Yes. Our organization is deliberately focused on growing sustainsble solutions for underrepresented childbearing families.
Yes. Our organization is open to supporting the wellbeing of ALL families through the primal continuum of human development.
Yes. Our organization does welcome Non-POC to work with us in alliance for the creation of sustainable solutions that heal the wounds of the past, improve communication in the present, and impact the quality of life for future generations.
Today is December 29th, 2019 and we have made it through a very interesting year. So much so… that we are more excited about the next (10) years.
Building a legacy is a slow process.
Our motto is:
We Grow Humans…
Cultivating a framework for valuation and sovereignty for the human family through healing justice.
You can help us further our mission with a contribution of any amount. Remember you still have time to make a tax-deductible donation to our organization before January 1st when you click the link below.
Now, I love an assertive person. Someone who likes to get the job done, and done right. But the idea that you have to work hard to get this done is more damaging than helpful- especially in the field of birth work. Okay, now don’t go get all worked up. It’s just not me. Science proves it. Researchers and scientists studying complex neural networks, resting states and active states of the brain suggest that during downtime our brains go into something called “Default Mode Network” (DMN). Earlier DMN was thought of to be useless. That it did nothing. Soon it was found that they were wrong. The DMN is now connected to having epiphanies, making better decisions, having a better memory and more creativity. Could you imagine how your work will be with better decision making? With more creativity? With better epiphanies (or intuitive nudge)? For those who offer birth work services like you and me, that is all that matters. Can we be more creative, more certain, more energized? If we can, we can win the world by saving more lives and time! I found this research a few years ago while studying for my NLP Certification. I was reminded in an email today that inspired me to ask myself the question: “How do I create more downtime in my life and still be prosperous in birth work?” This would eventually lead me to get creative. I needed a system that was not the basic 40 hour per week routine. So I created a system where I work only 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. That’s 20 hours a week. In that time, I not only run InTune Mother, but I also have a coaching/consulting business, and I am a homeschool mom of 4 boys, plus a board member of two maternal health organizations. It sounds impossible, but it is not. Let me be clear, I want to get this science down to working only 4 hours per week. Here are some of the principles I am using so I can craft this reality for myself. This will help you, too. The goal here is to get pass the bondage of job descriptions as self descriptions. You offer birth work to your clients. You are NOT a birth worker.
Principle 1: The Pareto Principle The Pareto principle states that“roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes”. Simply put, a few clients create more high impact results. What I found was that: If you take the 20% of clients that seem to create the most high impact results, you’ll still end up trying to facilitate too many services. What we must do is go deeper and find the 20% of this 20%. Essentially finding one or two services that make the most impact in your work. This should help you find a few sets of services that you need to focus in on.
Principle 2: Parkinson’s Law Parkinson’s law states that: “work expands to fill the time available for its completion”. That means if you assign 2 hours to do something, it will take 2 hours. If you assign 20 hours, it will take 20 hours. That would mean if we could assign a set time to serve a client we will tend to complete it in that time. This principle is a little fickle. It doesn’t work all the time. But it does work most of the time.
Principle 3: Deep Work Cal Newport wrote a book called “Deep Work”. In summary, the book argues that if you assign dedicated time to something, you’ll be more likely to create better quality work over a short period of time vs the same quality of work taking longer time if you are constantly interrupted. This means, if we can find a way to be uninterrupted, we can create phenomenal outcomes over a short period of time.
Here is where the magic happens: When you use these three principles while understanding the requirement of downtime in your life, you would realize: You can find the key clients, schedule them in your calendar for a specific block of time, in a place where you are uninterrupted and surely you can get your services done in the delegated amount of time, with much higher quality. This can then create more downtime or free time for you in REAL LIFE.
Here is the glitch in our plan: Often, when we create free time in our lives we end up wasting it on social media or watching television. I’ve made this same mistake. The secret to really being able to use this free time as FREE TIME. This is the time to schedule day to day lifestyle routines at that you normally neglect. Like, doing laundry, loading the dishwasher, or even taking a nap. You get where I’m going. Now let’s flip the script… My question for you is: How are you creating “downtime” or “free time” in your life as a person who offers birth work services? Share your own strategies here.
This year we did a lot at The TIM Center. Our goal was to present our body of work and our purpose to the community in a way that they could understand. Our vision is clear. To serve the underserved and under informed childbearing community– beginning with the African American/Black population.
