 So hey Gems, I'm in the car driving because I'm heading to a little breastfeeding workshop that my aunt is having at her job and she asked me to be a speaker so I kind of want to document it. I don't know if they're going to let me record, I'm an actor but I'm just filming this in a joint case so I'm able to record. Y'all, I was trying to prepare last night like write little prompts so that I could have my thoughts together and in case I get nervous that you know I have a little need to stay, what I need to say but I fell asleep, I was so tired. I fell asleep, woke up with these damn index cards right on my bed and then this morning I have to get my boys ready, get the baby situated then get myself ready so like I am literally like Russian Russian Russian so I feel unprepared but I'm just going to speak from the heart you know tell my story, tell my breastfeeding journey, share my breastfeeding journey and see how that goes so if I'm able to record y'all don't judge me I am not good at public speaking but I love stuff like this so I want to like challenge myself to be more outspoken, outspoken, it's way different than just picking up a camera and running my mouth so and I don't think it's a big event or anything because it's literally at her job I think it's like a little workshop. I'm hoping that a lot of people are there, I don't know, I don't know what I'm actually literally don't know what I'm walking into I just agreed to do it so we don't see y'all anyways if I'm able to record I'm gonna show some of that if not I'll just come back on here and tell y'all how it went but I hope I'm not wanting to be there 10 minutes before 10 and it's 947 and these cars are driving so slow my goodness okay y'all I'm about to pull up to my aunt's job she works right off the waterfront is this a parking did I get lucky this is perfect okay I'm here oh shit let me let me park better okay I'm here is 953 so let me run inside so she don't tell me I'm too late I'm excited but I'm nervous okay so I'm a mom of three a one year old a two year old he'll be three next month by here a little backstory on who I am um my profession I graduated from St. Croix educational complex out of tutorials like Barry to get my bachelor's in accounting then I went to Liberty University to get my master's online I worked in accounting for a little bit but then I got pregnant with my first son I was living in Florida and that was it I moved on to other things and wonder what is what actually led me to my passion and accounting just wasn't it so from there I became a certified yoga instructor a certified doula a certified wound wellness specialist and I'm working on my only steaming facilitator certification can I know what's a wound specialist a wound wellness specialist so I pretty much focus on women's health from a holistic aspect so anything that anything that has to do with your wound care your uterus pregnancy just overall women's health and so there's so many different aspects of all life that affects a lot of women do not think about on a daily basis so I wanted to dive deeper into that I've been on my health journey for a very long time I've always been very health conscious and the more I learn the more I implement those things into my life so I want I wanted to be able to share with other women what I've been doing in my journey to help them and um through that because I live my life from a holistic aspect I started digging into herbalism as well so in short why I say that motherhood led me to my passion is because I decided to start my own business so I'm the creator and owner of gem statistics I make natural skin care products hair care products baby products as well as wound wellness products so um wound massage oils uh and herbal teas for like fibroids and metriosis picos um hormonal imbalance and fertility or all that so um life be happening so I have to shop for my business for a year and then last year I started back up and it's been going very well so what else yeah that's about it for me um this is about breastfeeding so I want to kind of more stick on that topic and for me personally breastfeeding has been not only beneficial for myself but of course for my children I've had three home births I've never had a birth in the hospital having having my child in the hospital was I was like foreign to me because of how I was raised my mom had me at home I've been surrounded by women who had babies at home I've only seen my mother and other women breastfeed so that's all I was ever exposed to in fact I don't even think I knew what formula was until I got older so not breastfeeding was never an option for me in my mind I have a baby I have a breastfeed that was it so when my first I didn't really experience any challenges breastfeeding so when my first my milk came down strong like it was so much that I was getting involved that I had to come to just get something and when that happened like you know I did the work impressions massages and then come to just get some release and then I was able to freeze that but I never had a moment where it was hard to breastfeed or I was experiencing like chap nipples and it was painful now what I would say is one of the things one of the benefits of breastfeeding that we don't even think about is it helps contract our uterus back down to its normal size so when you're breastfeeding and you feel that pain I don't know if any of you have experienced that you feel that pain that's your uterus actually contracting back down to its normal size so although it's painful it's good you know and you know that only lasts also long it's not until last forever so that's one benefit for your room health as it pertains to breastfeeding another is when we're pregnant our estrogen levels spike up which is normal because that's necessary in order to sustain a pregnancy once you have the baby your estrogen levels stay risen but when