Join us for a captivating journey through the world of healthcare careers and the unique challenges faced in the birth world. In this episode, we dive deep into the experiences of two remarkable individuals who have dedicated their lives to making a difference in maternal health and beyond.

(0:10) Denise Bolds shares her incredible 40-year healthcare career journey, taking us from her beginnings as an x-ray technician to her current role as a doula in the heart of NYC. We explore the highs and lows, the triumphs, and the stigmas she encountered along the way.

(1:58) Doula Ravae steps into the spotlight, recounting her 22-year career in the world of birth work, touching on her involvement in politics and perinatal health. Ravae's personal journey takes an unexpected twist as she shares her transition from birth work to criminal defense law, showcasing the stark contrast between love and connection versus the chaos and sadness she has witnessed.

(5:56) As a doula trainer and mentor, Ravae has spent two decades supporting over 815 families in births and breastfeeding education. In this segment, she delves into the world of personal growth and entrepreneurship, sharing the wisdom she has gained over the years.

(7:26) Discover how Ravae is embarking on an exciting new venture, starting a perinatal health association, despite initial hesitations. Denise's unwavering support and encouragement for Ravae to take risks and try new things highlight the bond between these two incredible women.

(11:12) In our final segment, doulas Ravae and Denise engage in an insightful conversation about their experiences and insights in the field of birth work, discussing the controversies and leadership challenges they've encountered. They invite you to join their "girlfriend chat" as they openly and honestly explore topics related to maternal health, family, and the intricacies of running a business.

Tune in to gain valuable insights into the world of healthcare careers, navigate through stigmas in the birth world, and explore the remarkable journeys of two doula pioneers who are changing the landscape of maternal health.

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How to find us:

Ravae Sinclair @birthconnections and natlbirthpostpartumpros

Denise Bolds @BoldDoula and @blackwomendovbac

Website: www.doulathatpodcast.com

IG:@doulathatpodcast

Platforms: Apple, Spotify, Stitcher & Google

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

birth, doula, years, work, girl, Denise, conversations, healthcare arena, families, started, perinatal, podcast, babies, bounce, experience, libra, bonding experience, good, vibe, placenta

SPEAKERS

Ravae Sinclair, Denise Bolds

Hi, I'm Denise Bolds.

I'm Ravae Sinclair, and welcome to Doula That! Everybody we are here as is our first episode and we are letting you get to know us a little bit today. So we're casual, you know, I'm sure you're new to this. We're new to this. We're casual. We're just gonna keep it real. And so hope you have some fun with us today.

Yeah, thanks for being here. I'm so excited to be doing this with Rene. We're going to have a good time.

00:44

All right, so Denise, tell the people who you are. Run it down- run down to credentials run it down. Tell us what you've done.

00:52

oh my gosh. Well, you know, I've been in the healthcare arena now for almost 40 years, starting off as an x-ray technologist working in trauma. From there, I went ahead and got my social work master's degree, and did social work with case management for high-risk pregnancies for managed care organizations. I did that. And I kind of fell into this whole doula thing here for the past 10 years. And 292 births now. Um, so yeah, I've been I've had a very interesting career journey of doing so many different things, but it's always been focused on healthcare. It's always been in the healthcare arena. So I'm very comfortable in the hospitals and I'm here in New York City, one of the largest teaching venues in the world when it comes to medical sciences and diversity and things but you know, some of the same old stigmas and the same old things still exist here too. But yeah, I live right here in the heart of Manhattan. And I have one son who's 33 and I just I just love all stuff birthmarks. So, I'm certified as an advanced doula, placenta encapsulation, childbirth ed, and lactation, and I'm currently in school getting my doctorate degree because I have the book stuff.

I know I see you got the glasses on I was like, Okay.

Your eyes are like what are you doing? We just got lazy girl give us a break.

I know but like okay doc (soon-to-be doc), how are you doing all that? Reading and writing? Yeah. You forgot to tell them about your fur babies because I know they are listening.

