Healing is not linear. Moving into thriving after living in survival can look like healing, until something reminds your body otherwise. Trauma does not announce itself, and healing does not cancel our nervous system’s memory. This piece explores what trauma-informed care actually requires when it is practiced, not performed.

Misinformation did not become powerful on its own. It became powerful because families no longer trust a healthcare system that has failed to protect, respect, and include them. Where the system has left gaps, the internet has filled them.

“Meeting people where they are” sounds compassionate, but most people don’t actually mean it. To meet someone where they are, you have to understand what survival really looks like. I know, because I’ve been there: raising kids on one income, making choices from a place of exhaustion, not lack of ambition. This isn’t about willpower, it’s about access, margin, and the oxygen it takes to dream.

These maternal health disparities are not just numbers — they represent mothers, fathers, babies, and families whose stories deserve to be heard, acknowledged, and changed. As a doula and advocate, this reality fuels my passion and purpose.

My experience of being, black, fat, and pregnant.

It all begins with an idea.

As I was thinking, these thoughts came to mind.