Help me become a midwife

Hi! My name is Raichal and I am a student midwife in central Texas. My story starts out in the Deep South where I learned under the care of elder midwives the natural way the body gives birth. Where I am from they had no other choice because the hospital was so far away in most small towns. I learned to trust the process and their bodies and fell in love. Unfortunate for me it was not a regulated practice where I am from so I was not able to become a midwife. Coming to Texas I met lovely midwives who told me that there was a path to licensure here and after graduation from my university in sociology I started on my way to midwifery. 

It has been hard. It’s especially hard when the regulation of birthwork has also led to a deficit in birth workers of color and so a group of my peers for moral and emotional support has been few and far between. I’ve dealt with biased individuals who were not comfortable with a student of color and traumatic births that I witnessed both inside and outside of the hospital. I haven’t been able to work and have managed from side jobs, scholarship, and doula clients but now I am nearing the end and  need your help. 

I’m in currently in my Third Phase for the PEP process thanks to the help of two lovely midwives as well as working closely with a doula nonprofit in Austin, Tx to help all birthing people have access to birth education and physical/emotional support before during and after the perinatal period.