Sumi's Touch

✨Courting the Medicine✨

Just as we court a potential love interest we must court the medicine too.

First base: the self!

Second base: others who you are very close to and in close relationship with. They are so close that they will witness what you are doing and engaged in and voluntarily inquire or express wanting to try for themselves.

Third base: similar to the 2nd base the significant shift is that instead of your loved one coming to you….you may go to them. Theres no money exchange, no expectation that you have the answer, etc.

4th base: after asking permission from your teacher(s) you may begin the journey of incorporating the medicine into your practice. Not teaching, not selling, not diagnosing…but following your intuition to share within a client practitioner relationship.

Each base can be a couple of years thus this process can take about 5-10 years of even more…This is just an example of how we make sure we are walking in integrity. This is what I teach but more so what I embody.

When you obtain new information it’s not for you to run off and start practicing on others…it’s first and foremost for YOU!!

The immersion is certainly about our clients and community but it’s about us, too. All of the modalities we learn you will experience. The work is on ourselves first….

Ghana December 10-20th, 2026

If you’re ready to join us comment “ready” below and I’ll share the deets! From now until 9/28 you can lock in your seat to join us in Ghana for just $1! After, we will jump on a call to discuss the details and create your custom payment plan.

Join us today so you can hop on our first virtual call on 9/29! Deposits will be just $1 for the Ghana 2026 cohort until 9/28 at 11:59 pm pst.

🚪THE DOORS ARE OFFICIALLY OPEN 🚪

Black midwives go and ruuuuuun to apply for next years cohort of the Black Midwives Fellowship!!

We am thrilled to announce that applications are open to apply to join us next year!

Deadline: October 29th, 2026 11:59pm est

Don’t walk RUN and don’t delay until it’s too late!

Comment “fellowship” and I’ll share the application with you!

Do you believe in the cause? Please support us by donating to our scholarship fund. Comment “fundraiser” and I’ll slide the link in your DMs!

Just 15 days until we begin cohort #2’s journey in Uganda!!

All links in our bios, too!!

A doula isn't always a traditional birth worker but a traditional birth worker is often a doula, too....

The role of a doula is so much more impactful within the midwifery model of care. Where they can work in collaboration with a network of providers that center the needs of a pregnant person and the baby.

Doulas are a product of the medical system. Over 10 years ago I started off training so called "doulas" and what I know to be true is that the vicarious trauma and fast burnout that doulas are experiencing is a symptom of the medical industrial complex and will persist as long as it's the standard. There's no amount of subsidized payments, retreats, money, or resources that can by bypass the harm.

During my traditional birth workers immersion we dream up another way. After a few days your nervous system will start to settle. Not having to keep up with the day to day stressors of life opens you up to have different thoughts, ideas, perspectives...

We skillfully and strategically dream up a different reality for ourselves and the collective....

What do you think is possible? How can we get there? What can we do today to get closer?

The midwifery model of care is the antidote to the maternal health crisis. As many layers of support is the goal in this care model. So there is room for all providers including doulas, doctors, etc. However, let’s break down the difference…

Traditional birth workers are called to serve, have a gift for this work, integrates holistic and traditional medicine modalities, is within the community she serves, and honors the midwifery model of care as the golden standard of health care.

Traditional birth workers may or may not have attended a training. Even with a training she learns via apprenticeship. It's the approach, the sacredness, the intentions, and the insight that she carries that distinguishes her.

Traditional birth workers care extends way beyond the "contract". Traditional birth workers are weavers of community.

Come join me to learn these sacred and ancient ways...

Comment "info" and I'll send you the info to join the info session today at 3pm pst/6pm est

Only $1 to save your seat!

✨Community is Crucial✨

We are community deficient. We live in isolation. We could all do better at getting in each others business lol

During he immersion we challenge the isolation culture we have been raised in for so many generations. We rub allll up against one another’s edges: let me hold that baby so you can eat with both hands, we take turns keeping the kitchen and communal spaces clean, we check in and feed those who are the most vulnerable in the room first, we make sure everyone’s water bottle is filled not just ours alone…..

There’s so much more but this is for sure a start. I’ll be sharing and breaking it down tomorrow during the info session. Make sure you register so you can join us and also get the recording!

