In our series finale, we have the honor to discuss motherhood through a holistic lends with Asha Bailey and Taylor Banks.

Asha is a wife, mother, daughter and sister. She is a lover of the earth, and she channels that through nourishing mothers and families. She believes that local, delicious, and nutrient dense food is vital to healing, especially from preconception to postpartum. She has trained with The Center for Sacred Window Studies as an Ayurvedic postpartum caregiver. She has also trained with Raeanne Madison’s Postpartum Healing Lodge where she learned postpartum healing from Anishinaabe and Mexika traditions.

Taylor is a wife and a mother of four. She discovered my love of birth work through the birth of my first son; however, nothing could have prepared her for the racial biases that she would experience during her first two births. Before her second child, she became certified as a lactation specialist to ensure her own personal success with breastfeeding which also became a tool to assist others. The birth of her second child was also severely traumatic - lacking appropriate support. When she became pregnant with her third and fourth children, she intentionally chose to give birth at home in my safe space. This birth was so healing and beautiful because, as she says, "it utilized my knowledge and intentional about every detail of what my birth would be." As a result of these experiences, she has become a full spectrum doula to be able to support other mothers and families so that they can be supported in ways that she had not been in previous births.

Together, their mission is for all mothers to be well cared for, well informed, and safe. Anything less is simply not good enough.

Asha and Taylor formed their friendship first as mothers and then as entrepreneurs and collaborators in The Village Birth Workers Collective and most recently, The Steamy Womb. Their holistic approach to pregnancy and postpartum is changing the conversation in the birthing community locally. It's an honor to have them join us for a look behind the scenes.