Help Me Start My Midwifery Journey!

Update *December 2022*

Wow, thank you so much to everybody who has contributed something to this journey. The donations received enabled me to purchase health screening supplies and tools and helped me pay for the cost of moving to Georgia where I was able to spend 6 months of the year learning from one of the most experienced Grand-Midwives of our time, Mama Sarahn.

In my six months, I had the honor of servicing 30 families in the prenatal period and assisting in a few beautiful homebirths as a midwife apprentice. I decided to pick up a part-time position working at a small, Black-owned farm and grocery store operation, Atlanta Harvest! This experience has allowed me to gain invaluable skills in growing and distributing fresh food to the people! Birth and food are intrinsically tied together, and most pregnancy/birth complications can be prevented or managed with proper nutrition and lifestyle.

Sadly, however, I have to share with you all that the journey has been put on pause for now. Unfortunately, due to the cost of living in Atlanta, along with a limited income doing only pro-bono as a midwife apprentice and part-time farm work, I will no longer be able to live in Atlanta and continue my studies right now.

This doesn't mean the journey is over yet though ya'll!! We're just getting started. While I will have to move back to Nebraska for now, I've gained so much experience and am excited to bring a new skillset back to the people of my home community! Now, I'll be able to offer health screenings and vital checks for mothers and babies, which can be crucial in catching and preventing problems.

All that said ya'll, I WILL be continuing to work to move back to Atlanta and finish my apprenticeship when it is financially sustainable for me to work unpaid. This means first and foremost securing a mobile home so that I'm able to travel and work without the overhead costs of rent to pay.

This home will not only give me a space to live but will also be a space for US to come together and heal with one another. I'll be traveling to connect with communities and share resources and the knowledge of growing food along with taking care of our well-being.

Thank you so much for all your continued support and belief in my mission and work. I can't wait to continue to serve, learn, and grow with you.

Many blessings,

-Ziara

__________________________________________________

Peace and Blessings.

 

My name is Ziara Kýre York. I am asking for your help and support as I enter into the next phase of my service to the people.

 

Midwifery!

 

Over these last two years, I have been gaining experience in the birth room as a Doula providing holistic non-medical support to women and families.

And ever since the first day of my first professional training, I knew that being a Doula was only the very beginning of my journey in helping women bring forth new life into the world.

I knew that very first day that I was meant to go much deeper into this journey.

I knew that day I was meant to be a Midwife.

I felt the call deep within my spirit. And from then on, I prayed for and sought out the Wise Woman who would become my teacher.

 

I am so very blessed to finally be sharing with you that by the direction and grace of The Most High, my teacher has appeared to me and agreed to take me under her wing this year.

 

Come July of 2022, I will be moving to Atlanta be beginning my Midwifery Journey through direct apprenticeship. I am very honored to share that over the next few years I will be studying under Grand-Elder Midwife Mama Sarahn Henderson, of 43 strong years in practice.

 

I am incredibly grateful to have been given this divine opportunity to follow my Midwifery-calling on the most ancient and traditional path, through direct apprenticeship under an experienced Black Midwife. The apprenticeship-model of education is the way that Midwives have become Midwives throughout all of human history, and this is exactly the route I had desired to take and prayed about since the beginning of my journey.

 

And with that, family, I need your help and support!

As I begin to undergo my studies and training, I will need funding for books, supplies, and, most importantly right now, a place to live, as I will be studying and apprenticing full-time without pay.

 

Your generous donations will, first-and-foremost, help me to secure housing in the form of a school bus tiny-home, which I will be able to park and stay in at a secure location I have already arranged.

Living in a school bus tiny-home will allow me to have a comfortable place to live without having to worry about the overhead cost of rent each month while I am working full-time without pay.

Once I have my housing secured, the rest of the funds will be going towards the books and supplies I need to study and to get my practice started. I will be sharing a detailed list of what items are needed in the near future once my housing is arranged.

 

This has been a long time coming y'all.

And I'm happy to say that the vision is finally being birthed.

 

With your help, I can begin this journey to my true calling, and soon provide the care that women and families need to have confidence, peace, autonomy, and safety while bringing forth new life into this world.

 

I am so very thankful to all of the women and families who have put their trust in me to support them within my capacity as a Doula providing non-medical support over these last two years.

The experience I have gained supporting these women and families has proven to me time and time again why I must continue to go further into this journey and become a Midwife providing autonomous health care services and medical safety to women who want to birth outside of the system.

I have witnessed the hardships, trauma, brutality, and near-death experiences that women are continually being subjected to when birthing within the medical system, which was not designed for the wellbeing of mothers and babies.

I pray daily for your healing. And truly, this journey is for you.

 

As I enter into my time to step out and provide women with another option, I am incredibly grateful for the support that I've received already from my family, friends, teachers, clients, and even strangers on this journey.

I am continuing to grow, shift, and expand into this next phase for all of you, with the intention to make this world a better place from before the moment that each of us arrives.

 

Thank you so much for believing in my journey and supporting my cause. Any amount that you can donate, whether big or small, will be more than appreciated and will greatly help me along on this journey. Truly y'all, it means the world to me. And I am forever grateful!!!