We chose to use various ways to express our concern professionally and socially to the community. Out of all the work we put into 2017– our overall impact was sound and well received. For this we are thankful.
This year we strive to expand our holistic approach in such a way that the community learns the value of culturally centered perinatal wellness.
Our vision is simple. Teach the community how to catch more than babies… But teach them how to thrive in doing so. Beginning with their living environment, their eductuain, their employment, their economy, and their empowerment.
As much as we would like to see everyone in the community utilizing our support services, we are aware that many will choose otherwise.
Our health promotion campaign is designed to support self-direction to childbearing families through the perinatal period.
How can we help you and your family become engaged and empowered through holistic self-care and overall wellness in 2018?
Today I want to talk about fashionable things that can actually cause your uterus to be in the wrong place and how we can help you repair that through simple acts of self care.
I will be the first to say that, “I LOVE A FLY PAIR OF HEELS.” The only part of that is, when you know better you do better. So in this article, I am going to break it down to you as to why, wearing stilettos affects our reproductive health. Growing up as a little girl, I could not wait to be able to wear high heel shoes. My mother had some of the baddest shoes you could imagine. Back in the 70’s and 80’s– My mom had these bad brown leather heels that I could not wait to inherit.
My second favorite pair were the red studs, with the metal heel. I wore those around the house to practice in on a regular basis. She didn’t wear them much, as they went with a special outfit. You know how that goes–
So now that I have taken you down memory lane, let me bring you back to present time. As I grew older, you can imagine that I fell right into my mother’s footsteps. Mind you I was ultimately a Tomboy girl– I liked Timberland boots and Nike’s. It was not until I got into my senior year of highschool did I start wearing “platforms” and “wedges.” Eventually I graduated from the little girls club, to the big girls club, where sexy shoes were a must.
I was all of 21 years old when I purchased my first pair of “high heel” shoes. I was a dancer so it was easy for me to learn how to balance in 4″ heels. I NEVER got into 6″ heels… I knew my limits. But before I knew it, my limits were already affecting my reproductive health. My body was changing. I had fashionably shifted my uterus out of position. This resulted in harder menstrual cycles, possible fertility issues, and other functional issues in my female anatomy and physiology.
Think of it like this: The pelvis is like a bucket for the internal organs. Everything has its own space to operate and function. When your pelvis tips forward, your organs end up resting on one another and you end up mashing them. This can slow down the gastric function, lead to menstrual dysfunction and can ultimately impair fertility.
The problem is that heels, if they are over five inches high, force the woman wearing them to adopt an “unnatural posture” which can prevent them from conceiving and experiencing a normally functioning reproductive body.
While most women are aware of the risk of developing back, foot, ankle, and knee problems from wearing high-heel shoes, they do not equate to effect this fashion trend has on their abdominal function. With heels getting steeper and steeper, your pelvis has to tilt forward to accommodate the imbalance. This kind of posture distortion affects every system in the body including the uterus and the reproductive system. Thus, when the abdominal wall has been repeatedly thrust forward, the chances of conception goes down.
Concluding Thought
I know that this is a lot to accept, but my team and I are not here to try to convince anyone to heed the warning of wearing what is deemed as sexy and/or fashionable in today’s society. Our goal is the give women more options and one is to try to avoid wearing high heels as much… And if you MUST… kick them off as often as possible… because being cute is not worth the risk…
I have been in the womb wellness field for 13 years and now I am offering my wellness services to others in my private studio in Midwest City, Oklahoma City. I also offer Skype or Google Hangout sessions and can teach you self-care/self healing techniques you can do on your own, if you can’t find a practitioner in your area.
As a Black/African American woman, with too many names to classify over time– I have finally come to grips with a conclusion as to why we are working so hard, but the hard work is not payin off. I wanted to write this really to the point blog post about it, yet it was much easier for me to “reclaim my time” by researching what others were saying– that validated my own personal and professional opinions.
An article written earlier this summer in the Washington Post headed: Report: Black women are working hard but ‘our country is not working for them’
I was drawn to the fact that there is so much research out there to see where or where not Black women are able to keep up within today’s ever evolving societal shifts. The opening line read:
A new report about the nation’s black women paints a familiar portrait of a group that is working hard on many levels to achieve the American Dream but is still falling short.
