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art & Nourish Gatherings for Birthworkers & Perinatal Families
Art & Nourish Gatherings for Birthworkers and Perinatal Families (Art, Craft, Workshops, Meals and Connections)
Doula Monica Villanueva Holmes, in conjunction with Esperanza Dodge, Rebecca Servoss, and Libby Bonnie Branham operate together and individually as a Collective of Community-Based Trainers and Facilitators who work at the intersection of art, healing, and birthwork education..
We are a BIPOC and Indigenous-led group of Perinatal Professionals. Together, we design and lead community-based workshops and trainings that support birth workers, caregivers, and organizations committed to care, reflection, and growth through culturally rooted, holistic care.
Types of Gatherings & Workshops We Facilitate:
🌿Art & Nourish Gatherings for Birthworkers & Perinatal Families
Overview:
Art & Nourish Gatherings are community-centered circles that bring together birthworkers, parents, and families to reconnect, restore, and create. These gatherings blend art, craft, nourishment, and meaningful connection — grounding participants in creativity, culture, and collective care.
Purpose:
To create a warm, inclusive space where those supporting or navigating the perinatal journey can slow down, reflect, and engage in creative expression as a form of self-care, healing, and community building.
Core Elements:
🎨 Art & Craft Workshops:
Gentle, hands-on projects that invite creativity and mindfulness — from clay, collage, and herbal art to ancestral crafts and intuitive painting.
🍲 Shared Meals:
Nourishing foods that celebrate seasonal and cultural traditions. Each gathering includes a wholesome, locally inspired meal or beverage pairing (such as herbal teas, cacao, or mocktails).
🤎 Connection Circles:
Story-sharing, reflective dialogue, and rest spaces for birthworkers, new parents, and families to exchange wisdom and receive support.
🌸 Wellness & Reflection:
Incorporating breathwork, journaling, and simple movement or grounding practices to restore body, mind, and spirit.
🌕 Art & Healing Circles
Overview:
Art & Healing Circles are sacred, creative gatherings that weave together artmaking, storytelling, and community connection as pathways to healing. Rooted in cultural wisdom and collective care, these circles invite participants to slow down, express themselves, and reconnect with body, spirit, and community.
Purpose:
To create a safe, inclusive, and nurturing space for birthworkers, families, and community members to explore healing through art, reflection, and shared nourishment. Each circle centers belonging, creativity, and restoration — reminding us that healing is both personal and communal.
Core Components:
🎨 Creative Expression:
Guided art and craft experiences using natural and accessible materials — painting, collage, clay, textile art, herbal crafts, and more. No artistic experience needed; the process is the medicine.
🔥 Circle & Storytelling:
A grounding opening and closing circle where participants are invited (never required) to share reflections, stories, or emotions in a supportive, nonjudgmental environment.
🔥 Nourishment & Ritual:
Light refreshments, herbal teas, or shared meals that align with seasonal and cultural themes. Small rituals such as candle lighting, intention setting, or breathwork may accompany the creative process.
🌸 Mind-Body Connection:
Gentle movement, mindfulness, or sound healing practices interwoven to support emotional release and inner balance.
Professional Development Trainings
Skills often overlooked in traditional birthwork education
Overview:
These professional development trainings are designed to expand what it means to be a birthworker — centering the emotional, cultural, and community dimensions of care that traditional training programs often overlook.
We go beyond clinical knowledge to nurture the full spectrum of skills needed to support families and communities holistically.
Purpose:
To empower birthworkers with the tools, confidence, and awareness to practice in ways that are culturally grounded, trauma-informed, community-centered, and sustainable — both for the families they serve and for themselves.
Core Focus Areas:
🌸 Embodied Presence & Nervous System Literacy
Learn to recognize and regulate stress responses in yourself and your clients. Explore somatic awareness, grounding, and co-regulation techniques for use in birth and postpartum spaces.
🌎 Cultural Humility & Decolonized Care Practices
Examine the impact of colonization on reproductive health. Explore Indigenous, Black, and community-based traditions of care that center respect, reciprocity, and relational accountability.
🪶 Creative & Expressive Healing Modalities
Incorporate art, movement, and storytelling into client care and personal reflection. Learn how creativity can support resilience and emotional integration in perinatal work.
💬 Communication, Boundaries & Conflict Navigation
Strengthen your ability to hold space, set limits, and navigate tension with integrity. Practice compassionate dialogue and self-advocacy within team and client relationships.
🔥 Sustainability & Burnout Prevention
Explore collective care models, peer mentorship, and wellness practices that sustain long-term community service.