you're breastfeeding it continues it starts to lower so breastfeeding actually helps regulate your hormones after you have the baby so that's good for postpartum health so a lot of women we experience postpartum depression like you're emotional you don't know why or anything and now there's a lot of aspects that triggers that but one of the things is the unbalanced hormones in our body and breastfeeding helps to regulate unbalanced all of that um another thing about a lot of I've spoken to a lot of women who have challenges breastfeeding and one of the things that I started looking more into is the difference between women who have who give birth naturally and vaginally versus those who either get an epidural and have a c-section now like I said I do everything from a holistic standpoint I do not judge anyone for their decision but I always look at cause and effect and what's their group of issues so a lot of women who undergo a c-section are prone to have difficulties breastfeeding because our body is so intelligent that our womb is connected to our brain so if the baby comes out via c-section it doesn't send that signal to our brain that will just be burnt so now your body isn't producing milk yet it's not it's not starting that process because when you give birth vaginally there's actually a chemical that's released that sends that message to your brain to say okay you just had a baby now it's time to start working on that milk so that is why a lot of women who perhaps their babies via c-section initially would have that difficult start in breastfeeding and feeling like oh my god what am I doing now what to do and the first thing the hospital is going to do is say how a parent give them the formula. That's like being a youth author because I also feel like if you do that you somebody's not naturally going to do it. Exactly so now you're that's that's what I was going to say too so now if you're induced or even have an epidural it shuts down everything so now the communication between your womb and your brain has stopped. And that's why I support and like advocate for natural birth. Now I'm not saying if you're high risk or have difficulties that is an actual emergency that don't do what you have to do but that is why preventative care is always the best care and that's where nutrition come in that's where your lifestyle comes in and from experience I could tell you that I ate the healthiest with my second son. I'm vegan on campus but you could be vegan and unhealthy let's get that straight so like with my first son I would eat a lot of processed vegan stuff and like because I was having such a hard time mentally with that pregnancy that I wasn't really focusing on what I was eating and how I was eating but my second I was already transitioning into like I did the doula stuff and you know I was doing more research I had not experienced postpartum so you know I'm digging in to see why did I experience this what is going on so my second son I was more aware and more educated and I ate very healthy my second son and I to this day could tell you the difference between both of them. My first son he liked a lot of junk like he wants the chips the crackers the vegan pizza and all of that my second son he would eat fruits all day he would just one after the next he'll eat all the fruits I have to like write my personal into even fruits my third pregnancy wasn't the healthiest in terms of eating wise but that was because of issues beyond my control but that alone shows again the difference between how I was eating between offering pregnancies and how big came out to me because my my one year old right now he's still breastfeeding he exclusively breast feeds and I personally exclusively breastfeed up until one because the baby's digestive system cannot handle anything but breast milk up until one and after you give birth that is still developing so a lot of times we um by six months or whatever we want to start giving them baby food or even look right here and look their digestive system is being shocked and it then turns into getting issues like they're throwing up a lot and even if you don't even see no symptoms right then and there in the long run you can start to see those things because remember the digestive system is still developing turn out to have like gut health issues in the long run so for us just to stay on the safe side I always exclusively breastfeed for a year and then after a year and I start giving them fruits so I didn't give him anything in between like the breastfeeding for a year we just strictly breastfeed and it sounds crazy I know so my last son strictly breast no water no water they don't need water they're getting everything they need from the breast milk how you eat affects their sickness too because that's our next comparison between my son my first son would get sick quicker than my second son and even when both are missing the second one get well much quicker so when they get the cold or the cough or something knows it's not necessarily a bad thing because that's your body's natural response to fight whatever is trying to attack it is trying to get it out but it's how fast we recover is what determines the state of your health that's not enough six weeks is not enough time to recover from burns like it took you it took you nine months to take this baby there's no way your body is ready to enter back into regular life after six weeks but again that's how they designed the system and that is why when I became a mother like mentally I couldn't I literally switched my life around because I just mentally couldn't do that I could not just after three months go back to work I resigned from my job I was looking forward from home job I mean thankfully things worked out in my favor because I was so determined not to have to leave my baby so after getting to work from home job then I started my own business and