Apparently Money Makes You Smarter

Can I just rant for a minute? I am currently working with a lovely young Somali mother, expecting her first baby, that came as a referal through Open Arms--a wonderful local program that provides assistance (including free doula care) to low-income women. I am ranting about neither her or the program. Yesterday I had a meeting with her, and the first thing she wanted my help with was some paperwork she had from her insurance company for a free carseat. What a nice thing, I though to myself, she won't have to rely on hand-me-downs with questionable safety left in them. Then I began to read the paperwork, and oh-jimminy did it get my dander come up.
It seems that, it the eyes of the folks who give aide to the less fortunate, having little money means you must be stupid. If you aren't stupid, then of course you'd be able to get a great job and earn lots of money, right? She had to take a test on car seat safety. This test was ridiculous. It wasn't that car seat safety isn't important, I'm a self-proclaimed car seat Nazi, it was the way everything was worded, and the way the paperwork explained itself-it all sounded so demeaning, like a kindergarten teacher explaining to her class how to cross the street. What made it worse was that it was NOT easy to understand-I couldn't help with a couple of the questions, as they made no sense to me (the car seat Nazi) and the "study booklet" held none of the information the quiz asked about. Since my client is an immigrant, her English isn't fantastic-she speaks conversationally well and reads fine but couldn't make heads or tales of this packet. I couldn't blame her. So here we have a perfectly intelligent person being treated as though she isn't (because of a language barrier) and being further convinced she isn't by her inability to complete the test that says she is because its so stupid. Got that?
And none of what she had, in my opinion, would help a person use a car seat safely. She needs to be shown how, in person. I realize making copies of a pamphlet is much cheaper than holding classes, but when we're talking about the safety of babies (and well-educated, affluent people are just as likely to hook their car seats up wrong, I've fixed more than a few, so they sould be going to these classes as well) shouldn't it be worth a little face-time with the "car seat safety technicians" the booklet talks about, but doesn't explain how to contact?
At least for this one woman, she has me (ah-aaaah-aaaaahhhhhhhh-that's the heavenly choir singing my praises), and I will make sure she knows how to use a car seat. But that doesn't help the countless other women being put through this ordeal. Having a baby can make you feel so helpless all by itself, no one needs the added "hey, we think you shouldn't even be having this child because you don't have enough money, so that must make you dumb" approach to "helping" women in need.
This is one of the many things I really love about being a doula-doulas just do it. It doesn't matter a woman's circumstances, what has or doesn't, what she knows or doesn't, all that matters is that she is in need of the support of another women, and doulas give that with no reservations. A birth is a birth, and deserves to be respected and cherished. Period.