Suzi spent most of her life in New York, where she also raised her son. With her son is graduating college, Suzi resides in St. Petersburg, Florida. She worked in law supporting injured workers until medical complications led her to focus on her health. She then pursued training and certifications as an INELDA-certified end-of-life doula, certified breath coach, and Reiki practitioner. Suzi volunteers with a local hospice providing end-of-life doula services, respite care, and Reiki work. She also runs Freely Be Doula.  

The Black River: Death Poems

Edited by Deirdre Pulgram-Arthen

The Black River: Death Poems is an anthology of poems for people who are grieving and for use in death rituals. Sixty-nine authors from eight countries have contributed to this anthology of 149 poems grouped into four stages: dying, death, remaining, and journeying. The poems are heavily indexed: by relationship to deceased; by suggested use in ritual; and by theme (memory loss, pregnancy loss, long and short illness, hope, acceptance of death, and violence, war, and suicide). Edited by Deirdre Pulgram-Arthen, an experienced death midwife, counselor, and death ritual leader, this book is nondenominational and brings together contemporary poets writing on the many stages of grief and death.

INELDA Educator Wilka Roig is embarking on a death awareness tour in the land of her birth, Puerto Rico. The 2025 Death Awareness Tour is a community project that seeks to transform the relationship we have with death in Puerto Rico. Through workshops, discussions, and educational activities, she will facilitate the creation of safe spaces to talk about death, grief, and life transitions. The goal of the tour is to contextualize death, promote community care, and empower people with tools to prepare to face it with dignity and humanity. INELDA is happy to sponsor and support this tour.

Jill Hoefgen, a graduate student in the art therapy psychology department at Dominican University of California is conducting research for her master’s thesis. She is requesting a few doulas, who have offered doula services for over a year, for voluntary participation in her study, titled Death, End-of-Life Doulas, and Art: Exploring Connections Between Death Competency and Art Making.

INELDA relies on public support to meet our annual budget and continue providing educational and community programs, scholarships, and advocacy and outreach to expand the presence of end-of-life doulas. Help INELDA meet its mission and transform end-of-life care with a monthly gift of $5, $10, or more.

INELDA is sponsoring the Mountains of Courage conference in Bozeman, Montana, this upcoming March 29. Mountains of Courage is a volunteer group of community members who are touched by the human experience of death and dying. The history of the conference is rooted in a group of interested people who came together in 2011 to explore how they could help shift the current paradigm around this very human and challenging subject.

INELDA is excited to offer volunteer opportunities for our upcoming in-person training events! Volunteering is a meaningful way to give back, connect with fellow doulas, and support the transformative work of end-of-life care.

Santa Fe, NM: March 27–30

Austin, TX: April 10–13

Art of Living Retreat Center, Boone, NC: April 30–May 4

Santa Rosa, CA: June 5–8

Omega, Rhinebeck, NY: July 6–11

Lake Forest, IL (Chicago/Milwaukee area): July 31–August 3

INELDA’s director of communications and partnerships, Loren Talbot, wrote a piece that was featured in CMSA Today, the magazine for the Case Management Society of America.

We will discuss the complementary roles of doulas and funeral directors in providing compassionate and comprehensive end-of-life care. Join us to learn how to foster successful collaboration that benefits both the funeral home and the families served, creating meaningful and personalized end-of-life experiences.

Jackie Naginey Hook is a spiritual director, celebrant, and end-of-life doula whose work helps people find hope, healing, and wholeness at Koch Funeral Home in Pennsylvania. Amanda Marie Ellis King is an embalmer and funeral director holding licensure in multiple states. Both guests trained with INELDA. The webinar will be moderated by INELDA educator Kim Stravers.

Someone recently asked on INELDA’s private Facebook page how to find clients. I started just walking into churches and talking to the pastors. I also visited funeral homes, nursing homes, hospices, and senior centers. I passed out a brochure, and that easily led to conversation. The conversations were always really amazing, and the people were so excited. It gave me a lot of energy too.

—Annice Barber

Peacefully is an all-in-one platform designed to help families plan for the future and expertly settle affairs after a loss.

They understand that after a death, families carry a massive administrative burden, which can make a difficult time even harder. Peacefully helps families prepare for end of life (gather info on how to care for dependents, financials, etc.) and handle bureaucratic tasks after a death (cancel utilities, deal with online accounts, plan a funeral, etc.).

The case of Lauren Richwine—the Indiana end-of-life doula who has been in a legal battle with the state since receiving a cease and desist order mandating that she stop discussing funeral concerns with her clients unless she obtained funeral-specific licensure—has taken another turn.

As of INELDA’s last update, Richwine had filed a lawsuit in federal court on First Amendment grounds. Since then, the U.S. District Court decision has reinforced Richwine’s First Amendment case, meaning that she could continue to discuss funeral planning with her clients without obtaining funeral director or funeral home licensures.

An estimated 6 million people in the United States live with dementia—a number that researchers expect to skyrocket in the coming decades. By 2060, a million people each year will develop the condition, according to research recently published in Nature Medicine.

The research team, led by epidemiologist Josef Coresh of New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, predicts that 42% of people 55 and over in the United States will develop dementia, a figure that’s roughly double the conclusions drawn by other teams. The revised estimate is drawn from a more diverse population sample than previous studies and uses a broader array of methods, including hospital records and phone calls to participants.

Recent research published in Cancer shows that having an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) may lead to more aggressive end-of-life care in older cancer patients. While only 6% of the people included in the study—all of whom died from cancer between 2005 and 2016 and were age 66 or older—had an ICD, the shared risk profile for cancer and heart disease indicates that health care professionals may want to conduct further study.