Today we’d like to introduce you to Jodi Graves.
Hi Jodi, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I started this journey as a new mom just giving birth in 1998. I walked away from that experience feeling like I had no control over my body or what happened to me. I felt abused and mistreated by my doctor and wondered how the species could survive if this was how birth looked for women in the US. As if by some divine intervention, the word ‘Doula’ appeared in a magazine ad (there was no internet back then) and I started down the path to find out what being a doula meant. In 1999 I became a birth doula through an organization called ALACE (Association of Labor Assistants & Childbirth Educators) and started on my journey!
By 2004 and baby #2, I was so much more informed and felt like I knew what to expect! Except that I didn’t….and I spent what should have been a glorious, happy postpartum recovery period in a deeply anxious, depressed state that I could not get out of. Things were so bad that I was hospitalized for depression, without consent, and woke up in a psychiatric ward and had no idea how I got there. I will never forget the smell of that hospital….the bright lights…the patients all in various mental states, many unsure what day or even what year it was… I did not belong there. I was told throughout my stay ‘we have no idea how to help you, we have no experience with this type of issue, we are sorry you’re going through this but we can’t help you.’
After a period of recovery where I did a lot of sleeping (and hired the equivalent of a postpartum doula) and spent a lot of time loving on my family-I decided I had to do something positive with what happened to me. There were not many options for support after birth in 2004, or for many years after that, but I knew in my heart that something had to change. There was no way that the suffering I had done after the birth of my second baby, was going to be for nothing. And so…Michigan Family Doulas was born. Where we provide prenatal, labor, birth & postpartum care for thousands of families throughout SE Michigan every year. I am so proud of the work that my team and I have done in reaching so many families and helping so many women finally feel heard and cared for. THIS is how birth & early parenting is supposed to be!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road since that fateful stay in the hospital. But, after a period of recovery and rest (and no medication) I decided to take matters into my own hands to create my agency ‘Michigan Family Doulas’ whose purpose is to help women & families NEVER have the type of experiences that I had all those years ago. Of course there have been struggles! But, there have always been solutions too. I keep my shoulder to the wheel and just keep forging ahead, one family at a time. I am not the kind of person to let something bad happen and not use that for good and for change. This is very apparent in the work I now do!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Michigan Family Doulas is the largest doula agency in Michigan, owned and operated by one of the original doulas in Michigan. We specialize in labor & birth support in any setting (home, hospital, birth center) and then we work with families throughout the entire first year postpartum to help them gain confidence as new parents, rest, feel nourished and make sure they get what they need both from the Western medical system and from within the communities we serve. From there, I also own Michigan Family Nannies and we provide any type of short or long term childcare that any family could need. We are a one-stop resource for families in Michigan. Need support in labor, birth & beyond and then short or long-term childcare -we do that!
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
You can find us on either website, reach out to us via email at info@michiganfamilydoulas.com (or even hello@michiganfamilynannies.com) or call/text me directly at 734-834-6751
Contact Info:
- Website: https://michiganfamilydoulas.com https://michiganfamilynannies.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michiganfamilydoulas/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554668221740
