Today we’d like to introduce you to Raquel Lemus
Hi Raquel, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
As a child when I would get asked “What do you want to do when you grow up?” My response would always be “Work with mother’s and babies”. For a long while I thought that meant becoming a doctor. I come from a long line of healers and medical professionals, so I grew up being exposed to the medical system and plants as medicine. I have grandmothers who where midwives. My mom is a nurse and worked in the ER at MLK hospital in the early 90’s. I saw how hard she worked and advocated for her unit and the few times I went to work with her where impressionable. Looking back it primed me for the level of intensity I would confront during my Midwifery education.
Through out my youth I realized I didn’t want to be a Doctor and didn’t fully align with the Medical Industrial Complex. I leaned into studying my second interest at the time: the mind. I went to UCSB and received a B.A is Psychology. After some post grad soul searching I ended up working with children and families in the Non-Profit Sector. Although I loved connecting with the kids, it was heartbreaking for me to see a lack of true solutions for these families and the trauma’s they lived. I saw a distrust of children and a desire for them to just conform within the system. I was in my mid 20’s and was so fatigued and drained and I knew something wasn’t right in my spirit.
Around 2010 I was guided to a Women’s retreat on the Tule Reservation and the path onto the Red Road opened for me. The Red Road being a name given by the Indigenous people of the America’s to describe the path of spiritual growth and awakening. I started to heal myself by connecting to my ancestral ways of praying and relating to the Earth and I started to remember my original assignment to work with Mothers and Babies. I discovered womb work and dove into all things related to birth and the uterus. At that time I would think and ask “Where can I have the most impact on the amount of trauma we experience as humxyns? We are all created in a uterus so why not start there.” I was hungry for knowledge and did so many trainings. I trained as a doulas, prenatal yoga instructor, reiki practitioner, child birth educator, lactation educator, vaginal steaming practitioner and studied with a group of womxyn on how to use a speculum, flashlight and mirror to look at my own cervix. It was a pretty epic time of self discovery and learning for me. I quit my job in the Non-Profit world and started working as a Doula. I worked mostly supporting families having hospital births and experienced the majesty of birth and the trauma of birth. Even when the births went well I saw how there was distrust and disrespect of the Mother/ Pregnant Person’s knowing. The care was depersonalized and I saw racism towards black and brown families. My intuition and a good dash of hubris had me think ” I know I can do this better! ” I started looking into midwifery training programs and in 2014 I left to study at Maternidad La Luz in El Paso Texas.
I was in El Paso for 2 years. Making is through midwifery school was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done. I came back to Los Angeles in January of 2016 and was a bit of a mess emotionally, physically and spiritually. After 2 years of working several 24 hrs shifts a week, all while studying I needed to rest and integrate. I oscillated between sleep and studying. I still had to take 2 different exams before I could get licensed by the Medical Board of California. I received my license in October 2016.
My practiced bloomed slowly over the years, I’d only do 1-3 births a year and was really focused on Uterine Health Counseling. When ever my friends would introduce me around and mention I was a midwife, I’d smile and nod but internally I was thinking “Why you tellin people I’m a midwife?” When folks would reach out for my services I was acting like some covert operative asking people ” Who sent you? You told you about me? What do you want?” I was not at all open about my work in the beginning. The transition out of midwifery school to having to start my own practice was tough. I was drained, felt disconnected from my original reasons for pursing midwifery and I had very little support. In 2018 I got invited to a predominantly black and indigenous womxyn’s spiritual retreat; where I had the opportunity to pray with other birth workers, and spiritually integrate everything I lived during midwifery school. At the end of that gathering all the birth workers received a blessing from the elder road woman; that was the moment I became comfortable calling myself a Midwife. As a Black Indigenous Midwife I needed that blessing for the way I wanted to practice, holding the indigenous technologies of birth at the forefront of my work and supplementing them with newer medical knowledge.