Oh, she's right here at my feet. They're right here. My familiar Magic. He is right here. My big old Northern Norwegian boy all black, my little magician. And then I've got a little Siamese girl little dainty, rare thing named Maisie because she's amazing. And they just love the new york city life. It's a good life in my house being a cat. They get everything they want. So good luck

of your life. I want it. Awesome. Awesome. everybody, my name is Ravae I am a birth doula, postpartum doula childbirth educator, pluots placenta encapsulator, doula trainer, mentor, all that good stuff. And the new founder of the National Birth and postpartum professionals organization for perinatal health professionals. Super busy doing all things birth, and it's been a 22 year career that I'm super proud of. And much like Denise, I come from other places and spaces only to land in the birth world. In my previous life, my background is in politics. I worked on Capitol Hill for one of the senators from my home state of Wisconsin, and I've worked in nonprofit I run for public office. I became a doula 22 years ago, when people didn't even remember know what the word was, and I didn't either. And I really was trying to integrate this work into my massage therapy practice where I worked with pregnant and infant and infants for massage. And so I thought this was gonna be just like a little skill to add to the, you know, to the menu of services. And it changed me right, this is such amazing heart work.

What all did you know,

I didn't know girl, not at all. And I did the work very diligently as a small business owner and anybody who's on we're gonna talk business right on this podcast and everybody knows like, you kind of hit some rough spots. You start questioning yourself and doubting yourself and I was no different. And I started thinking, you know, maybe I need to consider a more serious career, something maybe more stable, brought in more money, something like that. And so I went on to law school and became an attorney and joined the public defender's office. So I was a criminal defense lawyer for the indigent, underserved communities in Milwaukee, my hometown. And I did that for a little around seven years. And I did you know, a little drugs, a little prostitution a little, you know, some gun cases, some homicide. I mean, like, I mean, what is it, you know, whatever. Let's make, let's make them prove it right. And so my advocacy skills clearly were honed, literally in the courts of justice in America or, and she's a Libra. So

this is soul talking to you right now. Justice, balance rule.

All of that. So, you know, I think the hard part for me was that I had seen love and connection through the birth work. And then I was operating and focusing on people's chaos, and some sadness and some hotspots. And I just made a choice. I made a choice after doing advocacy and pushing and pulling in a system that was completely broken. I was like, I want out. Uncle I waved the white flag. I'm like, get me out of here. 11 years. It was. Yeah, it was it was a lot. And so I went on to acquit went back to Washington, DC opened up my birth business, joined a couple of birth related boards, started training, doing breastfeeding education all around the country. And it's been a good life. It's been a wild ride. After serving and supporting over 815 families over all these 20 years, lots of babies lots of births, so grateful for every single one of them who have made me who I am today, as a doula trainer and mentor shaped my experience. And I am so grateful that I was allowed to be in this space with all of these families as they birth, you know, as they were growing and burdening their family. So it's a good life. And I live in Atlanta, Georgia. No kids, not married. No, for babies. Just me. Just me and my work. And my family's

going out loud girl living out loud.

I'm living out loud. It's yeah, it's a wild ride even that. So yeah, so that's me in a nutshell.

Yeah. I mean, you did a whole lot of stuff in a short amount of time you made a count? That's for sure.

Yeah, I did. And, you know, I'll keep doing it at all, we'll see what the what NBP turns into, and the work that we, you know, able to do on the advocacy side, in a real way. So I'm looking forward. I'm looking forward to this next phase. I feel like we had a pre COVID version of all of ourselves in our work, and now like a post COVID Because that pause, we all really change. Yes, we did. We really changed and so now it's like, okay, you are like in school to get

who would have thought that, but what the hell?

And I started back in school. Exactly. And I'm starting a perinatal Health Association, like who needs that, like, well, a lot of people need it. But I never thought I would be a founder of an, you know, an association like that. So yeah, so life changed us quite a bit.

Life has changed us quite a bit. And you know, I just like the fact that, you know, stepping out, and you know, people say that I'm a maverick because I just try and do things. I wrote a book for black and black moms raising their sons and daughters. I tried that. I tried just, you know, mentoring doulas. I've mentored doulas, just trying different things. I've always liked to say, Okay, let me just cross that off. I wanted to give that a shot and just give it a try. And I can say that I've done those things. And I'm really glad that I took the chance on me. And that's exactly what you're doing with the Association. This is a new venture, this is a new time woman, birth work is pivoted, and here it is, this is going to be really good. This is really this is going to be good. I'm looking forward to this.

I think so too. I'm looking forward to it. I don't have any one thing that it has to be, I don't have like a set thing in mind. So I'm just going for it. I mean, you know, this is the opposite of my personality as a Libra usually I want to know what's coming, you know, and I don't know what's coming, but I know, like there's work to do, I know that there's people who want to do the really good work. And so, you know, what COVID has shown me is like, you know, you get to attract different things and energies and so I'm just over here just you know, drinking my water wash, you know, clear skin around here getting some sleep, and you know, manifesting people who want to do this work in a way that is honoring of everybody's journey and yeah, we'll see what happens but this podcast is like one of the things that like, here's the thing ya Denise is my go to person, right for all the things all things birth, like when for debriefing, and also preparing for families and making business decisions, because it's hard out here to be a business owner and to be a birth worker. And so, what you all are going to what this podcast really is, what is our conversations, right? Like this is what? Yeah, we found ourselves constantly having these really deep conversations and we're like, that's, that's the worst is that that was the wisdom. And more than you and I, I felt like we more than US should hear it, like other people could truly benefit from hearing. So you guys are going to be privy to just girlfriend talk, like some of these conversations really coming out of our wisdom, like our experience in the birth world and what we wish people knew when we break down different scenarios, so we're really looking for we have some really great topics. The last 30 days, I feel like we've collected so many things. So much has happened in the oh my

gosh, it's just been what a summer this has been what everything 2023 This year seven lightning bolts.

Wow. Oh, yeah. I mean, we had athletes having babies, you know, famous people having babies and then bouncing back. You know, we got an opinion about that snapback. I mean, we've had, there have been some interesting conversations on social media that we've watched, and we're like, I'm wonder what you think about that, what you gotta say about that. And so, we're gonna have a few episodes where we actually do delve into some issues and things that we've come across. And we're going to open that up to some discussions. So we want you all to give us feedback, right? You know, right in, we're probably going to do some live call so that we can help birth workers who we just know are out here struggling in some ways, a lot of birth workers took some trainings and their trainers or whatever are nowhere to be found. And gone, just like magic overnight girl. And they're in a in a lot artists without leadership or guidance, I literally don't know where to go. So you know, we are mature in our I'm a seasoned doula for sure. But we're mature in our age. And so we're gonna be the aunties in some way to help God I got, you know, that some grades up in there to,

oh, I got plenty of that. I'm a little older than Bravais. So I've got plenty more than she has. But you know, Renee is definitely double the years that I've been doing birth work in in a different capacity. I've been doing birth work on the social work side. But Ravae has been doing all doula for over 20 years, I've been doing it for 10, and then counting my medical background. So I have a lot more of that. But we bounce off of each other very well. And we do it in such a fascinating way. We haven't known each other for a gazillion years, you would think we haven't No, really haven't known each other for a long time. We weren't friends ever until we came together under this one organization and started working on a board together. And we were acquainted. And then the stuff hit the fan here in 2022.

We had a bonding experience, right?

Very big bonding experience. Yeah, absolutely.

And I think those are the experiences that like really can create foundational friendships and, and bonding. And so well, I think what we're our hope is that we can show even through our own life, experience, our birth experience, how you can bounce back from some controversy, how you can find your path through that controversy, and also just glow up. I mean, you know, nobody's staying down here. And I think the main thing that we felt like was lost was black leadership on a bigger platform. And so we're gonna bring that forward and invite you into our girlfriend chat. We didn't name the podcast girl on chat, but that's kind of the vibe. So are you chatting

away? vibing away, it is the best way to be transparent. Gonna be upfront, we got something to say we're gonna say it. Yeah. either. You can take it or leave it.

There we go. Cuz Yeah, that part. So we're gonna, um, we'll dive into a couple of conversations and let you in. And then we'll also invite you in for some live chats as we kind of get our vibe going. But click like, subscribe and share so that more people can know about the podcast and you can support us and we look forward to let me in on some of our chats. We got something to say between families being violated the maternal health crisis, athletes having babies, people struggle Let in their business we got yeah we got something to say that's for sure

definitely have some tea to spill here definitely

okay so we'll see y'all soon make sure you subscribe bye