Midwifery Program Fund & Senegal Residency

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I love children, reproductive care, and body autonomy. This love grew out of shadowing community midwives and birth workers at 10 years old. I saw how important it is to have a community that honors pregnancy, children, and families at a young age. For the last 18 years, I have been fortunate to team up with and learn from some incredible midwives while supporting our pregnant clients as a doula. During that time, I also studied plant medicine and holistic healing modalities for womb health. I am finally listening to the tiny whispers of my soul and moving onto the path of midwifery.

In addition to enrolling in a midwifery program, I have been accepted into a residency in Senegal where my writing will focus on the portal of birth and death. After speaking with the director of the residency, and sharing more about my womb work, the director has agreed to support me in apprenticing with local midwives near Dakar for three months.

This campaign was created to remove cost as a barrier to these incredible opportunities for growth, learning, and practice. All fees for the midwifery program and residency will be paid by September 2022. Funding this part of my midwifery journey will mean supporting a legacy birth worker rooted in community and ancestral practices. Thank you for your support.

Midwifery Program

Since starting my doula journey 18 years ago, I have supported dozens and dozens of individuals and their families with navigating perinatal care. This has looked like traditional doula work, as well as crafting ceremonies and products for fertility, abortion/loss, and postpartum. Like the community healers and midwives in my bloodline, being a womb worker was a natural calling because all of the women in my family gave birth at home until the 1970s. For me, becoming a midwife is more than attending a person's birth.

Midwifery is spiritual work.

Midwifery is ancestral work.

Now, I am ready to further my womb work education as a midwife. As a midwife, I will be able to combine all my healing practices (i.e., doula, herbalism, food alchemy, water healing, yoga, and womb readings) to work more intimately with my clients. Additionally, I plan to be a traveling midwife. As a multilingual woman, location independence is important for me. It is also important for my clients because they are located in many parts of the world and speak different languages.

The remaining cost of my midwifery program and supplies (including books and a travel birth kit) is $4,100 - paid by September 2022. You may contribute to this amount by donating to this campaign or through Venmo (@Joyell-Arvella).

Senegal Residency

For three months, I will write and sit with elder midwives to learn about Senegalese birth traditions. Initially, I was accepted into a residency to focus my writing on the birth and death passageway. That blossomed into an invitation to also study birth work with local midwives! During my three months in Senegal, I will complete a writer's residency on birth and death, study with Senegalese midwives, and continue with my formal midwifery training.

Excited does not even begin to describe how I feel about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I feel blessed and extremely honored to begin my midwifery journey in West Africa.

I am requesting $4,400 to cover the cost of a roundtrip flight, housing accommodations, residency program fee, monetary offerings to the midwives, and board for my three months in Senegal. You may contribute to this amount by donating to this campaign or through Venmo (@Joyell-Arvella).

Give me the short version: After being a doula for 18 years, I am becoming a midwife. I will also be studying with midwives and writing about birth and death in Senegal for three months. All fees for the midwifery program ($4,100) and residency ($4,400) will be paid by September 2022. Your donations make these opportunities possible. Funding this part of my midwifery journey will mean supporting a legacy birth worker rooted in community and ancestral practices. Thank you for your contributions.