BY XYLINA WEAVER

Before I had kids, I was Plain Jane, or at least I tried to be. I pretty much went with the flow and landed in the middle when it came to most things. Being the middle sister, I had lots of experience with this. I was a good girl (mostly), generally main stream and I did my best to stay under the radar. I was not comfortable being different, though somehow, I knew I was.… READ MORE

The post From Plain Jane to Hypobirthing Henna Mom appeared first on BOLD.

I never dreamt about having children, no daydreams of me mothering, but I did always know that whenever I did have children I’d have a girl.

Well, I was wrong.

I remember the moment I was told I was having a boy and I said,

“Are you sure?”

For the second baby when I was told I was having a boy I demanded she circle the penis. She did. She even put an arrow on the screen with the word “boy” next to him.… READ MORE

The post The Empowerment of Men appeared first on BOLD.

Feel like deep in your bones you’re about empowerment?

Want to plant those seeds in pregnant mamas?

Like seeing mamas own their birth experiences?

Do you think of POWER WITHIN and tingle?

If so,you may be a great fit for BOLD Birth’s Facilitator Training Program.

We do empowerment.

You can check out our online training here.

Enrollment is one week only. ‘Till June 4th.

If you feel a YES, see you soon.

xo
… READ MORE

The post BOLD Birth Enrollment is Open (1 week!) appeared first on BOLD.

There is a place

where we know.

There’s a scent

that is only ours.

In an instant,

it’s lost. Found. Lost again.

Doors close.

Light fades.

We seek and we seek and we

Seek

to find ourselves

Again.

The knowing.

The scent.

Something we’ve been missing.

“What it felt like to be me.”

Home zone.

“I’m pregnant and I’ve been

very low

these last few months,”

she tells me.

“Lost my

spark.”

She naps to

Wake up.… READ MORE

The post Joyful Laughter appeared first on BOLD.

Lately it feels to me like empowerment is the “new black.”

You know, it’s fashionable to be seeking empowerment. Everybody’s craving their “Eat, Pray, Love” moment when they can finally take a deep breathe and be who they truly are (and always were).

As a community organizer for a decade when empowerment wasn’t so sexy I’m thrilled to see it making a comeback.

What does this mean for people working with pregnant women? It’s time to get thee some empowerment tools!… READ MORE

The post How to Teach Empowerment to Pregnant Moms appeared first on BOLD.

One of my favorite professors at Barnard was my Political Theory Professor, Professor Dennis Dalton.  HE WAS AMAZING!!!  He would teach in the first person, becoming Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Hitler, whomever he was teaching, to convey their thoughts and perspectives as best he knew how.  I actually got chicken skin and started crying as I sat in on his Gandhi lecture.  How often does that happen in a college class???
 
As a Gandhi scholar, he focused much of his passion on the power and brilliance of the non-violent movements.  … READ MORE

The post The Healing Activist appeared first on BOLD.

Last week I told the BOLD Birth Facilitators about a big BOLD dream I’ve had for a while. My activist heart was jumping up and down. I’ve been feeling this one in every cell of my body.

When I’m ready to push you will be the first to know.

I’ve been an activist since, I don’t know, probably birth. There was always an issue I was taking on, napkins I would scribble ideas on, bedtime stories I’d tell myself of how people can make a difference in the world.… READ MORE

The post creating big change requires big action appeared first on BOLD.

It was January 2010. I wanted to do something BIG to make change in my birth community. I had just performed in The Vagina Monologues and I kept thinking I wish there was a play like this about Birth Issues! So…I Googled it.  That is how this journey begins.

Fast forward 10 months later, I have Produced, Directed, and performed as LISA, in Karen Brody’s amazing play “Birth” It’s 2 am on opening night, I’m sitting in my living room across from Karen Brody feeling like I might be sick to my stomach.… READ MORE

The post A BOLD Birth Business Journey: The Herstory appeared first on BOLD.

In this excerpt from Cut, Stapled, & Mended: When One Woman Reclaimed Her Body and Gave Birth on Her Own Terms After Cesarean, Roanna brings us into the operating room, intimately sharing the cesarean delivery of her first child.

Now that it’s been decided, the uniforms leave, giving me the peace and quiet I had been craving. Ben cries. I do not. I am empty, wrung dry. Continuing contractions mock me. I want it over. I want the pain to go away.… READ MORE

The post The First Cesarean appeared first on BOLD.

The past couple of weeks have been a blur. Hospital emergency rooms. Camping out in room 610 for a week. Hubby with 103 degree fevers. Shaking. Every day a doctor’s voice saying, “It’s a mystery.”

Finally a diagnosis: my husband returned from Africa with malaria. We get the malarone. He’s going to get better. Life goes on. Kids. Work. But wait…

I’m exhausted. I kneel next to my meditation space and pray. Give me strength. Patience with my kids.… READ MORE

The post what it means to be ‘mindful’ appeared first on BOLD.