|
Roots & WingsI am a mother, childbirth educator, community organizer and naturalist. I have been teaching my Holistic Childbirth Prep Workshops for 12 years in the Bay Area and North Bay. I have attended more than 100 births, with a loving emphasis placed on working for high risk parents and babies, queer folk, and teen/young parents.
I came to birth because my work has always been to support people in harnessing their discomfort and discontent to use as a spring board for transformation. Birth is no different and it is one of our strongest allies for growth, autonomy and power. I believe that a pregnant person's autonomy and trust must be held at the same level of importance as their health outcomes, and that indeed, they can't be separated. Prior to birth work, I was a union organizer in public sector hospitals across California and I continue to use my skills as a community organizer to support my work in the world of reproductive justice. I co-founded the Bay Area Doula Project, the first full-spectrum (abortion, loss, adoption, birth) project in the Bay Area in 2011, and have created numerous storytelling forums for folks to share their stories about birth, loss, abortion and miscarriage. For two years, I curated an on-going column about full-spectrum reproductive experiences in SQUAT Birth Journal and my writing has been included in the anthology Birth Work As Care Work which was edited by Silvia Federici, Alana Apel and Loretta Ross. As a Certified California Naturalist and lover of our wildest interior and exterior landscapes, I want to bring forth the wisdom of our animal bodies to birth with confidence. I have partnered with Lara Sodergren, a Licensed Midwife, to create Wild Lands Pregnancy, a nature group for pregnant folks and doula trainings. I am happiest when I am with my daughter in the woods, taking photographs of mushrooms and forest life, or working with owls and falcons at the Bird Rescue Center in Santa Rosa. |
