OUR STORY
Indra Lusero founded Elephant Circle in 2009 after midwives in their community urged them to go to law school and become the legal advocate that they needed.
In the decades since, Elephant Circle has continued to shape its mission, purpose and programs around the vision and needs of the families and birthworkers of our community.
We bring an intersectional, feminist, reproductive justice, design thinking approach to this work.
We are rooted in Colorado, but have national- and occasionally international- reach because we recognize our shared ecology like the elephants who inspired our name.
We believe that the harms that people are currently experiencing throughout the perinatal period are both deeply individual, and inevitably informed by cultural norms and structures of power that stretch beyond them, and often beyond state or even national borders.
The mainstream ecosystem within which people are currently building their families is embedded with discrimination and inequity. To counteract this, we must adopt a similarly ecological approach that activates local supports to provide holistic, consistent, and heartfelt care throughout the entire perinatal period.
This model requires, and depends on, deep community connections and a doula-like approach to direct services, regardless of the context.
We often say “doula is a verb” at Elephant Circle- meaning that, whether you are supporting someone through navigating their perinatal care options, through their interactions with the family policing system, or identifying potential accountability pathways, you can always place doula-like care and deep listening at the center and design your support around the articulated needs and vision of the individual.
While all of our programs place an emphasis on the perinatal period, the culture and way in which we carry them out is, too, a form of birth justice advocacy and innovation.
We do this through our three orbits of work:
