Dana Louise Raphael (January 5, 1926 – February 2, 2016) was an American medical anthropologist. She was a strong advocate of breastfeeding and promoted the movement to recruit non-medical care-givers to assist mothers during and after childbirth. She called such care-givers "doulas." The term "doula" (pronounced do͞olə; from Ancient Greek δούλη, a female slave) was popularized in her 1973 book "The Tender Gift: Breastfeeding." She also coined the term “matrescence,” the rite of passage where “changes occur in a woman's physical state, in her status within the group, in her emotional life, in her focus of daily activity, in her own identity, and in her relationships with all those around her” through new motherhood.
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