Who Am I and Why Am I In This Work?

I have always had a passion for helping others. Growing up, I was the friend that others confided in with their troubles, and I offered what guidance and advice I could for them. I found a love for working with athletes in high school and pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Athletic Training and a Master’s degree in Public Health. While I enjoyed my work, I often felt limited by what I was capable of offering due to procedural, policy, and legal limitations.

I got caught up in a whirlwind relationship that led me down the destructive path of drug addiction and domestic violence. As traumatic as this period of my life was, it has been integral in my growth as a person and on my spiritual journey. Sometimes you need to stray far away from where you are going in order to find the right path back to yourself. When I left that relationship and that phase in my life, I was in desperate need of healing. While 12-step programs are wonderful for some people, it just wasn’t what I wanted to do to recover from my substance abuse and abusive relationship. I stumbled upon yoga. Through yoga (and extensive individual therapy) I was able to start the long road to healing. Moving my body released traumatic memories and emotions and deepened a connection with my self that I had been neglecting for a long time.

Six years after my first yoga class, I decided to pursue yoga teacher training in 2017. As someone in recovery, I knew that if others in a similar situation to myself had access to yoga, it would immensely help them. Once again, I renewed my passion for helping others through a yoga practice. To me, recovery can mean many things. One can recover from a traumatic experience, an abusive relationship, substance abuse, divorce, or even a bad day. Yoga was a self-love practice that everyone needed, and I was happy to facilitate that experience for them.

Many years later, I was experiencing several issues with my menstrual cycle. I had been on the pill for many years which was prescribed to me in my teens to help manage my extremely painful cramps and heavy bleeding. I switched from the pill to an IUD because I was experiencing a lot of stagnant spotting, which was more of an annoyance than anything, but I longed to have a normal cycle. My experience with the IUD was not a great one. My body did not appreciate the hormones any longer, my stagnant spotting continued, and I was back to having painful cramps.

One day, I was randomly on social media when I saw a friend posting about the wonders of vaginal steaming, how it is an ancient practice, and how it could help with cycle issues. I reached out to her, had a consultation, and started steaming 2 days before and 2 days after my moon time. Within one cycle, I had radical results. My stagnant spotting didn’t show up, my painful cramps never occurred, and I had 4 beautiful days of fresh red blood for my moon time. I was hooked. I started researching vaginal steaming and sharing with my girl friends my experience. Much like with yoga, if it helped me, it can help others.

After steaming for a few years, I was encouraged by my friends to learn how to facilitate steams for others, which lead me to pursue a Peristeam Facilitator certification. During this time, I was introduced to more sources and research regarding traditional practices in women’s healthcare. I learned that doctors have only been delivering babies for the past 200 years and that they made it virtually impossible for seasoned midwives to provide medical care. I learned that there are many factors as to why steaming fell out of common practice like colonization, slavery, and religious efforts. I began feeling a sense of outrage at how these folk practices that work were being discredited in favor of a Western model of care that intervenes and interferes with a woman’s natural bodily function as well as disregards the safe and healing powers of natural herbs and remedies.

Around the same time as my vaginal steaming journey, I watched The Business of Being Born. I was shocked, though no longer surprised, at the Western medical model for pregnancy and childbirth.

After learning more and more about childbirth, I vowed I would NEVER give birth in a hospital and started looking at ways that I could support women during their pregnancy and birthing experience. I did not want to go back to school after 6 years of college so I discovered the role of a doula. After much research and reading many books, I felt that being a doula was the next step for me on my holistic healer journey.

I feel that women need someone knowledgeable to support them during their pregnancy, birthing process, and postpartum. I want to be the person to advocate for a mom’s wishes during her birth experience to avoid any unnecessary interventions that she does not want. I want to offer encouragement in those moments when she feels unsure if she can keep going and remind her that her body was built for birth. I want to offer women knowledge of how they can enjoy their birth process instead of dreading the “painful labor” that is all too prevalent in our culture. I think the best way for me to be able to do all of these things is by further educating myself on the Wise Women that have come before me. Our ancestors were so knowledgeable about pregnancy and birth, and I want to honor their memory and the sacrifices they made by helping revive these sacred practices.