MSP Fall 2017 Scholarship Winner: Brigic Johnson

For the Fall 2017 Maternal Support Practitioner Program at bebo mia inc we had a record number of scholarship applications submitted! Choosing our winners was incredibly difficult and in the end, we ended up selecting 6 winners. Two of the scholarships were sponsored by amazing female-owned businesses, Hip Mommies & SleepBelt. The other four were sponsored by us because we truly could not pick just one winner for the #bebobabes Bursary. We are so honoured and excited that we are able to provide scholarships to incredibly strong, motivated, kind and passionate women from all over the world who would otherwise not be able to afford a doula training program. When a scholarship recipient is chosen they must submit a blog entry introducing themselves and their “why”.

We are pleased to introduce you to a Fall 2017 MSP #bebobabes Bursary recipient, Brigic Johnson…

My name is Brigic Johnson. I am a wife and stay at home mom. I have two beautiful boys Eli and Josiah. I am so grateful for my boys! They are an answer to my prayers!! I am married to a loving and supportive husband and he is a such an inspiration to me. He is a minister and the musician at our church. He has been the only consistent person in my life. He never gives up on me and always pushes me to be better and to pursue my purpose!!! Actually, the other major influence in my life was my father. He passed away in January of this year from cancer. My dad always believed in me and encouraged me to follow my dreams and to own my own business. Now that he’s gone, I want to honour him by doing my very best in this program and making sure I don’t give up on  owning my own business because I know he would be so proud!

I wanted this scholarship because I want to help women of colour in my community.

According to the Thomas Jefferson Health District, black women in Charlottesville are four times more likely to die of pregnancy complications than white women. Also, nearly 10 percent of black babies born in Charlottesville are premature and that is nearly double the rate for white newborns! I want to help change this in my local community!

My goal is to educate women of colour in low-income areas since it is most likely that they won’t have access to the proper information and support in order to have a successful birth. I want to gain knowledge and learn more about being a birth doula so that I can facilitate change in my community.

Being a woman of colour and a birth doula is a high need in my community.

When I was Pregnant with my first child I knew nothing about doulas or my rights concerning my prenatal care. I am grateful that God placed people and resources in my life to inform me about my rights.  I’ve learned in my experiences that I have a voice in the well-being of my pregnancy. I am already in the process of building my own birth consultant company and I am so excited! I will offer placenta encapsulation, over night postpartum care for new mom’s as well as doula support at births. This will include hospital, birth centre, unmedicated home births and water births. I will also offer support for medicated births, relaxation and coping techniques, partner support and guidance and will do all of this under a value system that is non-judgmental and prioritizes advocacy.

In addition to my hands-on services I plan to offer products for my clients too!

These will include: homemade body butters, essential oil sprays and I’d really like to create a tincture that supports women with fertility issues. I want to be a voice that encourages women to seek natural alternatives before feelings like they have to explore more invasive and costly procedures to help them conceive.  And lastly, I would also like to provide women with some education plus access to resources so that they can do their own research on vaccinating their babies. By providing parents with resources they can feel good about making an informed decision on vaccinating or non-vaccinating. And I would like to parents to know that there are safer options when it comes to vaccinations such as holistic vaccines. Again, I am so grateful for this opportunity and to make a difference in my community!!

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Want to get involved? Find out how you can join our movement of “connecting women to their intrinsic value and power” as a sponsor by clicking here.