Collected Item: “Arialle K. Smith Oral History, 2022/03/17”
Title
Arialle K. Smith
Who conducted the interview? List all names, separated by comma.
Kit Heintzman
Who was interviewed? List all names, separated by commas.
Arialle K. Smith
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?
#America, #AntiAsianracism, #babies, #Black, #breastfeeding, #breastmilk, #children, #chiropractor, #Christian, #colorism, #dance, #doula, #energyfields, #faith, #fear, #healing, #holistic, #homebirths, #hospitals, #instructor, #joy, #married, #masking, #medicalracism, #midwives, #misinformation, #mother, #nurses, #obstetrics, #partisanism, #photographer, #politics, #pregnancy, #prematurebabies, #race, #racism, #socialmedia, #SouthCarolina, #trauma, #vaccines, #vitamins, #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.
Spartanburg, South Carolina
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.*
she/her
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.*
black/AA
Describe the oral history.
Self-description:
“I am a mother. I’m a wife. I’m a doula. And I’ve always found myself at the intersection of serving my community, and working with families from more of a nurturing perspective. I’ve been working with children, honestly, since I was 18. So that’s been about 18 years now. I’ve been able to kinda see the progression of both babies to children, adolescents, young adults, teenagers. It seemed like there was a transition in the ages, especially from when I grew up. And so I feel like this time, during this season, during this time, during this pandemic, it definitely has brought on different challenges and different changes in our society, particularly around those areas: concerning children, concerning giving birth. There’s definitely some things that I’ve seen and experienced firsthand when considering the changes that the pandemic has brought about. I really think that now with the advancement of this age, and we have so much access to information and technology, I still find that the holistic practices that I’m able to participate in and to employ with my clients is still superior to anything that has come out.”
Some of the things we discussed include:
Starting a business during the pandemic as a doula and photographer of newborns
Support for mothers during pregnancy, birthing, and post-partum in the pandemic; support for pregnant women of color as public health
Pandemic babies
Safety precautions when meeting with mothers: virtual meetings, meetings outside, meetings with masks
Understaffing in hospitals; hospitals visitor/guest policies
The potential long term impact of pandemic stress on mothers, and impacts on fetuses/babies; WWII bombing in Japan and its impact on mothers, fetuses, and babies; wondering about Russia and Ukraine
Medical racism and pregnancy; experiments on enslaved women; origins of American gynecology; distrust of doctors
Pressure for expediency in hospital births: inductions, cesareans; financial incentives for doctors to push surgery
Knowing 2 women who almost died during childbirth during the pandemic; recovery from traumatic birthing experiences
Power hierarchies in medicine: doula, midwives, nurses, general practitioner physicians, obstetricians, etc.
Mothering a young daughter (4-years-old at time of interview) during the pandemic; observations about daughter’s changing behavior during the pandemic
Schools as social environments; children’s milestones having been pushed back
Teaching dance online from home; competing studios anti-masking policies
Going to first big, outdoor event
Holistic views of health and healthcare
Social media and the decline of health in the United States
Guns
How injustices in the United States limit experiences of safety as a Black woman, concerns about having a Black son in the USA
Health as wealth
Race, gender, and vaccination in children
Diet, exercise, vitamins, and the immune system
The problems with the partisan binary; the 2020 election and social media
Family planning: not wanting to raise a child in chaos
Feminism and breastfeeding; population control, racism, and eugenics
Breastmilk as medicine
The myth of race
The environment’s health, global warming, mistreatment of the land; Native Americans, stolen land, pipeline
Christianity; faith as an anchor; scripture; needing a savior
Taking time for selfcare
American privilege; the shock to the system to have a crisis so severe happening in the USA, rather than somewhere else in the world.
