Simply GNV-Birth & Maternal Health

Home
United States
White House, TN
Simply GNV-Birth & Maternal Health

maternal health, body literacy, + curiosity | Fertility Awareness & Birth Education

01/08/2026

I randomly picked this book because when it came up on my Pinterest feed, the cover was captivating. Aside from the fact that I’m a girl who biologically needs to live by the sea, I was intrigued because it was the Adriatic Sea in Croatia🌊

I’ve been wanting to challenge my reading like a different country setting, different lifestyle, (taking a break from research papers and curriculum😅) but not as fluffy. I needed something deep, gritty, but soft all at once and this certainly delivered. It’s 100% a love story, but in a way you imagine.

Here are my favorite takeaways from Slanting Towards the Sea:

1. The theme of body literacy. The body is portrayed as perceptive and intelligent which is clear in if Ivona chooses (and chooses not) to move on. Her body awareness is on point and for women, this is a major foundation in emotional and body literacy. The trauma Ivona and even Vlaho experience is not narrated as a single event, but as a residue that settles into our posture, breath, tension and desire.

2. Intimacy is not romanticized. This aspect of fiction is what I was hoping to take a break from. The relationships portrayed are multi-dimensional syncing connection and erosion.

3. Truth > Palatability. Like I said, it’s not a fluffy rom. It’s speaks to the truths that many of us face that we alone are responsible for our choices and that we are in fact just one choice away from changing the entire trajectory of our lives. More importantly, that we must live with those choices..

The most obvious reminder for me from a women’s health perspective, was how important it is to recognize the lives that we live and experiences that we encounter, but hardly have the words to articulate.

I have so much more to share on this novel and how it relates to women and our wellness and it’ll be on Substack in a full analysis this weekend 🌊🐚

Have you read this yet or is it on your TBR? If you haven’t or it isn’t, did this peak your interest?
•
•
•

12/31/2025

There is no perfect year.

No perfect goal setting or strategy to optimize whatever is coming your way.

You do the best with you have, set your intentions, and pray.

Pray that the priority is not perfection, but persistence in the imperfection or listening when misalignment consistently presents herself.
✨
It’s a flow>force year for me, inviting a creative and contemplative mindset, open to alignment in God’s purpose.
Learning to shift a distorted value in control and composure towards surrender and acceptance.

It’s helping moms integrate body literacy, emotional health, and creating a place of becoming for women between all the lives we live.

Happy New Year friends!🕯️🍾🌙 Let’s do this💪🏽👑

12/23/2025

My why is on that second slide👉🏽

Why I learned to become literate in, and care for my mental and emotional health.

Why I reduced my mental capacity to the things that truly matter.

Why I continue to seek growth in heart work.

Why I’ve realized over the last couple of years that God is my enough.

It’s easy to be swallowed whole by the noise telling you what to start doing, routines to follow, scripts to memorize, tactics and therapies, supplements, and medical advice that the core of you feels like you’re not enough. If we just peel back the layers to what really matters, it really is that simple.

What a way to end a difficult year with the hopeful words of a little (not so little) boy that is eye level with me. He still like to be cradled too but don’t tell him I told you🤫🤐

11/25/2025

we are neglecting a major and foundational piece of women’s health.

so much of women’s health is hyper-focused on hormones, reproduction, giving birth, weight management, and food choices.

what this field forgets is that all those very key fragments, require our ability to confidently and intuitively make decisions.

idk about you, but I’ve been riddled with indecision too many times than I can count. times where the clear decision was right in front of me, but I was too worried about how my choices would affect other people who don’t even live with me, what others advice was, how it was supposed to look or be, and how a single choice feels too big that it would affect the next 5 years of time and space. maybe that’s a little dramatic, but there’s a peak into my brain 3 years ago🤣 and if you’re nodding along, welcome to the club.

addressing emotional health and intuitive decision making, is a missed opportunity in the women’s health space. it’s often compartmentalized, making us think that intuitive decision making cannot coexist with evidence based practice, when in reality, it totally can and in both my professional and personal opinion, it absolutely should.

the reality is we can only do or decide what we can with what we have in that moment. remember, we will never know everything and that’s ok.

this is where our core values come in so let’s talk about it.🫶🏽

we go deeeep in both fertility awareness/body literacy and childbirth classes on core values:

• i help them identify their values, those core elements of life that are important to them.
• give them decision making tools for their health or birth that will support their values.
• help them create a framework using their current experience as a starting point, for big decision making to apply in all areas of life.

if you’re someone who wants to get a little deeper on core values and the framework to help support choices in women’s health, lifestyle, pregnancy, birth, and beyond, stay a while :)
•
•
•

11/19/2025

now you know I’m a book girl so you can expect this page to be yap about books and body literacy so let’s go.

Ive seen videos of laboring women in a hospital, sitting in a wheelchair left unassisted because paperwork and policy come before care, it’s hard to restore faith. It’s triggering especially when you can’t single-handedly change systems structures that were never set up for our health and wellness to begin with.

This is why it’s imperative as a woman to:

✨ become body literate
✨ identify core values and boundaries
✨ be ready to execute on hard decisions
✨ get informed with reliable sources
✨ choose individualized care
✨ focus on the things we CAN control
✨ surrender the things we can’t

so no. it’s not all in your head, if you’ve ever felt like something about your care didn’t add up.

start here.
get curious.
reclaim what you were never taught.

and if you’re ready to go deeper into body literacy, I have a ✨free guide✨ that launches Black Friday for millennial women who want to feel more connected, more grounded, and more confident in their bodies and lives.

your body makes sense.
you just need the language to understand it.

how ready are you to redefine WHOLE women’s health?!

10/28/2025

nah.

the homies are gonna get the beet root, moringafied, cottage cheese infused, chia seed spritzed kinda pancakes thank yeewww.🥞 🫜

comment recipe and you’ll get it to your inbox on Thursday along w this weeks substack of a story about girls and b vitamins 🫶🏽

10/10/2025

🤓what kind of health education did you get?

was it in the icky gym annex with a video of reproduction?
was it the vague and uncomfortable “eat healthy and don’t have *you know what* or you’ll get pregnant” talk?

either way, we didn’t get enough of what we deserved and the stats are showing it.

now I happen to believe that health literacy rates could improve if we focused on body literacy to help make the connections more clear and accessible.

I’m hosting a series on Substack called health education for well read millennial girls to help increase that 12% by focusing on women and young girls with the information we all needed but never got.

together, we’re going to take health information, simplify it, and talk about HOW to apply it with an individualized approach!🤍

Comment STACK and I’ll send you the first article that goes over what to expect and what topics we’ll in the series🫶🏽
•
•
•

Address

White House, TN

Website

http://Giananataliav.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Simply GNV-Birth & Maternal Health posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Want your practice to be the top-listed Clinic in White House?