bayens_emma

Protecting Her Pack

Mary Duke, a birth doula and roller derby skater, finds support
in her community of women.

By Emma Bayens

Mary Duke, a mother of three and a birth doula for women in Southern Kentucky, advocates for women in all spaces from the labor and delivery wing of local hospitals to the roller derby track. In her role as a doula, she acts as a liaison between medical staff and the birthing team, which includes the person giving birth, their one chosen support person, Duke and occasionally a midwife. Duke ensures that the person giving birth understands the questions they are being asked and is given the options to answer in the way that best suits their personal birth plan. She found her place as a doula after a traumatic personal experience delivering her oldest child, Marley Ann Brown, 9.

Paige Fairlano Jones rests between contractions as Mary gives advice on different laboring positions to try. Paige and her husband, Spencer Jones, were high school sweethearts and dated for several years prior to getting married. "We have waited four years for this baby," Paige said.

Mary checks the baby's progress as Paige reaches the delivery stage of labor early in the morning of March 13, 2024.

Paige smiles at her husband after a successful first breastfeeding latch with her baby in the first hour after birth on March 13, 2024.

Duke’s supportive community spreads beyond the track as she works closely with her best friend, Samantha Steen, to educate clients on labor and delivery as well as postpartum experiences such as lactation.

Mary and her best friend, Samantha Steen, laugh during a group birth and breastfeeding class at Birth BG. Sam is a certified lactation consultant and sometimes helps Mary's clients with breastfeeding during the postpartum period.

"She’s my [business] partner and my best friend. You know, it sounds like an exaggeration but there are days where I feel like I don’t even know if I’d be alive without some of the things Sam has done for me over the years."

While she is hands-on during labor and delivery, Duke’s advocacy work extends outside of birthing spaces. As a member of the Kentucky Birth Coalition, she spent time lobbying with other birth workers for freestanding birth centers, which would allow rural families to safely deliver babies during medical emergencies when the hospital is not a feasible option geographically. She also lobbied for medicaid coverage for certified professional midwifery services in the state of Kentucky.

Mary speaks with representative Kevin Jackson on February 8, 2024 about Kentucky House Bill 199/Senate Bill 103, which according to the bill, “exempts freestanding alternative birth centers from the certificate of need requirement and modernizes the facility licensure requirements.”

"In the ways that I get to love and protect these women every day within this system, I then get to go out on the [roller derby] track and I'm loved and protected in ways that I'm not loved and protected in any other place."

Mary takes a lap around the derby track at a local warehouse in Bowling Green. The space hosts Vette City Roller Derby practices and scrimmages.

After a recent 50/50 custody split with her ex-husband and kids, Duke found herself with kid-free time that yearned to be filled. She took up roller derby with the Vette City Roller Derby team and found love and support in that community of women.

Mary practices jamming during a scrimmage at the local warehouse used for the Vette City Roller Derby team.

"Skating has been this thing that I can go and do that gives me physical exercise, but also helps me clear my brain. Then I can do it around friends and you can also listen to good music while you do it. It’s all of these feel goods about it."

"Foxytocin", as Mary is known on the track, laughs with teammate "Slip Happens" during a post-practice stop at Waffle House.

Duke’s three kids also spend time on the roller derby track as the two oldest children, Marley Ann and Wiley, skate on the junior roller derby team. Duke says her friends take care of her and love her children well. They include the youngest child, Harvey, in roller derby practices and events as she often walks alongside her older siblings while they skate.

As a doula and an involved roller derby team member, Duke supports and is supported by other women every day. Duke says the way her community values and supports her allows her to take on more clients and continue supporting her three kids solely off doula work and childbirth education.

Mary's oldest daughter, Marley Ann Brown, 9, skates through their living room while Harvey, 3, reaches for a toy on the shelf before a junior roller derby practice.

"I hope to continue to do this in some way forever. I think that it will look different ways. It will kind of morph over the years."