With that blessing I was renewed. I still had a relatively small practice because I was working alone and I was in prayer to align with a team. During the pandemic the birth collective of Black and Indigenous practitioners Sugar Heal Gang found me. Joining with them was an expansive life changer. I suddenly had a team and my homebirth practice bursted like a summer wildflower super bloom. Shout out to everyone a part of Sugar Heal Gang. They have supported me tremendously to become the midwife I am and with out them I could not do what I do. Now as I enter into a decade of being a Midwife, I’m understanding that Midwifery is a way of life for me. I hold a midwifery perspective of being. To look at this world through the midwifery lens is in essence to accompany life. In accompanying life it’s so much a practice of simply being beside someone or something with presence; be it a birthing person, the rising sun, my bestie or the herbs I work with . It’s a perspective of trusting, uplifting innate wisdom, witnessing, observing and listening. I’m constantly learning and I’m deeply honored to be this midwife I am!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road to one’s purpose is bound to have some stones and bumps and detours along the way, these are the things that build character and resilience. One thing that studying the indigenous technologies and being in ceremony has taught me is, how to move through challenging things. That I can lean into discomfort with grace and find support, wisdom and strength. Challenge doesn’t stop when you find your purpose, it just becomes more intentional. In choosing midwifery I’m constantly choosing certain challenges; to be woken up in the middle of the night, go without sleep possibly for days, be looked down upon by certain doctors, to mention a few. I recommit to midwifery by also embracing the challenges of my profession.
As I mentioned before, midwifery school was rough. I think I had a romanticized notion that there would be some sisterhood and support considering we were learning how to support womxyn giving birth. The program was competitive, I had zero real friends, I was pushed to my limits physically, emotionally and spiritually. I was humbled by midwifery school and once my hubris wore off the reality of the responsibility it is to be a midwife supporting birth set in. I’m responsible for monitoring lives! I suddenly had compassion for OBGYNs, hospital protocol and the desire to want to control outcomes.
I think one of the most ongoing complex and subtle challenges of my work has been navigating how I hold the perspectives of indigenous birthing/womb wisdom alongside the medical model of care. How I ignite people’s trust in themselves and the process while understanding that we live in a major city and certain things are required of me by law. I have to be aware of power dynamics that exist simply because I have a medical license and I walk a fine line between sharing knowledge, offering medical advice and exerting power. We still live in a time where most folks have been conditioned to not trust themselves and to give their power away to some else. This requires me to be super conscious and clear about my own views and programming around power as well as what my boundaries are so that I am not unconsciously projecting onto my clients out of my own fears and worries.
This is also why I require my clients to be active collaborators of their care. I trust the birthing body, I trust the ancient technology of birth, I trust the sentience of the fetus, and I can’t promise any family that they are going to have the birth they exactly want. My trust and faith goes nowhere if the family I’m working with isn’t’ willing to build faith and trust in themselves or each other. My prenatal visits are notoriously long about 3hrs, because for me building trust with the families and helping them do that work of building trust in themselves is so important in minimizing the challenge it is to give birth during these times.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Community Partera ?
Community Partera is a full spectrum midwifery practice. I find the harmony between traditional indigenous technologies and western medicine. I work with the uterus throughout all of its phases; from 1st bleed to last bleed and everything in between; menarche, queer conception, fertility, pregnancy, birth, pregnancy loss, abortion, uterine health and holistic gynecology. I believe in the intelligence of the body and support people to understand how their unique body is communicating with them. My practice is trauma informed and focused on increasing trust and sovereignty by providing deep presence for ones lived experiences. I’m known for helping my clients to use their emotions as a North Star towards their truth and as a way of connecting them to joy and pleasure.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I sing! Singing brings me back to myself. I love singing to the Earth, the elements and bodies. It’s one of my favorite ways to offer love and healing to a body. I sing to my clients during many of my in person appts. I have special songs that I have channeled for the uterus, pregnancy, babies and birthdays. Sound penetrates into the body and spirit so easefully. I find that singing helps my clients to really drop into their bodies and connect with their hearts.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sugarheal.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/communitypartera/?hl=en
Image Credits
Imagine of pregnant mom in front of her altar, me kneeling on the floor looking up: Credit Karissa
