I am now a Microbirth Approved Provider!

...Or MAP for short!

What does being a MAP mean? Well, it means that I am now certified to teach prenatal classes on the body's microbiome - specifically, on microbiomes during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, and the influence of these microbiomes on fetal development and lifelong health. These classes will look at the importance of "seeding" events (the events creating the foundation for a baby's microbiome and especially the gut microbiome) and what the "ideal" circumstances look like (from a microbial perspective).

If you are reading this and thinking "what the heck is a microbiome?", it is basically the colonies of bacteria that live within us (in our guts, ears, mouths, vagina, etc). These bacteria play a major role in our health and wellbeing - something research and science is discovering more and more about everyday. Honestly when you look into it it sounds like science fiction but it is in fact very real! I could go on about this subject but instead, I encourage you to join one of my classes in the future to learn more.

So what made me want to get into this? Well, as a postpartum doula with a public health background who loves to cook, I was naturally drawn to the subject. But let me take a little bit of a deeper dive here - I read every morning first thing in the morning. I get most of my books from the Pima County Public Library. So one day, while browsing the shelves of my local Tucson library, a book caught my eye - "The Mind Gut-Connection" by Emeran Meyer, MD. I had heard a few things about gut bacteria and health but what made me particularly interested in his book is the fact that he is a gastroenterologist and neuroscientist at UCLA, meaning he has insight into two different but certainly connected fields of research. Reading this book completely changed the way I looked at health and food. It opened my eyes to the way that our gut bacteria and brain communicate with one another (it's a two way communication). A fun fact I like to share with people when talking about gut microbiomes is this: We have greater stores of serotonin (~95%; the "happiness" hormone) in our gut than in our brains (pg. 23 of The Mind-Gut Connection). When you really stop to think about the implications of this, it is a bit mind blowing. Now imagine how I, a postpartum doula, felt upon learning this - I couldn't stop thinking about how the health of our gut bacteria could potentially influence things like perinatal and postpartum mood disorders. So since then, I found myself itching to learn more. And thus I became a MAP provider.

I am still working out when I will start teaching, but keep on the look out, especially on my instagram where I am much more active! (My instagram handle is @soldoulatucson). My hope is to teach in-person throughout Tucson, AZ and virtually.

For more information on Microbirth and being an approved provider please visit: https://microbirth.com/ and https://microbirth.teachable.com/p/map2025