Cultural references: Hippocratic oath, James Mario Sims, TikToc
See also:
https://www.avkdancestudio.com/arialle-smith
http://voyagela.com/interview/meet-arialle-kennedy-smith-of-momma-magnolia-and-avk-dance-studio/
https://marjymarj.com/blog/f/arialle-the-dancer-teacher-doula-and-photographer?fbclid=IwAR30O-CxriDvlkdcNyA7HNQKl3Z_d_cDn443SFXf8recYkBYI8qRGxseMQk
https://podtail.com/podcast/humanity-chats-with-marjy/humanity-chats-get-to-know-arialle-kennedy-smith/
“I am a mother. I’m a wife. I’m a doula. And I’ve always found myself at the intersection of serving my community, and working with families from more of a nurturing perspective. I’ve been working with children, honestly, since I was 18. So that’s been about 18 years now. I’ve been able to kinda see the progression of both babies to children, adolescents, young adults, teenagers. It seemed like there was a transition in the ages, especially from when I grew up. And so I feel like this time, during this season, during this time, during this pandemic, it definitely has brought on different challenges and different changes in our society, particularly around those areas: concerning children, concerning giving birth. There’s definitely some things that I’ve seen and experienced firsthand when considering the changes that the pandemic has brought about. I really think that now with the advancement of this age, and we have so much access to information and technology, I still find that the holistic practices that I’m able to participate in and to employ with my clients is still superior to anything that has come out.”
Some of the things we discussed include:
Starting a business during the pandemic as a doula and photographer of newborns
Support for mothers during pregnancy, birthing, and post-partum in the pandemic; support for pregnant women of color as public health
Pandemic babies
Safety precautions when meeting with mothers: virtual meetings, meetings outside, meetings with masks
Understaffing in hospitals; hospitals visitor/guest policies
The potential long term impact of pandemic stress on mothers, and impacts on fetuses/babies; WWII bombing in Japan and its impact on mothers, fetuses, and babies; wondering about Russia and Ukraine
Medical racism and pregnancy; experiments on enslaved women; origins of American gynecology; distrust of doctors
Pressure for expediency in hospital births: inductions, cesareans; financial incentives for doctors to push surgery
Knowing 2 women who almost died during childbirth during the pandemic; recovery from traumatic birthing experiences
Power hierarchies in medicine: doula, midwives, nurses, general practitioner physicians, obstetricians, etc.
Mothering a young daughter (4-years-old at time of interview) during the pandemic; observations about daughter’s changing behavior during the pandemic
Schools as social environments; children’s milestones having been pushed back
Teaching dance online from home; competing studios anti-masking policies
Going to first big, outdoor event
Holistic views of health and healthcare
Social media and the decline of health in the United States
Guns
How injustices in the United States limit experiences of safety as a Black woman, concerns about having a Black son in the USA
Health as wealth
Race, gender, and vaccination in children
Diet, exercise, vitamins, and the immune system
The problems with the partisan binary; the 2020 election and social media
Family planning: not wanting to raise a child in chaos
Feminism and breastfeeding; population control, racism, and eugenics
Breastmilk as medicine
The myth of race
The environment’s health, global warming, mistreatment of the land; Native Americans, stolen land, pipeline
Christianity; faith as an anchor; scripture; needing a savior
Taking time for selfcare
American privilege; the shock to the system to have a crisis so severe happening in the USA, rather than somewhere else in the world.
Cultural references: Hippocratic oath, James Mario Sims, TikToc
See also:
https://www.avkdancestudio.com/arialle-smith
http://voyagela.com/interview/meet-arialle-kennedy-smith-of-momma-magnolia-and-avk-dance-studio/
https://marjymarj.com/blog/f/arialle-the-dancer-teacher-doula-and-photographer?fbclid=IwAR30O-CxriDvlkdcNyA7HNQKl3Z_d_cDn443SFXf8recYkBYI8qRGxseMQk
https://podtail.com/podcast/humanity-chats-with-marjy/humanity-chats-get-to-know-arialle-kennedy-smith/
On what date did you record this oral history?
2022-03-17T10:05