Women We Love Series: Tanicia, The Doula Experience
Woman We Love Series: Featuring Tanicia Reedon
Tanicia Reedon is an experienced Labor and Postpartum Doula whose curiosity and wonder about women’s bodies and the wonderful process of pregnancy started at a young age. Her mother was pregnant with her younger sister when she was just 12 years old and she felt drawn to care for all mothers and babies after experiencing the first hand ups and downs. She is all things feminine, holding courses for Pelvic Floor Health, New Parent Education, Sex and Intimacy, and is fiercely passionate about social justice issues, especially surrounding women
Q&A with Serenity and Tanicia
Question: Introduce yourself! Your work, what you do during a pandemic!
Answer: I grew up in the Greater Toronto Area. I am a big sister, a fiancée, and a Doula! I’ve always been passionate about hormones, pregnancy, babies, and women’s bodies. A Doula is a trained professional who gives unbiased physical and emotional support during pregnancy, labor, and postpartum. So I’m not a doctor. They deal with the waist down, the clinical. I deal with the waist up and supporting you and your partner. I love what I do, it’s not easy, but it’s my passion.
Question: How has the pandemic affected your work?
Answer: Dramatically. I started working with clients in person back in August. I hadn’t attended a live birth since March (2020) so it was 6 months of nonphysical work. I stayed busy doing prenatal classes virtually and courses through Instagram. It gave me the opportunity to think about my business. To some people and communities Doula’s are essential. Because of the racial disparities in the Healthcare system, having someone to help advocate for you is sometimes life or death, but it’s not always like that. We have been birthing since the dawn of time. The difference between historical times and now is that we used to live in community. Your family, your friend, your best friend’s grandma who was the midwife in the community were the Doulas. Since we’ve become an industrial society we’ve moved away from family. They aren’t always there so this need for having someone there to guide you has become more important. Pandemic births have mostly been isolated. Even partners weren’t really allowed until the end and we weren’t meant to birth alone. So it’s made me think about how to pivot the way my business runs.
Question: You mentioned pivoting. I know you’re very into wellness, health and fitness. Is that part of your pivoting?
Answer: Yes! I have my vitamins, I take them everyday. Especially with the pandemic. There were conversations about the masks protecting us, but I think it’s important to think about immunity. How do you make your body so strong and resilient that a virus doesn’t want to live there? How to make our bodies strong emotionally, immunologically, physically. It’s a lifestyle piece. My personal health journey as a woman of color has been dealing with hormonal imbalance. I’m trying to rectify my hormonal imbalances and live more in tune with my feminine energy. We’ve been conditioned to operate within the patriarchy. What is the patriarchy? It’s men operating on their own hormonal pattern.
Question: To someone that hasn’t delved into getting in tune with their hormonal pattern and being more cautious of their health and their body, where do they start?
Answer: Honestly, just listen to what your body needs. It can be as simple as, ‘do I need to drink more water?’ or ‘do I need to get more sleep?’ They do not have to be monumental changes in the beginning but can shift eventually to that. Small moments where you listen to your body first, then business and life come second. If you have kids and other responsibilities it’s not going to be as easy, but you can’t give from an empty cup. If you're giving and giving to everybody and have nothing left for yourself, you won’t be able to continue to sustain those relationships. After that you can get onboard with a quality supplement to help bring nutrients back into your body. And you can talk to either one of us (Serenity or Tanicia) about getting those practices in.
Question: You are going to rebrand your personal account and talk about your experiences, can you give us a sneak peek?
Answer: I am going to be talking about my journey with hormones and diving into how anyone who identifies as female or has female biology can live in alignment with that. There are four phases to our menstrual cycle, and they align with the four phases of the moon and the yearly calendar. There’s a reason people say the moon is female. Follicular is akin to Springtime, new beginnings, creativity. The Ovulation is akin to Summertime, Full Moon energy, being attractive and communicative. The Luteal phase is akin to Fall, the waning moon and getting the work done, harvesting. The Bleeding phase is winter and reflection. Each of these phases happens every month so you don’t have to wait till January to reset your goals or re-evaluate your relationships. I’m really going to dive deep into that and remind not only others but myself that we are powerful beings beyond measure even though we’ve been conditioned not to believe that.
Learn more about Tanicia’s work at https://www.thedoulaexperience.ca/about, The Doula Experience, info@thedoulaexperience.ca.
