Ashley Johnson

**Community Care Fund for Postpartum, Loss & Maternal Legacy Support** Families should not have to face postpartum recovery, pregnancy loss, infant loss, bedside crisis, or maternal death alone. I became a death doula not only to support grieving families, but also because of my own lived experience with loss. As a mother who has experienced the loss of my daughter, I understand that grief does not pause the body. A mother can be grieving her baby while still bleeding, healing, lactating, recovering, and moving through postpartum with empty arms. That kind of grief is hard to explain to people who have never had to live it. Becoming a Postpartum Informed End-of-Life Doula and PAIL Advocate has helped me tend to my own grief while also showing me how many other women and families are walking through similar pain without the support, language, or care they deserve. I knew there were other mothers like me—especially Black mothers—who were grieving the loss of a child while still needing postpartum care, emotional support, advocacy, and someone who understood the tenderness of that space. My work is rooted in Black maternal health, postpartum care, perinatal loss support, end-of-life family advocacy, and sacred remembrance. I support families through some of the most tender and difficult moments of their lives: preparing for postpartum, navigating pregnancy or infant loss, creating memorial and blessing ceremonies, receiving bedside support, and building continuity when a mother or birthing parent dies and baby comes home. The Community Care Fund helps offset the cost of care for families experiencing financial hardship. Contributions may help provide: * Reduced-cost care navigation sessions * Bedside presence and family advocacy * Perinatal loss and postpartum grief support * Sacred naming, blessing, and remembrance ceremonies for babies gone too soon * Maternal-loss family continuity support * Local DFW referral navigation for counseling, grief support, therapy, and family resources This fund does not replace medical care, therapy, legal services, emergency services, or funeral-home services. It helps families access compassionate, trauma-informed, culturally responsive support when they need someone steady beside them. My goal is to build a care model where families receive dignity and support without requiring unlimited unpaid labor from the workers who serve them.