A Little Bit of My Story...

I began my wise womb path at age 22 when I was working on a farm in rural Ireland. For years, I had suffered from painful, heavy periods (exacerbated by my copper IUD) and I had yet to find a long-term solution outside of handfuls of extra-strength ibuprofen every month. While living on the farm, I was fortunate enough to accompany a wonderful Irish elder, herbalist, and medicine woman who very casually pointed out a few plants in her garden and instructed me in how to prepare myself an herbal infusion to support myself during my painful bleeding days. To my pleasant surprise, within twenty minutes of drinking the tea, all of my pain was gone and my heavy bleeding had drastically decreased. This experience left me reeling…what was this witchcraft?!! What was this magic?!! Can it actually be this simple?!! How can I learn more??? This is where my path with the plants began…

A few years later, at the age 24, I was initiated into a ceremonial way of life in the heart of the Colombian jungle. Leading up to this experience, I had been dealing with back to back yeast and urinary tract infections that had been plaguing my body for the better part of a decade. Finally, in one of the most unforgettable ceremonies of my life, I put my hands on my womb and heard the voice of a wise female elder saying to me, “Claire, you have a foreign metal object in your body [my copper IUD]. When you fly home, you have to get it removed. There are older, ancestral ways to avoid getting pregnant…it’s finally time that you learned them.” Thus, from that moment forward, I have dedicated my life to learning anything and everything that I possibly can about womb sovereignty, fertility tracking, conscious contraception with plant allies, natural vaginal health practices, menstrual cycle education, physiologic birth, postpartum care, herbs for hormonal balancing, ancestral nutrition, and the divine intelligence of the womb care continuum.

Additionally, since 2021, I have spent significant time living in the indigenous territory of the Putumayo Jungle (Colombia)—primarily with elders of the Cofan lineage. I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to have lived full-time with my late and beloved teachers, Abuelo Querubín and Abuela Maria, on their farm in their ancestral territory and to have accompanied them through their dying processes. I consider their deaths to be my first true initiation into the path of traditional midwifery—that being one of womb-to-tomb care that holds the sacredness and inevitability of birth and death in both hands. The care, devotion, orientation, education, and love of my indigenous elder teachers and my own blood lineage of allopathic and traditional healers offer me the strength and fortitude to take on my community role as a womb wisdom keeper.

As someone who has historically prioritized the teachings and wisdom cultures of traditional apprenticeship, experiential self-education, oral histories, and ancestral transmission, I also recognize that there are important and valuable things to learn from the allopathic model of care. Thus, I am in the process of balancing both sides of my education by undergoing various trainings and mentorships that align a little more with the Western perspective of health with some radical, badass midwives who I deeply admire and respect. It is my prayer to eventually offer full-spectrum traditional midwifery care and education but this dream will take many years to come to fruition. Thankfully, I am in no rush to arrive anywhere other than where I currently am now on my wise womb path…I’m enjoying the ride!