This one is hard for me to write and I want to acknowledge that first. This post requires a level of vulnerability and transparency that I’ve shied away from in business because I thought it made me look weak. However, I’ve come to realize that sharing my story and my journey is healing for me and it might just help someone else heal or gain the courage to share their story.

I’m Zetanefert, and I’ve been a doula for 15 years! When I came on the scene there were only a handful of Black doulas working in Chicago. It was hard to find community and even harder to find clients because many people didn't even know what a doula was and how I could help them achieve their birth vision. Nevertheless, I persisted. I worked as a solo doula before joining forces with another doula who I mentored.  Together with the goal of sharing a very unique offering to families in Chicago, we started a doula agency in early 2020 right before the pandemic hit. You see, I’ve had the privilege of traveling between America and West Africa for the past 17 years and in my travels, I learned about traditional pregnancy, birth, and postpartum traditions, rituals, and practices. We together brought this unique perspective into our work. Unfortunately we parted ways as partners and even as very close friends. During this time, I was also going through a divorce from my husband of 13 years, and for me I was essentially going through two devastating breakups at the same time. Both of which broke me, humbled me, and eventually transformed me. I often joke about my double divorce with people in my close circle as a way to continue to heal from a time in my life that I acknowledge “set me back” in so many ways.

So while you may have seen me still out here doing the work and sharing resources, ya girl has been at the same time rebuilding and restoring herself. And for those of you who know about doing the inner healing work, you know that’s not an easy task. Cause it seems like the world is passing you by. But in reality the world has slowed down to assist in your expansion and when your time comes, you will reemerge. Not as the same person but as an evolution of the old self.

Our Mothers’ Light Birth & Baby Village was created to be a beacon of light and hope in a society that has turned away from traditional and indigenous practices in birth. We have become reliant on a medical system that was built on the blood, tears, pain, and bodies of Black and Indigenous women. The system has usurped the knowledge of Black and Indigenous people, repackaged it, and when we try to access basic medical care during pregnancy, we are faced with the possibility that we may not return back to our families. Black women are 4x more likely than our white female counterparts to die from pregnancy, birth, and postpartum-related complications.

 You may ask, what do my travels to Africa have to do with this epidemic or how it solves the problem? The western world has become so steeped in its barbarism that is has forgotten the basic principles and tenets that make us human. And it has surely forgotten how to honor the feminine essence and the blessing of childbirth. While the Indigenous Black communities throughout Africa have maintained and protected this sacred knowledge and wisdom for millennia. Its authentic application has the ability to shift the narrative as it allows us to take back control of one of the most sacred times in our lives- pregnancy, birth, and our postpartum recovery period. This is long overdue. Our connection to our Ancestors and their traditions that sustain us are a gift. And while this knowledge and wisdom is rooted in the Indigenous Black communities of West Africa its healing and spiritual wisdom has the ability to benefit anyone who heels to its beauty and magnificents. 

It is my honor and privilege as the founder and owner of Our Mothers’ Light to shine a light on the path of birthing people and be a guide that supports, educates, and heals.