That hit me pretty hard. The first part that stumped me was the wording the writer used to tell her story– the nation’s black women paints a familiar portrait– It immediately made me think of how often Black women are socially identified as cold, hard core, and incapable of feeling pain- at least in the portrait of this nation.
I also began to question my own work ethic. The level of self care I promote to others that I often neglect for myself. It makes me stop to think of how often Black women engage in such behaviors that are unhealthy trying to thrive in a country that is not designed to support such ambitions.
Then I thought about the images that we often paint for our children. Showing them how hard we go for them to have the best opportunities. The best new fashion trends and electronic trinkets… Regardless of a father being in the home. Then when we do have a dual parent household, if there is any lack of partnership, children learn how to wallow through disfunction in order to lead a life of pseudo sustainability.
I know that I said, I was going share with you about an article I found… So here is the next segment.
Black women vote at high rates, have made significant improvement in earning college degrees and are succeeding in opening their own businesses, according to “The Status of Black Women in the United States.” Yet they continue to be underrepresented in elected office, earn less than white men and women and are twice as likely as white women to be incarcerated, the report says.
“They have all the makings of what should be success, yet their contributions are undervalued and under compensated,” states the report, released this week by the National Domestic Workers Alliance. The report was prepared by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a nonprofit organization affiliated with George Washington University.
The report’s findings are similar to previous studies on the state of black women in the country, including a widely discussed 2014 paper by the Black Women’s Roundtable titled, “Black Women in the United States, Progress and Challenges.” It also noted that despite high participation in the workforce, educational institutions and the political process, black women are underpaid and underemployed, suffer at a higher rate from major illnesses and are vulnerable to violence at home and in their communities.
There are perks as well as opposition to being a Black business owner. There is more scrutiny within the community to get started. Often times it is harder to get loans.
TRUE STORY: I was once referred by a White associate of mine to a personal banker friend of hers to apply for a small business loan. I was nervous because I had be turned down before and was trying to rebuild my credit, yet at the same time needed capital to expand my business model. The associate made sure to inform me that she only had a 502 FICO score and was able to get $50K from this particular bank. I was like HELL YEAH! I had at least a 620 so we should be good! Our debt to income ratio was good and all was well, until we got hit with– We are no longer offering that program. I told the loan officer that we had been referred to him by my associate by name and this is how the story played out.
Loan officer: Yeah that was a special program that no longer exists.
Me: How long ago was this program terminated?
Loan officer: Almost a year ago.
Me: Oh, well that is great, because she just got approved for the loan a little over 90 days ago– What program was that?
He was dead faced.
Loan officer: — There is nothing that we can do for you here.
BINGO! We still have so terribly far to go_______.
Here are some of the key findings of the new report:
• More than 6 in 10 black women are in the workforce. But between 2004 and 2014, black women’s median annual earnings declined by 5 percent. As of 2014, black women who worked full-time and year-round had median annual earnings that were 64.6 percent of that of white men, $53,000.
• The number of businesses owned by black women increased 178 percent between 2002 and 2012, the largest increase among all racial groups. In 2012, black women owned 15.4 percent of all women-owned businesses in the United States. Yet nationwide, businesses owned by black women had the lowest average sales per firm, at $27,753.
• The share of black women with at least a bachelor’s degree increased by 23.9 percent between 2004 and 2014. About 22 percent of black women over age 25 had a bachelor’s degree or advanced degree in 2014, a higher level than black men, but lower than other racial and ethnic groups.
• Nearly a quarter of the nation’s black women, 24.6 percent, live in poverty, more than twice the percentage of white women — 10.8 percent — the group with the lowest poverty rate among U.S. women.
• Black women were twice as likely as white women to be imprisoned in 2014 — 109 per 100,000 black women in state and federal prisons vs. 53 per 100,000 white women.
The report calls on government and other institutions, including nonprofit think tanks and philanthropic groups, to develop policies that provide higher wages and paid leave, improve access to health-care services, combat racism and sexism throughout society and push for criminal justice reform, both to protect black women from violence and to reduce their numbers in prison.
In conclusion of my thoughts– It is imperative that we learn how brainwashed many of us are to believe that we are not facing a dark component that reinforces white superiority, on a subconscious level that perpetuates lack of agency, while promoting destruction of a population just like in Colonial times.
Community-Based Workforce Innovation Program 