings with workers, the inability for children who’d like to see their parents/siblings to see them, staffing issues getting in the way of visitations
Being of service and the joy of giving: caretaking as a child for father, raising siblings after the age of 17, becoming a doula, working in the shelter
Having been a teen mom and that experience’s impact on deciding to become a doula
Daughter with ADHD completing the last year of high school; impact of the social experience of high school
Keeping children aware of the pandemic through watching the news and open dialogue; asking doctors for more information
How a doctor’s bedside manner shapes trust in doctors
The importance of a doula’s support, and the exceptional importance of having a doula in COVID when community is cut off
Catching COVID in August 2020 with extent medical issues and worrying about mortality; bedridden; anxiety about having potentially gotten anyone else sick; stopping working after catching COVID; stigma
Spirituality; continuing to attend church; COVID precautions in church: social distancing
Getting vaccinated
How amazing pregnancy to birth is
Patient advocacy in healthcare
How maternal trauma and stress impacts development in the womb and after birth
Access to masks: price and availability
Seeing the COVID vaccine like the flu shot, a regular part of health maintenance; easy access to vaccination
Going on a trip in June 2021 to Hawaii
People doing the best they can during the pandemic
Worries about future generations and hoping for change that will empowering them
Selfcare through gospel music, bible study, getting nails done, self-help books
Learning about oneself as a path to better self-loving
Anastasia Lenna and seeing the women fighting in Ukraine; feeling empowered by other women
The Bible as a guide for Christian life
Awareness of services are a determinant of access to services
Technological innovation
Feeling like history class as a child didn’t reflect relevant experiences and learning to love history as an adult
Cultural references:
Birdbox (2018), Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Cox (long distance hugging wearable technology)
See also:
https://www.amotherslove4ever.org
https://shareomaha.org/nonprofit/mothers-love
“My name is Shanika King. I am a mom. I’m a doula. I am a leader in my community. And, yeah, I love people. I love this world. I love birthing moms. I’m just an all around loveable person.”
Some of the things we spoke about included:
Learning about the pandemic while working at a local women’s homeless shelter
Changes in at the shelter: everyone isolated in their rooms, delivering lunches and water, no permission to leave except for work, the difficulty in sharing love with clients when you can’t see them
Survival mode
Children struggling with homeschooling; how generational differences in teaching styles and school content makes it hard for parents to help their children; the loss of in-class learning experiences, like lab dissections and chemistry experiments
How fostering children changed during the pandemic: a shift to online meetings with workers, the inability for children who’d like to see their parents/siblings to see them, staffing issues getting in the way of visitations
Being of service and the joy of giving: caretaking as a child for father, raising siblings after the age of 17, becoming a doula, working in the shelter
Having been a teen mom and that experience’s impact on deciding to become a doula
Daughter with ADHD completing the last year of high school; impact of the social experience of high school
Keeping children aware of the pandemic through watching the news and open dialogue; asking doctors for more information
How a doctor’s bedside manner shapes trust in doctors
The importance of a doula’s support, and the exceptional importance of having a doula in COVID when community is cut off
Catching COVID in August 2020 with extent medical issues and worrying about mortality; bedridden; anxiety about having potentially gotten anyone else sick; stopping working after catching COVID; stigma
Spirituality; continuing to attend church; COVID precautions in church: social distancing
Getting vaccinated
How amazing pregnancy to birth is
Patient advocacy in healthcare
How maternal trauma and stress impacts development in the womb and after birth
Access to masks: price and availability
Seeing the COVID vaccine like the flu shot, a regular part of health maintenance; easy access to vaccination
Going on a trip in June 2021 to Hawaii
People doing the best they can during the pandemic
Worries about future generations and hoping for change that will empowering them
Selfcare through gospel music, bible study, getting nails done, self-help books
Learning about oneself as a path to better self-loving
Anastasia Lenna and seeing the women fighting in Ukraine; feeling empowered by other women
The Bible as a guide for Christian life
Awareness of services are a determinant of access to services
Technological innovation
Feeling like history class as a child didn’t reflect relevant experiences and learning to love history as an adult
Cultural references:
Birdbox (2018), Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Cox (long distance hugging wearable technology)
See also:
https://www.amotherslove4ever.org
https://shareomaha.org/nonprofit/mothers-love
On what date did you record this oral history?
2022-03-03T10:06