Sumi's STORY

Fast forward to high school and early college years. I read books, watched documentaries and birth videos, and attended conferences relating to midwifery and reproductive justice and health. It was the one thing that never made me feel bored 😑. 

When I was in high school, one of my cousins got pregnant and we would ride to school together each day. I was so intrigued by witnessing her body grow and expand. Once she was about 7 months pregnant, the school told her she could no longer attend as to not “influence other students”. This was my first experience with reproductive justice and advocacy. I was enraged at the way this system saw her pregnancy as a pathological occurrence, as something negative, as “a bad influence”. I fought and fought and fought but ultimately the school won. I wanted to attend her birth soooo bad but I was told if it happened during school hours I couldn’t go. Of course she birthed within school hours so I couldn’t attend. 

A few years later, during my sophomore year of college, I supported a good friend of mine throughout her entire pregnancy. I was elated that she, being the first, asked me to be her doula. This was my first lesson in holding space: it’s not about you. I was so passionate and so immature in my journey that I expected her to do whatever I said. Prenatal yoga, meditate, plant-based diet, take a pic each week, don’t stress, unmedicated birth, skin to skin, exclusively breastfeed… and she did none of these things. Each time it was a jolt to my ego. I needed this experience. It refined me and afforded me self-awareness. I developed the mantra: “their birth, their baby, their body”. 

After that experience I began to feel more introspective in my calling. I relaxed and stopped trying to force my path… this is when everything fell into perfect alignment, or I got out of my own way so I could witness and acknowledge the divine unfolding..... a few years later I found myself in an office, skipping past over 400 internship examples, being asked to pick one as it was requirement for my year studying abroad in Ghana. The director of the exchange program couldn’t believe I wasn’t inspired by her Intentionally curated book of opportunities. According to her, people don’t usually make it past the first few pages. I understood how amazing the options were: teaching at a school, doing murals, agribusiness for disadvantaged women, sex trafficking prevention advocacy, and hundreds more. But the issue with each opportunity was that it wasn’t Midwifery. 

The director asked me, “What do you want to be? What inspires you?”. I replied with an assurance that left a long-lasting conviction until this very day: “I want to be a midwife” . She smiled and connected me with the clinical director of a birthing center in the heart of the bustling city of Accra. I went to introduce myself and see if I could Intern or at least observe at the birthing center. After several attempts, my passion grew each time, the Midwife finally accepted my petition. She asked me “So you really want to do this?”. Again, I responded with an assurance that still fans my fire: “Yes.” 

That year, midwifery became me and I became midwifery. I caught my first babies, palpated far too many bellies to count, educated people on how to best care for themselves and their babies, and reassured so many women that they could do it: the it was always changing. That was one of the most magical years of my life. I was walking in complete alignment with my purpose and I made an agreement to never do otherwise. 

Fast forward: I’m back in the US, freshly graduated with my first bachelor’s degree, and working as a doula and preschool teacher. I still couldn’t make ends meet so I began waiting tables, too. As if that wasn’t enough, I was also interning at a gallery, nannying for multiple families, and taking prerequisite science classes for nursing school.

All I could think about was midwifery. It was like each day that I wasn’t actively studying, I was suffocating. I eventually was put in contact with a midwife who was seeking a student. She had just moved to my area and hadn’t even been hired by a single person. We met and instantly clicked. We worked together for 7 years. During that time I traveled throughout the world often. I would spend about 6-9 months traveling and the remaining months I would work with her during home births. My experience level matured and grew rapidly from having such a variety of settings, clientele, cases, and socio factors under my belt. Early on I enrolled into midwifery school to achieve my license. I placed it on hold for a few years as I was traveling so much that I wasn’t home long enough to truly focus and finish.... I am now a certified professional midwife candidate. I currently support as a midwife assistant and practice under the supervision of a Licensed Midwife.