🌱 Community Building & Advocacy Skills
Build capacity for collaboration, grassroots leadership, and systems change — preparing birthworkers to lead beyond the birth room.
Training Format:
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In-person and hybrid workshops, ranging from 1-day intensives to multi-session series
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Interactive, experiential learning — circles, hands-on activities, reflection, and peer exchange
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Certificates of Completion available for continuing education (if applicable)
Sample Topics:
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Cultural Competence & Birth Equity in PracticeA heart-centered training exploring bias, power, language, and inclusive care frameworks.
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The Energetics of Holding Space
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Somatic awareness, grounding, and boundary-setting for birthworkers and caregivers
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Birthwork as Ceremony: Honoring traditional knowledge, ritual, and the spiritual dimensions of reproductive care.
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Inclusive Lactation & Perinatal Support: Supporting LGBTQ+, neurodiverse, and BIPOC families with affirming, accessible, and culturally relevant approaches.
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Art of Documentation: Creative journaling and reflective writing for case notes, self-care, and professional growth.
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Community Healing & Collective Care Circles: Guided sharing spaces for birthworkers to process experiences and strengthen peer support networks.
Perinatal Nutrition: Hands-On Learning & Food Demos
Reclaiming nourishment as a cultural, creative, and communal practice
About the Program:
Our Perinatal Nutrition Hands-On & Food Demo Series brings together expecting and postpartum parents, birthworkers, and community members to explore food as medicine — rooted in culture, connection, and care.
We move beyond nutrition charts and focus on embodied learning — preparing, tasting, and sharing foods that restore energy, balance hormones, and support healing during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum recovery.
This is more than a class — it’s a community kitchen circle where wisdom, story, and nourishment meet.
🥣 What Participants Experience:
Each session blends education, cooking, and sensory experience, emphasizing traditional foods and modern nourishment practices.
Participants learn through doing — chopping, stirring, tasting, blending, and preparing foods together while discussing:
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Nutrient-dense meal planning for pregnancy & postpartum
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Herbal infusions, teas, and mineral-rich broths
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Supporting lactation through food and herbs
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Blood-building, warming, and grounding recipes
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Gentle nourishment after loss or cesarean
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Cultural postpartum traditions and healing soups
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Foods that support emotional well-being and hormone balance
🍲 Sample Workshops:
1. “Rebuilding from the Inside Out”
Hands-on cooking with iron-rich and restorative postpartum foods — bone broth, lentil stew, and herbal teas.
2. “Ancestral Nourishment”
Exploring traditional ingredients and healing postpartum foods from local and Indigenous cultures.
3. “Lactation & Herbal Kitchen”
Preparing galactagogue snacks and drinks that support milk production and hydration.
4. “Warm the Womb”
Rooted in the importance of temperature and energetics in postpartum healing — teas, soups, and grounding grains.
5. “Food as Ceremony”
Blending cooking with reflection and gratitude rituals that honor birth, body, and community.
We would love for you to consider us as potential partners for upcoming events, retreats, or trainings.
is to uplift and sustain the people who provide perinatal support by creating spaces for rest, creativity, and collective healing.
We also wish to support perinatal families in bonding with their children, onboarding new skills and taking time for rest, a communal meal and art.
Join us for a series of restorative, art-centered workshops designed to address burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary trauma among doulas, midwives, lactation counselors, and perinatal support professionals. Through creative expression, mindfulness practices, and community sharing, all those associated with birthing families will access tools for self-care, resilience, and emotional healing.
Perinatal families will be invited (at times) into a safe space held by birthworkers and be able to connect with other families on various topics of interest while engaged in art-based activities.
This is a relaxed, nurturing evening of creativity and community. Our adult art and craft class invites you to unwind with a hands-on project designed to spark joy and self-expression.
It is a 2-Hr Class in a larger group format with 1-2 instructors and 10-15 participants. Sip on refreshing mocktails made with fresh herbs and fruits (or warm beverages with yummy toppings and additions) and enjoy delicious light snacks, while letting your imagination flow. No art experience is needed — just come as you are and reconnect with your creative spirit in good company.
If your organization would like to support and/or attend one or more of these Art & Nourish Gatherings for Birthworkers and Perinatal Families Series in 2025-2026 please reach out to:
Monica Villanueva Holmes
360-913-1348
Esperanza Dodge
505-907-0056
Rebecca Servoss, NC-BC, RNC-NIC
Board Certified Holistic Nurse Coach
Certified Neonatal Nurse
Co-Founder & COO
Marigolde
Let’s Work Together
Get in touch so we can start working together.
