Our Story
DELIVERED is a story slam event featuring stories of reproductive health, from contraception to pregnancy and beyond. We feature stories from the full spectrum of experience and fully support the choices made by individuals facing reproductive decisions. Stories are crafted by tellers based on personal experience as participant / partner / provider or witness to reproductive health moments and told in 5 minutes or less.
Our teller line-up is curated to be inclusive of diverse identities and experience.
Fields Delmar is a performer and public health promoter. They are a family medicine physician who provides full spectrum reproductive health care.
Fields Delmar
As a medical student roaming the halls of a labor and delivery unit, Fields was amazed by the diversity of birth that occurred inside the walls of one hospital.
After discovering how physicians managed childbirth, they were left wondering why. Leaving the hospital, Fields spent 9 months digging into the data and reviewing the research of childbirth in the United States and beyond. Though they found enough information to fill several libraries, one fundamental conclusion was clear; the overwhelming force in our collective birth experience is culture, not science.
Out of curiosity, Fields started collecting birth stories from friends, family and strangers. They learned that where birth happened was more often due to chance or circumstance, rather than intention and choice. They witnessed the struggle of many birthing people to reconcile the distance between their identity and reproductive desires. They discovered the influence of empowerment on outcomes. Above all, they uncovered a rich history of pregnancy and childbirth- both its realization and prevention- and a thirst for community connection to these stories.
DELIVERED was born.
Erica Pike is a dancer and public health advocate. She is currently working with Vital Village as Communications and Policy Manager.
Erica Pike
As a trained dancer and a child & family advocate, Erica Pike has focused her career on the intersection between expression, activism, and the arts.
From her work at a birth center in Trinidad doing outreach at a shelter serving pregnant teens in Port of Spain, she learned first hand about health disparities and the clear differences between birth outcomes and experiences. Following her education in dance therapy & public health, Pike had yearned for a project that combined her passions for women's health, art and community organizing. She aspired to apply the art of storytelling to achieve an understanding of reproductive options and outcomes for birthing people and their families.
Returning to Boston as an AmeriCorps Member, she seized an opportunity to attend the American Public Health Association's annual conference in 2013. It was in the rows of the Maternity and Child Health poster section where Erica met Susie Fields.
DELIVERED proved to be the outlet she was looking for and since its founding in 2013, has left an impact on her and the Boston community.
Since 2013, Pike continues to bring strategic planning and project management skills to the DELIVERED Team.
Seema Bhakta is a public health professional and a medical humanities enthusiast. She currently works as a medical librarian in the Pacific Northwest.
Seema Bhakta
As a digital storyteller and reproductive health advocate, Seema Bhakta traveled over 3,000 miles in her quest to study maternal & child health.
As a college student, while pursuing coursework in biology and psychology, Bhakta volunteered in Central America where she witnessed the harsh realities of healthcare disparities. This trip inspired a passion for humanitarian work and science, ultimately leading her to pursue a degree in public health. During graduate school in Boston, she found herself immersed in fresh ideas and concepts and developed a passion for birth and reproduction. She recognized that reproductive health care in the United States had strengths and struggles, and wanted to engage.
While working in bookstores, assisting on qualitative research projects, and expanding her photography, Bhakta desired an opportunity to combine her enthusiasm for art and health with a focus on addressing reproductive disparities in the U.S. She discovered a local event showcasing birth stories which led her to meet Susie Fields and Erica Pike.