Ayesha Chatterjee

Ayesha Chatterjee (she/her) is a DONA-certified postpartum doula and Academy of Lactation Policy and Practice-certified lactation counselor (CLC). She also serves as editor for DONA International's quarterly magazine, "International Doula" and works with Mamatoto Village, a Washington, D.C.-based community health organization that provides culturally responsive perinatal care to Black birthing families and creates career pathways for Black perinatal healthcare providers. Ayesha also owns Metropolitan Doulas, a postpartum doula agency that serves parents in the Washington, D.C. metro area. 

Ayesha has worked in the field of sexual and reproductive health since 2001. Her experience ranges from providing sexuality counseling on one of India's first sexuality helplines and developing and implementing life-skills modules on adolescent SRH across Delhi's vast network of public schools, to managing the Our Bodies Ourselves (OBOS) Global Initiative in Boston, Massachusetts. 

At OBOS, Ayesha was responsible for providing technical assistance and building capacity in health and human rights groups that translated and culturally adapted the organization's resources for educational outreach and advocacy in their own communities and countries. Between 2006 and 2018, her leadership resulted in culturally adapted resources based on the acclaimed book, "Our Bodies, Ourselves," in 12 languages and in diverse formats.

Ayesha was also a driving force behind Surrogacy360, launched by OBOS to bring intended parents accurate information on the practice of commercial gestational surrogacy around the world. At Mamatoto, she develops content for the organization's perinatal community health worker and lactation trainings, to advance their commitment to building a secure and strong perinatal workforce for the Black community. 

Ayesha has previously served as a consultant to CARE Tajikistan on a pilot project to address gender-based-violence, and served on the board-of-directors of the Boston Association for Childbirth Education, one of the oldest community-based childbirth organizations in the United States, and the Eastern Massachusetts Abortion Fund. She holds a masters degree in clinical psychology from Delhi University, India.

Ayesha lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her partner, Erik, their middle-schooler, Tara, and the family's two large and loveable four-leggers, Susie (an English Mastiff) and Peter Cat (a Norwegian Forest creature).

Bringing curated, culturally responsive, reproductive and sexual health information to those that need it most has been my mantra from the day I graduated and my focus on perinatal health and postpartum families has been its natural trajectory, especially as an immigrant parent who had little community support during my own postpartum and as a survivor of a traumatic birth that resulted in two postpartum hemorrhages.

I am also a lifelong OBOS-fan, starting with my first role as a sexuality counselor when (the 1998 edition?) "Our Bodies, Ourselves" was my go-to resource, and continue to live and bring OBOS's philosophy to health education and self-determination to my current roles. I am incredibly excited about OBOS's new avatar, "Our Bodies Ourselves Today," which is poised to expand reach in ways that I only dreamed about when I was on the OBOS staff, and look forward to bringing my energy to its perinatal vertical.