Merette Khalil is a multilingual health systems researcher, gender and sexual reproductive health and rights advocate, feminist, doula, and birth educator, who is passionate about ensuring the right to health for all. She is based in Cairo, Egypt and the founder and CEO of YourEgyptianDoula , the first doula organization of its kind in the country and the region working to educate, advocate, and empower expecting parents on their rights in childbirth to improve quality of respectful parental care.
Merette works also at the WHO Regional Office in Cairo as a consultant on the COVID-19 response, gender equity, and health systems, strengthening the focus on achieving universal health coverage, protecting marginalized and vulnerable populations, and advancing global health security.
As a specialist on obstetric violence with her Master of Science in Public Health from the KIT Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Merette has published her research on obstetric violence in Egypt and the region, in book chapters and peer-reviewed publications, most recently in the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics.
In this episode we speak about obstetric violence as a global systemic problem, the importance of doulas, medical advocacy during childbirth, positive birth affirmations, the Lamaze healthy birth practices, the language around birth and as always a lot more. Merette is a powerhouse and full of knowledge.
This conversation is part of the overall topic of changing the dominant narrative around birth. Enjoy it and spread the word!
Host: Stella Saliari
At Salt the Podcast my guests and I contest and deconstruct narratives, and passionately recreate with the aim to change systems and perceptions. We want to elevate a generation that is feminist, antiracist and empathetic. Our conversations flow into each other and leave room for the unexpected. Salt is love, community, solidarity, a collective, healing, creating. It is intersectional, full of stories, movement and change. It insists, evolves and transforms. It is a commitment.
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