Few people have the tenacity and the resolve to recognize a gap in women’s health care services and then break down the barriers to fill the gap and find a place for themselves amid the new design. But, that is exactly what today’s guest, Director of Midwifery Care, Nikia Grayson, CNM, DNP, MPH did at CHOICES — Memphis Center for Reproductive Health in Memphis, Tennessee.

When her water broke during her 16th week of pregnancy Kate was placed on home bed rest. Then at 27-weeks, she experienced such an intense bleeding that she was placed in a high-risk perinatal unit where she was told by hospital staff that she was the most complicated, naturally-conceived pregnancy they had ever experienced.

A lack of support during her postpartum transition inspired today’s guest, Kate Turza, to become a certified postpartum doula. She decided to offer women the support she wished she’d had by becoming a doula and by joining the board of a non-profit that facilitates a monthly birth circle.

Evan Manskey, always wanted a family but doubted her body’s ability to have children. A self-proclaimed late bloomer, her monthly menstruation didn’t come until after she started driving. When she experienced excessive bleeding during her first two pregnancies, both of which ended as miscarriages, she was overcome with anxiety and fell into depression.

During her first pregnancy, Amanda was euphoric and felt a profound spiritual connection to her son but after he was born, the separation triggered a severe postpartum loneliness which lasted for eighteen months. And after struggling with the decision of her readiness to have another child, her daughter was born with an undetected, random form of Down Syndrome.