Why I Do This Work

In 2023, I almost died after giving birth to my daughter.  After birthing life, I almost lost mine. Unfortunately, for Black women in America, this isn't a rare occurrence. For me, this changed my life's purpose.

My pregnancy story wasn't typical. As a 36-year-old Black woman, trained Postpartum Doula, and reproductive health advocate, I spent my entire pregnancy afraid that I was going to die. I was considered Advanced Maternal Age, most commonly known as a geriatric pregnancy.  This, along with a pregnancy riddled with issues exacerbated by the pregnancy, such as worsening asthma symptoms, gastrointestinal pain, extreme fibroid pain, and "morning sickness" that started in my second trimester and stayed with me until the end, weighed heavily on my experience. Through all of that, I had an overall healthy pregnancy that reached 40 weeks and 2 days, and I gave birth to my beautiful daughter at 5lbs 11oz.

I wish I could say my postpartum period was better, but it wasn't.  Not only did I develop postpartum pre-eclampsia, I also became anemic due to the excessive bleeding that occurred after birth from placenta that was still left in my womb. I had countless visits to regulate my care with midwives, OBs, PCPs, a neurologist, and a hematologist. It took over a year for me to get my health back to some semblance of normal.

Through all of that, from pregnancy and navigating maternity leave all the way to when it was time to return to work, the world around me kept expecting me to "be normal" and get back to business. This experience highlighted, in glaring red, that this world really didn't value women at all! That thought was the start of me re-branding my business to be for other women what I needed for myself during those vulnerable periods of my life.