Today we’d like to introduce you to Tasha Boyd.
Hi Tasha, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Thanks for having me today! I’m Tasha Boyd, a licensed midwife and certified professional midwife. I attend births and provide midwifery care in the South Bay and throughout the LA area. The path to starting Rainbow Midwifery really began when I was a child growing up with two moms and was steeped along the way in a passion for providing individualized, inclusive midwifery care to the families I work with. I began working at a wellness center which exposed me to many people going through different health struggles and it was inspiring to see firsthand how resilient our bodies can be. During my time at the wellness center, I gave birth to my own two children at home with a midwife and again, my eyes were opened to the world of childbirth. I was lucky enough to receive wonderful care but I repeatedly heard of the experiences other pregnant people had that were honestly often traumatic. I wanted to make a difference one person at a time by being part of the solution, I was drawn to ensuring that at the very least, more choices were available to pregnant people in my community.
I have a vivid memory of being 8 or 9 months pregnant with my second baby and a dear friend of mine looking up requirements for me to become a birth doula. The deep calling to care for families during birth and in the years leading up to and after birth where very strong for me. Eventually, I gave in to where my heart was leading and became a doula, a couple of years later, I started midwifery school and became a licensed midwife specializing in home birth and water birth. To be clear, midwives do so much more than just birth, there is a lot more to it. We are primary health care providers for low-risk pregnant people, we provide prenatal, labor/birth and postpartum care, newborn care during the first six weeks after birth and we can provide well person care including pap smears and various health screenings.
The thing I love about midwifery is the inherent belief in providing respectful and compassionate care. We can do so much better if we just listen to what each person wants and tailor care to them accordingly. Most people do not want to feel like a number and I am passionate about making sure none of my clients feel that way.
Fast forward to the present – I opened Rainbow Midwifery because I wanted to go a step further to create a practice that is open and affirming to all family structures, both traditional and non-traditional, including solo parents, LGBTQ+ parents, people of all body types, people with disabilities, people with a history of trauma, culturally diverse people, vegetarian families and those experiencing fertility challenges. I strive to blend my knowledge of holistic health, herbs, nutrition, mechanics of labor and birth with great humanized care.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It was definitely a road with plenty of bumps along the way. I was working as a doula while caring for two young children and putting myself through midwifery school was a huge challenge! Juggling childcare with my partner’s work schedule, my work and clinic schedule while being on-call most of the year was not easy. We were lucky to have support from local family, I doubt I would have made it through school without them helping us.
Another challenge I faced was the uphill battle to educate people on what a midwife is, the safety of home birth and the scope of care I can provide. There are a lot of misconceptions and it can be surprising at times what people assume when it comes to midwives – there is a huge volume of research supporting midwives and truly midwives could be big part of the solution in solving our current maternal health crisis in the US.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
When someone starts care with me for a planned home birth, they can begin care at 9 weeks or as late as 36 weeks. I can do all of their prenatal care including labs but I refer out for ultrasounds. Prenatal care is invaluable for keeping a pregnancy healthy because many potential problems can be solved naturally with early interventions. Most obgyns are not trained in treating common problems with a holistic model, so this would be something I’m especially proud to offer.
Once labor starts, my clients will let me know and we are in communication regardless of the time of day. If they call at 2am, then I answer my phone! I wait until labor is really going strong to join in most cases, but at times I go to listen to baby with a doppler or check in earlier (a doppler is used for listening the fetal heartbeat while allowing mobility of the laboring person). There have been times I go check on a laboring person several times before it’s time for me to stay. I could be with a client for three days or only a few hours, depending on how fast their labor flows. I bring with me a second midwife or a midwife’s assistant, doppler for intermittent monitoring, medications for bleeding, antibiotics, IV fluids, oxygen, newborn resuscitation equipment, suturing supplies, as well as herbs, homeopathic remedies and more. During labor, we will do everything we can to ensure the birthing person’s wishes are honored. They can birth in the position they choose and the person catching their baby could be them, their partner or midwife (we discuss their preferences well ahead of time!) Most of the time, we wait an hour or so before cutting the baby’s umbilical cord. Before the birth team leaves we’ve made sure the birthing person and baby are both stable, have eaten something, gotten stitches if needed, are able to get up on their own and have done a comprehensive newborn exam including measuring, weighing and checking them head to toe.
After that, I come back to see them postpartum between 24-48 hours, around one week, three weeks, six weeks, three months, six months, nine months and 12 months. I was inspired to begin offering an entire year of postpartum follow-up care after I listened to a podcast where another midwife was doing that. It just made sense to offer care into the first year because it is such a time of transformation and change! This provides another layer of postpartum care that I feel many families need and deserve. I hope the trend to provide extended postpartum care will grow and more practices will begin to offer it!
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
A few of my favorite books are: Transformed by Birth by Britta Bushnell, Baby Making For Everybody by Ray Rachlin, LM, CPM and Marea Goodman, LM, CPM, Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin, The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin.
I love the Rich Roll podcast! Not specific to birth but his podcast is truly inspiring. I think his podcasts can be applied to anyone who wants to live in alignment and possibly challenge themselves in positive ways.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.rainbowmidwifery.com
- Instagram: @rainbow_midwifery
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tasha-boyd-59880a4b
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tasha-boyd-lm-cpm-redondo-beach
