Episode #25
Doctor and Trauma-Informed Care Educator
In this episode of Our Voices, Our Future, host Rhea Manohar sits down with Dr. Kelly Parker, DO, FACOG, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and the Director of Labor and Delivery and Section Head of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo, Ohio. A committed advocate for reproductive justice and health equity, she is dedicated to ensuring every patient receives safe, dignified, evidence-based care. Her commitment to equity took root early. In the early 2000s, she worked as a housing advocate for families facing homelessness and, through Boston Health Care for the Homeless' Healthy Start Initiative, worked to reduce Black infant mortality and researched postpartum depression. Since 2017, she has served on Ohio's Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review (PAMR). Her advocacy is also deeply personal. After the birth of her youngest daughter in 2023, she survived a near-fatal delayed postpartum hemorrhage, an experience that now informs her work at the intersection of personal perinatal trauma and the vicarious trauma clinicians carry. She also serves on the board of the United Way of Greater Toledo and founded PAWS New England, a dog rescue that places nearly a thousand dogs a year. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with her husband, three children, and dog. During this episode we talk about her journey to OB/GYN; how her own perinatal trauma changed the way she listens to patients; vicarious trauma in medicine and building a culture where clinicians can process it; what Ohio's Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review taught her about individual "bad outcomes" versus systems that produce inequitable outcomes; practicing through a reproductive justice lens; recognizing social and structural barriers like housing instability, racism, and immigration status; how her early housing advocacy shaped her career; using maternal morbidity and mortality data to drive change; and advice for the next generation of physicians. To learn more about Dr. Parker's rescue, PAWS New England: Our website: www.pawsnewengland.com Our adoptable dogs: www.pawsnewengland.com/adopt PAWS in the HBO documentary "One Nation Under Dog": www.pawsnewengland.com/hbo You can find more information about the work AMWA's Advocacy Committee has done and how to join their efforts here: https://www.amwa-doc.org/our-work/advocacy/ You can find more information about AMWA's Gender Equity Task Force here: https://www.amwa-doc.org/our-work/initiatives/gender-equity-task-force/ If you are interested in joining the group, reach out to getf@amwa-doc.org If you are interested in learning more about the podcast or being featured on an upcoming episode, reach out to our team at getf@amwa-doc.org If you are interested in joining the incredible network of women in medicine - join AMWA today at https://www.amwa-doc.org/ Thank you for tuning in to Our Voices, Our Future, we will see you next time!