Deposits are just $1 and then we can hope on a phone call and make your custom payment plan.

Ghana December 10-20
Mexico March 11-21

Comment “Info” if you ready to join us!

Also sliiiiiide through and hook the Virtual Circle while it’s only $4.99/month. Tomorrows master class is “Mind Your Doula Business”. The best part is that it’s free for the first 7 days so you have nothing to loose and everything to gain!

Comment “class” and I’ll send you the link!

Ain’t no community with the children and the elders in my book!! We build a microcosm of what is possible in the macro…I joke and say that the immersions has a secret menu of learning objectives and take aways. Yes you will learn new skills and refine old ones but there’s so much more to grasp.

Join me this Sunday at 3pm pst for the info session to learn more.

You don’t have to have all the details worked out you just gotta say yes!

Comment “info” and I’ll slide in your DMs with the link to join us!!

I first offered the Immersions in 2019 in west Oakland, Ca. I invited so many of my teachers and beloved sisters to hold space with me:

Mi querida Estela Roman
Pānquetzani🌿Ancestral Healer
Shirley Johnson 🦋 Licensed Therapist & Yogi
Yvette
مريم حسنا
Amy Lee
Alejandra Olguin
Lala

It was amazing and also not sustainable financially. The overhead superseded the input. I felt maybe I shouldn’t offer another. But, I planned to try again in spring 2020. Well we all know what happened then. I needed that deep reset and reflection…

In 2023 I took my first cohort to Colombia. So much had changed about me and the world. This was deeply reflected in the curriculum. Now I have completed 9 cohorts. Each unique, each transformative, each sacred…

I grow each and every time as does the curriculum. It’s always been amazing but the vision is crystal clear, the systems are tight, and the transformations speak for themselves…

We will meet with traditional indigenous midwives
Take part in traditional ceremonies
Learn about the Flora and Fauna of the land
Eat traditional foods focused on fertility and well being
Co-mother together (“All children are our children”)
Go ok excursions
Have so so so much fun!!

As much as the immersions have grown the intentions remains the same: create a container for those called to come. To activate what is lying dormant in your dna. To create a microcosm of what is possible in our day to day lives….

This year I’d like to invite you to come and join us in Ghana December 10-20 and Mexico March 11-21.

Deposits are just $1 (for now) and custom payment plans are available!

Join me tomorrow at 2pm pst live with Alumni on here!!
Sunday info session w/ sagepathworks comment “info” to receive the link to sign up!

Colombia experienced a 7.4 magnitude earthquake on August 10th that grossly impacted the pacific coast. This is a predominately Black area. They need us to donate and share their fundraiser! Link in bio or comment “partera” and I’ll dm you the link.

I first went to Colombia in 2018 to visit Liceth Quiñones | Partera Tradicional and her vibrant and beautiful community of traditional Black midwives in the pacific coast of Colombia.

On that trip I was still learning Spanish. We connected via our heart and shared calling more than anything else. She embraced me, a complete stranger, like I was her long lost sister. She allowed me into their lives in very intimate and powerful ways and I will never ever forget it.

The community of Black midwives there fought for sovereignty…they didn’t want a license, permission from outsiders, but rather support to do what they have always done. They wanted respect and reparations not assimilation and regulations. I have been so inspired by this stance and they were granted patrimony which preserved their ancestral knowledge and practices as both midwives and a people at large.

Being a midwife is about so much more than catching babies. It’s the glue that holds a community together. The Black community in the pacific coast of Colombia have preserved their ancestral roots to Africa in ways that have granted them global recognition. This is why it’s crucial that we support these living libraries of ancestral knowledge.

Like many of us, midwifery has been a target to strategically dismantle a community. So now almost 40 years ago, Rosmilda Quinones, sought out to spearhead the resurgence of traditional Black midwifery. Today more than 1600 Black and Indigenous midwives are apart of their network. These are sovereign, traditional midwives.

Right now, they need us as many of the midwives, who hold their community together, have lost their homes, their transportation, their supplies. Please go to the link in my bio to send a donation or comment “partera” and I’ll dm you the link!