I've never been back to a nine to five since from three babies later so I've been able to exclusively breastfeed and keep my children home with me I'm not saying it's easy but I know that it's best for them so I make that sacrifice you know as women we have so much on our plates especially when you're going through pregnancy and you don't have the support and then when the baby comes you still don't have the support and then you have to just do things that normally wouldn't really want to do because you're responsible for this new life is never done so I am like that's why I became a doula too because like my heart they're just kind of like melt a little bit when I see I'm pregnant woman like really going through it and no I'm support down here is different well because St. Croix the Virgin Islands does not support home birth deletion okay like you have a home birth you basically that say I just didn't make it to the hospital and I had my baby out with my daughter I stayed home until I was like six centimeters I went to the hospital it was like why are you staying home so long I just felt more comfortable in the comfort of my own most of the time I got to the hospital I was on six and that gives the hospital less time I didn't want to be laid down which is working against your body you should be able to move around walk around so I just got home a little while ago I was so busy rushing out the house that I forgot to bring my backup battery so as I was recording I don't even know how the clip look I don't know if I was in the frame properly I don't know if I was talking loud enough but at some point my camera died so whatever footage y'all see I don't know how long it is I don't know if I'm gonna keep all of it in but um okay what was I saying because I am not trying to stand here holding this camera my arms is tired I'm hungry about to go eat me some lunch but I was saying that at some point my camera died and whatever footage y'all see just know that's not how it ended but it was a great event it was very small and intimate and I enjoyed myself at the end of it I felt happy like full like joyful and it's just confirmation I'm always getting confirmation that birth work is truly my passion it is a labor of love for me and birth work is not just about being a doula and being physically there while someone is giving birth it's about sharing information being an advocate supporting in any way possible throughout pregnancy birth and postpartum and speaking at this breastfeeding workshop was part of that that is sharing information I was able to share my personal journey I was able to share information about breastfeeding from a holistic aspect because I'm always going to do everything I do from a holistic aspect I was actually kind of reserved about doing it because I know that I wasn't going to go in there with statistics and the medical side of breastfeeding and you know what doctors or these certified lactations the approach doctors and certified lactations would take because I'm not in I don't live from a medical mindset I live through experience through nature through doing things from a holistic standpoint so I was a kind of reserved because the workshop was held by wick the point of the matter is everyone was very receptive everybody was very engaged and I personally enjoyed myself I enjoyed talking to the pregnant mamas there and it's definitely something I would do again and overall it's funny that I even did this because one of the things that I want to start doing in the near future are holding workshops or seminars regarding womb wellness regarding natural birth because I really really really really want to start encouraging women to trust themselves to give birth naturally and possibly just at home because I've been hearing so many horror stories even the story about the young lady oh my goodness I can't even talk about it because I started reading the article and I just couldn't finish reading it listen I don't even know what to say about that story it just really like pains my heart like y'all stop having our babies in these hospitals they have medicalized birth they have turned birth into a medical procedure and it is not if y'all know what I'm referring to about the young lady who was given birth I think it was in Atlanta I believe the oh I can't even say it the words can't even come out my mouth because it's so disturbing and it makes me so upset anyways I digress I just hope to do more stuff like this in the near future I wanted to be able to be kind of a one-on-one vibe in a very small group a small setting to be able to educate women share information answer questions help them get rid of that fear that they have surrounding birth natural birth home birth breastfeeding and just doing things from a holistic aspect doing things in accordance to nature anyways I don't want this to be a long video I just wanted to come in here to wrap this video up and let you all know that the event was great it was successful and I enjoyed it and I am just truly blessed I'm grateful to be able to share my knowledge my journey and just overall information with people so that they can better themselves they can better their lives and it can help them on their own pregnancy birth and postpartum journey and as always to all of my melanated women watching protect your womb by any means necessary y'all when I say that I say it from the core and depths of my soul because I know what I'm saying when I say protect your womb how that woman had to uh how they how they handled that lady in that hospital while she was giving birth that is part of protecting your womb you don't want shit like that to be happening to you to all my melanated women out there protect your womb by any means necessary and to everyone watching protect your peace by any means necessary I wish you all love light and prosperity and you'll see me in my next video peace