How my journey began

In 2006 as a young aspiring artist, I left my job of 5 years as a security guard and Special Patrolman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to go teach English as a foreign language in Prague.   It was there, quite unexpectedly, that I discovered my true calling was in  the healing arts, rather than the visual.  A student of mine, in exchange for English lessons, gave me shiatsu treatments.  Everything she said resonated and I became obsessively curious about the relationship of the 5 elements and meridian theory.  But I had already devoted so much of my studies to art.  Fully knowing I had found what I was looking for in Prague, I headed back to the US.  At the time I thought I was coming back to develop my portfolio to pursue a degree in Art Therapy, while deepening my understanding of yoga.  I began a yoga teacher training course, and through my continued searching, it became crystal clear that I needed to study acupuncture and Chinese medicine.  I had been practicing yoga for 5 years by then, but as a child I studied martial arts for 10 years.  Much of Chinese medicine is born out of a martial arts tradition, so both healing traditions felt so perfectly in line with what I knew in my body.  I completed another advanced training in Classical and Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy just months before beginning my MSTOM degree (Masters of Science in Traditional Oriental Medicine) in 2008.  I’ve been helping people using both Chinese medicine and Yoga Therapy since 2009, and completed my MSTOM degree in 2012, when I became a Licensed Acupuncturist (L.Ac.) in New York.  

In 2016 I left my private acupuncture practice in Union Square in Manhattan when I had my daughter, and became a full-time mom. My practice had become more focused on fertility and prenatal support, when I happened to become pregnant myself!  I told all my patients I would be returning to work just a few months after I had the baby.   But I couldn’t bring myself to leave her!  We were fortunate enough to be able to make that decision and I am so grateful for that.  I had a wonderful team for my pregnancy, labor and delivery supported by an amazing practice of midwives, a massage therapist, acupuncturist, and an acu-doula.  I was also very happy with the doctors at Mt. Sinai West, where I delivered my baby, despite it being an induced labor lasting 36 hours.  But after I had the baby, I felt completely alone,  fumbling in the dark through my postpartum phase.  I had no idea what to expect. I don’t know that you ever can really know what to expect, but as an acupuncturist, I knew about the importance of healing from childbirth and restoring your yin and blood.  My acupuncturist, massage therapist and my doula all came to see me.  I received a phone call or 2 from the midwife who delivered my baby in the first days after giving birth, and I called her when I had some issues or questions about my healing.  I even had an acupuncturist colleague and friend come to my house to prepare my placenta for encapsulation.  I had made broths in advance that were kept in the freezer to help me replenish my fluids and nutrients after childbirth.   I still felt like I was left in the dark, like something was missing.  When I was pregnant everyone was always checking on me, making sure me and the baby were healthy, answering any questions, making me feel secure.  But once the baby actually came, and I was feeling like my body was broken and hanging wide open, no one was there to see how I was feeling.  And if anyone was asking, they were usually asking about the baby, not me.   My mother was with me for 2 weeks after the baby came, which was such a blessing.  But after that, my husband traveled every week for work, so for 4-5 days out of every week, I was completely alone with my baby.   The house was a mess, I could barely remember to feed myself. But I was so very happy with my newborn in our little baby bubble at the same time.  I began to see the big gaping hole in women’s health care in the US that is the 4th trimester.  In 2017 while being a full-time mom, I began to pursue my DACM (Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine) focusing on postpartum recovery and support.

In 2018 I became pregnant again and several months later, my family was relocated over seas to Switzerland for my husband’s work.  We packed up our lives and moved to Zurich just 6 weeks before my due date.  I had only 2 requirements left of my DACM, and one of the requirements of the curriculum is to follow and observe a health-care practitioner of a discipline other than acupuncture.  I was arranging to follow midwives in the US, but since I happened to be in Switzerland not only for the birth of my second child, but for this segment of my studies and career, it was another divinely aligned experience abroad, both personally and professionally.  In Switzerland postpartum care is institutionalized.  A postpartum midwife visits mothers who have just given birth at their home for up to 16 visits in the first 2 months for first time moms, and up to 10 times for consecutive births.  Making arrangements with a postpartum midwife is part of prenatal care.  Births and prenatal checks are attended by midwives in hospital, but the wochenbett hebamme, puerperium midwives, literally, childbed midwives, visit the home after the baby is born. They help establish breastfeeding, monitor postnatal recovery and neonatal health and development for the first 4 weeks of the infant’s life.  Not only did I get the postpartum experience under 2 different health care systems, I also was able to conclude my study concentration of postpartum recovery in an ideal location where they actually have a postpartum system in place to observe.   I accompanied several different midwives on home visits and also shadowed midwives in hospital rounds.  One of the most beneficial aspects of this system is that the midwives monitor the healing and recovery of the mother and the growth and development of the baby, so there is no need to venture out for a neonatal visit with a pediatrician until the infant is 4 weeks old, allowing the mother time to recover, and avoiding unnecessary exposure of the baby.  

While institutionalized support during the postpartum phase is a far superior system, nothing replaces having the support of family and a social network during his phase of life.  Living in a new country with a new baby and toddler is incredibly isolating and stressful. I came back to the US at the end of last year to have the support of my family while my husband still continues travel extensively for work.  I’m grateful to be staying with my family at my mother’s with her help, allowing me to happily raise my children while pursuing my vision and calling to revolutionize the postpartum phase of women’s health care in America.