On the day Livia Marati was due to give birth, Typhoon Mawar barreled toward Guam. Anyone more than 36 weeks pregnant was instructed by the governor’s office to make their way to the island’s only hospital with their own linens and drinking water. Family members had to stay behind.

Marati, a 35-year-old CHamoru woman, ran worst-case scenarios through her head: What if a tree was blocking the road to the hospital? Or the power went out? “I called my doula just in case I needed to give…