One week ago today, I attended my first birth. My friend’s sister was due on March 7th and reached out to me about two months ago inviting me to shadow her doula knowing I was studying to become a doula myself. I immediately accepted the offer and was looking forward to seeing how an experienced doula offers support to their client. When I am studying in my course and reading all of the materials, a lot of it makes sense to me. I felt like I would be very comfortable putting everything I was learning into practice and that a lot of it would come very naturally to me. However, I still wanted to learn how other doulas work, take notes on what I liked and develop my own way of working with clients.
Read more#GivingTuesday and Why I'm Supporting The Barrio Planta Project
After all of the crazy shopping and sales that Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday bring, Giving Tuesday is the last of the four days surrounding Thanksgiving asking people to spend a little bit more money or time for causes important to them. It’s a time to be thankful for all that we have, our health, family, a place to spend the holidays with people we love, and we can’t forget to always pay it forward in any way we can.
Read moreNot A Mama Yet Podcast: Episode 14
This episode of the Not A Mama Yet podcast features Green America’s Climate & Recycling Director Beth Porter. Beth is the author of Reduce, Reuse, Reimagine: Sorting Out the Recycling System and through her work she has helped thousands of individuals and businesses live and operate more sustainably. Beth has spearheaded many campaigns that identify the waste of resources and energy in varying sectors and has authored comprehensive reports of proposed solutions. She loves to help people find answers to their recycling questions and try new ways to reduce waste, which is why I wanted her on the podcast!
Read moreNot A Mama Yet Podcast: Episode 13
Episode 13 feels like a particularly special episode. I had the pleasure of interviewing Pamela Hunt. If you have heard of the book Spiritual Midwifery or The Farm in Summertown, Tennessee, you may have heard of her. In the 1970s, Pamela was part of a caravan of eighty school buses that went across the United States led by Stephen Gaskin. Stephen was a teacher in San Francisco when his writing class evolved into a discussion group that grew to have 1500 students in attendance each week. A lot of the hippies in attendance made up the caravan and their mission was to save the world! As women became pregnant and started to give birth during their trip, Pamela and a group of a few other women including Ina May Gaskin, Stephen’s wife, fell into the role of the midwives assisting in the deliveries.
Read moreNot A Mama Yet Podcast: Episode 12
I don’t remember how I stumbled upon Embrace Race, but I am so happy I did. If you are not familiar with it, it is a multiracial community of parents, teachers, experts, and other caring adults who support each other to meet the challenges that race poses to our children, families, and communities. We welcome your participation. I reached out to the Co-Founders Melissa and Andrew because I believe that while the work they are doing is invaluable for people who already have kids, people who don’t can still benefit greatly from their platform.
Read moreNot A Mama Yet Podcast: Episode 11
This week on the podcast, I am speaking with Carolyn Witte, one of the Founders of the Tia Clinic in NYC. At the Tia Clinic, you can get integrated gynecology, wellness and primary care under one roof and one health record. They hold community events, offer same week appointments, which can be super hard to come by in the city, and they provide you with a care team. Imagine a team of physicians and wellness practitioners talking to each other and understanding your health records together so they can understand the whole you. Everything about this clinic is game changing and I can’t wait to see it grow to become a household name across the country.
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