Start wherever you wanna start

[laughs] Well, okay.

So I am, um, in Tennessee on the farm, the infamous farm, and, yeah, I a- I always like to say that I feel like I was born into midwifery.

I was born out in the woods in a bus, an old school bus that was our parent- my parents' home at the time.

And before my parents came here, they actually lived in a little much smaller commune in, um, Colorado.

And so I'm the second child.

So my brother was born unassisted.

Love that

Um, h- but how do we ensure that the conversation d- doesn't lead to more division and more ossification, but in fact facilitates harmony? Um, that's, that, that, that's what my question.

Yeah.

That's a great question.

Well, I think first I, I wanna speak my definition of patriarchy, which so... 'Cause a lot of times I think it's a really charged word, and it's interesting because after, after, um, during the pandemic with the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, it became...

It seemed like it was becoming more and more comfortable for people to be, to hear the word white supremacy and not be like, "Ugh," and, like, freak out about it.

And what I've noticed is that patriarchy is, is more triggering that, when I say it, than, than white supremacy.

And so, and I think part of that is because it's, it's older.

So that's why it's important to me, I think, as well as stuff that I probably don't know about 'cause it's beyond my reach, you know?

Uh, what will we learn about you? Kinda give us a preview.

Well, you'll learn about my origins on a hippie commune in Tennessee, where I was born on a bus, and, um, my experience growing up around birth and midwives, and then deciding when I was 12 that I was gonna be a midwife myself.

And then I, I did become a midwife, and after I had one daughter and then another daughter, after the birth of my third daughter, I went through, um, a major journey through postpartum depression and anxiety that completely changed the nature of my work and the direction of my work, and that was when I founded Motherfly.

So I went from being a midwife in the traditional sense to becoming more like a midwife of the spirit, a midwife of transformation, uh, for mothers, and really discovered firsthand, through my own experience, how much mothers are struggling and, um, how much support they need and how important maternal wellness is, because ultimately, if moms aren't well, nobody's well.

What would you do if you were listening to this podcast, what, 30 years ago, and you were in the beginning of this journey? What would you say to yourself?

Well, I said this in the episode, and I think it's appropriate now, so I'll say it again.

Um, this is something that I want every mother to take in and that I needed to hear.

I wrote it when I was still in my depression.