Welcome to Birth Euphoria! My name is Totiana Smith Michael and I live in Mississippi, born and raised. I am a wife to my amazing husband, Corey, and mother to two crazily adorable little girls, Amaryllis (ah-maryl-lis) & Acacia (ah-kay-seeyah) Michael. I graduated with my diploma from JHHS the year of 2012. I then dated and soon married my husband in 2015, birthed our first child in 2016 in a hospital, opened my small crafting business Virtuous Woman LLC. in 2017 making personalized keepsakes, and birthed our second born in April 2018 at home!
I love families, BIG families, all things babies, breastfeeding, animals, and holistic. My hobbies include writing/blogging (www.sabineflowertea.com), reading, art, music, yoga, calligraphy, pottery crafts (facebook.com/virtuouswomanllc) and a lot more. I am your biggest no s**t taking, womenโs advocate and breastfeeding supportinโ neighborhood Doula and friend.
I am a training traditional/cultural doula offering, prenatal, birth, and postpartum services to, but not limited to, the "undeserving" black women in my surrounding communities. My scope of practice range from Bogue Chitto, MS to Madison.
โBecause the Black American woman is an endangered species.
Because the Black American baby is an endangered species.
Because the Black American is an endangered species.โ -MSK
Having to sit back and accept the fact that the color of our skin means that our babies are 3-4 times more likely to die than anyone else, will happen no more. Being a Black American doula is how I aim to help fight back!
I believe in empowering the women I work with to be their own advocate and imagine the birthing experience they want. Together, we will manifest that experience. Creating a loving, nurturing, comforting, and positive environment for mommy and baby. I bring with me, evidence based resources for your birth and labor, support for you and your partner, helpful laboring positions and different comforting measures, a positive environment in which one youโll be most comfortable with, and FOOD lol! I provide you with physical, emotional and informational support during your pregnancy, birth, and the immediate postpartum stages.
โI do not care what kind of birth you have, a home-birth, scheduled cesarean, natural hospital, medicated hospital, or if you birth in the woods next to Bambi. I care that you had options, that you were supported in your birth choices, and that you were respected.โ -Harshe
About Totiana (facebook.com/totianasmithmichael)
As a child, the subject around birth had always intrigued me. I remember being a child and watching โA Baby storyโ, when it would air on TLC, almost everyday. I would never miss an episode!!! My family would chop it down to being the only child for 12 years and yearning for a baby/sibling. I grew up wanting to be a Veterinarian because I love animals. But it was soon after, in high school, that I realized there was something more, I had a deeper love elsewhere. I learned in my last two years of high school, taking up early childhood education, that babies had other and better options for feeding. BREASTFEEDING! It intrigued and excited me so much that I ran home to my mom, who was then pregnant with my second little brother whoโs now 7, to breastfeed him! All I had ever known from the babies around me was formula. I was so excited I returned home from class with a long list I wrote of โPros/Consโ to breastfeeding and how it would be beneficial for him and her and others means to take for other people to feed him too! Learning about breastfeeding only made my passion for babies and birth work grow stronger. I then grew up in preparation to become an OB-GYN because at the time, was the only thing I knew of to get me first had, at working with babies. That later changed after high school and working at St Dominicsโ Hospital, to wanting to become a pediatrician. You see, ANYTHING, to be near babies. They make me happy. The passion is SO strong it would be deemed as creepy in the eyes of others!
It was until 2016 that ALL HELL BROKE loose and doors that will never close went flying open!!! We conceived our first child Amaryllis, and my fingers took to a computer keyboard to research and find what I already knew I wanted, NO medication NO epidural, so of course I had to look for alternatives. Everything from best Drs, best hospitals, prenatal exercises/yoga, water aerobics, breathing exercises and techniques, positions, I mean ANYTHING you can name, I searched for it. I mean it was our first so it was only right that we wanted the best. My search then opened up to learning about Doulas, Birth centers, home-births, water births, midwives, unassisted births and more! I then found my first Doula to hire, in Hattiesburg, who offered Bradley classes. Things soon fell through but she was such an amazing help with educational support and all the information and research she shared with me to help me prepare for the best for my first child. We are still facebook friends to this day and it wasnโt until my second child that I realized how important her role was! The pregnancy of my first child shifted our lives around for the better! A complete 360. I cut out all medications, I have not had a prescription or OTC medicine since 2016. But the cherry on top was learning that we have OPTIONS, and the power to exercise our rights as women! BIRTHING women. That we did not have to conform to their standards. That these are not laws and are just hospital rules. We have the right to say no to term inductions, no to prenatal vaccinations, tests, ultrasounds, can eat while in labor, donโt have to be confined to a bed. ALL of it. WE DO have a say. I have been ten toes down for black womens rights, womens rights in the birthing community ever since and thereโs no stopping me. I donโt plan to stop on my own either. I get a high off of the birth of babies, a sense of euphoria;). In 2018, at the time of the home-birth of my second daughter, I finally found my calling........... I AM YOUR DOULA, and am honored you chose me to share your high with!
