Support BIPOC Midwife in Time of Need

Dear Good People,

Many of you know Felicia Chavando as a community homebirth midwife. She is also an Aztec Dancer and fire-keeper in her ceremonial community. She is a devoted earth-tender who cultivates medicinal, ancestral, and pollinator plants and habitat. She is also a traditional song carrier and hands-on healer. If you know her, you know how deeply she loves and how generously she shares her care. As a Xicana midwife brought up in a border economy, she has worked hard to pull herself out of deep systemic and intergenerational poverty. She’s given so much of her heart and soul to take care of our community and we are now asking the community to take care of her in a vulnerable and transitional time, in the aftermath of losing her livelihood as a midwife.

Felicia has been devoted to the work of safeguarding birth, advocating for life-givers, and tending to the next generations for over a decade. She has graciously served the community as one of very few indigenous-identifying midwives of color in the state of Colorado. She has wholeheartedly walked alongside hundreds of families during their sacred passage through

pregnancy, birth and beyond.

This summer, after a two-year struggle with the Department of Regulatory Agencies of Colorado, Felicia laid her state midwifery registration to rest. It was a decision that she ultimately made out of necessity. Fighting within the system through an objectively unjust and grossly prolonged process was expensive, costly for Felicia’s mental and emotional health, and extremely taxing and oppressive to her spirit. She simply could not continue the fight. As an indigenous birth-keeper, laying her registration to rest was also an act of liberation. It is her indigenous perspective that the art of midwifery has always been, and will always remain, an earth-based medicine lineage of ancestral wisdom and expertise. The historical and modern persecution of midwives has long been a bane in our collective human story, and continues to harm our communities today.

Felicia has been grieving for her greatest passion as well as her livelihood. Her elderly parents also lost their home in spring 2023 due to foreclosure and she does not have access to any financial family support. She is needing community support to rebuild and get back on her feet after losing so much of what she has worked for. We are asking for your help so Felicia can take steps towards continuing to offer her healing gifts to the world. This financial support will go towards her education expanding her skills as a community healer, and provide for basic living expenses while she studies in an immersive, full-time program.

Felicia has been accepted to the Berkana Institute of Massage Therapy to begin a 6-month program this December 2023. This will enable her to continue to widely offer her skills of Maya abdominal massage, traditional healing modalities, and more to the community. She aspires to eventually focus on craniosacral therapy for newborns, pregnant, and postpartum families. She also aspires to offer craniosacral therapy to those who are transitioning at the threshold of death. Once she has re-stabilized financially, she hopes to begin expanding upon her death doula skills with a more immersive apprenticeship to the death space. Felicia is committed to continue to be of service to the well-being and vibrancy of our community and the earth in every way possible. Her presence as a midwife (licensed or unlicensed) and as a traditional medicine-keeper will continue to bless our community far into the future.

Itemized Financial Details:

Berkana Institute of Massage Tuition:

(including all associated fees with books and elective requirements): $11,120

Portion of Felicia’s living expenses:

(during 6-month Berkana Massage Program)

$2,500 x 6= 15,000

Total ask: $26,120

We thank YOU community for every bit of support you can offer. Every dollar makes a difference. Every share and prayer helps. Every bit of encouragement uplifts. Let’s take care of our beloved BIPOC community Midwife and support her to live her dreams while continuing to serve with love and skill!