Waltham native Cynthia Maloney has had a lifelong fascination with birth. Starting in childhood it culminated in more than a decade of work as a doula, someone who is trained to give support before, during and after childbirth. Now a 50-year-old grandmother, Maloney has dedicated her life to a topic centering on birth, trauma and ethics: opposition to male circumcision.

In the past ten years, Maloney has traveled across the Northeast and even across the Atlantic Ocean to join the growing movement fighting for foreskin.

“To me, it’s the number one human rights violation in the United States today,” Maloney said.

Reaching this point has been a lifelong process, according to Maloney. She said as a child she wasn’t satisfied with the answers her mother gave her to her questions about childbirth. After reading up on the subject, she would up with more questions than answers. One day in high school, two midwives came into one of her classes to talk about their careers. After that, a lightbulb went on in Maloney’s head.

“I realized ‘oh, this is what I wanted to know about’,” she said.

Maloney had two children, a boy and a girl, both by natural birth. One of those births was assisted by one of the midwives who came to her high school class and was a friend of Maloney’s until her death a few years ago.

After working in daycare and the biotech fields, Maloney became a doula, a position that is more focused on love, care and support for parents than being a midwife, according to Maloney. She became a full-time doula in 2005 and had generally encouraged new parents to stay clear of circumcision.

But when a couple asked her about a study in Africa that said circumcisions can prevent the spread of HIV, Maloney began to dig deeper. She found many places online where the results of the study came under scrutiny and began to read more about the ethical and moral debate around circumcision.

She said in her research she, “hit that ‘obsessive epiphany’ where you just keep reading and you can’t stop. And the more I still read about it, the more I think, ‘How can people still be doing this?’”

Around that time, Maloney also discovered the group Intact America, crusading the nascent cause against infant circumcision. Ten years later, the motorcycling-riding grandmother was named the intactivist of the month for September by the national organization and has traveled the world to support the cause.

Now a Watertown resident, Maloney sold her house in 2014 in part to dedicate more time to intactivism. She organized the first “foreskin pride” contingent in the Boston Pride march this past year and walked in both the Boston and New York city parades. She also became the first women to travel with the Bloodstained Men, an all-male group of anti-circumcision activists. She even traveled to England for the international genital autonomy symposium.

Now Maloney is hoping to transition to a more educational approach. She was recently certified by the Association for Perinatal Psychology and Health to teach prenatal education and will be holding a sex-positive foreskin class for parents at Good Vibrations in Brookline in November.

“Everything I’ve ever done, everything in my life, has led me to intactivism,” Maloney said. “My message is change in the culture.”