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A magazine devoted to the interests of mothers and the art that empowers them

Creative Director: SarahKate Butterworth(also artist, photographer and interviewer)

CTO: Rob Butterworth(also lead grip, webmaster & manager)

Hartney Lawthe mama’hoodChildish ThingsDanae ShantiA Mellow Mood Spa

Blooming BelliesNurturing StrategiesDive Into BirthSwoon Jewelry StudiosDoctor at Your Door

A Dimple in TimeBarefoot Babies BamboobiesJoy CollectiveHypnobirthing Boulder

Boulder Medical CenterGood Life AcupunctureS. Boulder ChiropracticThe Boulder Birth Center

Henna Photography It is important to acknowledge SarahKate Butterworth of www.sarahkatebutterworth.com for contributing her original and unique henna-photography work that appears on the models in this issue. SarahKate is actively adorning and photographing in her studio in Boulder.

Contributors:Poetry (6 & 7): Deborah McNamara is a writer, yoga teacher, environmental educator and mother of three sweet boys in Boulder, Colorado. She received her Masters of Arts in Environmental Leadership from Naropa University and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Boston University. Read more and contact Deborah through her blog on Motherhood as Spiritual Art at www.unraveledword.wordpress.com. Birth Photography (31 - 33): Monet is a Colorado Springs, Boulder, and Denver birth photographer and videographer. She believes birth can be one the most empowering, beautiful, and important events of your life. Through film and stills, she captures the big and small moments of your child’s birth day. Mandalas (36 & 37): Amy Haderer is a Denver artist & doula. The Mandala Journey started as a way to meditate, process emotions, and prepare for the birth of her third daughter Seren. Doing these pieces daily during her pregnancy helped Amy to have the beautiful, peaceful home birth she dreamed of.

Beautiful henna models:Katie Wise (cover, 8-13), Liz (2, 17), Natalie (4-7), Elizabeth (14), Coleen (15), Karey (17), Sarah (18), Lindy, Julia & Luna (3, 20 - 24), Aislinn (25-27), Deb (27, 28), Carrie (34 & 35), Kendra (40, 46 ), Jeanmarie (41), Laura (42-44), Kelly (back cover).

Interviews:Katie Wise (8-16)Lindy and her daughter Julia (20-23)

Community Partners:

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Like childbirth, art transcends the

artificial walls society builds:

the significance of race, class, poli-tics, even borders and countries, fades in the presence of a fresh, new woman.

This Issue, Artfull Mother - Fall 2015, looks at the postpartum time of motherhood, what we have all been waiting for, pregnan-cy’s end, turning pregnancy into mothering; it’s time to meet your new child! What a great source of joy and happiness, right?

Or is it? Postpartum is not all happiness and joy. For those suf-fering Postpartum Depression, there are dangers in this time, too. In my interview with Katie Wise, (from mamma’hood & yo

mama), she talks candidly about her experience with Postpartum Depression ~ what worked for her, what she learned and what she is doing today, personally and in her classes about Postpartum Depres-sion.

In addition to the articles, photos and interviews; may I sug-gest taking look at the ads in this issue? Each of the advertisers are local, individually invited to be-come a community partner based on my own [unscientific] research. Each is of the highest quality and integrity in their area of expertise, to the extent I would use them for myself & family. May I suggest you consider them for yours?

Enjoy this seasons magazine with my compliments!

Peace ~

SarahKate Butterworth

Greetings and welcome to the

Fall Issue of Artfull Mother,

the magazine created for-by-about mothers and the

art that inspires them.

This magazine examines

motherhood, child-birth and pregnancy through the lense of

“creating art” to transform and inspire us individually and as a commu-nity.

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This beautiful mama went into labor shortly after I adorned her ~ so this sweet baby is just a few days old.

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A Mother’s BodyShapeshifter

Giver of Life

Bone shifter.

Doorway to the next generation of family story -

her body a vessel,

she has become Whole:

Holy,

Irrevocably marked.

When it is all said and done,

death calling her to another form

she will see that ‘perfect’ doesn’t matter.

Not “perfect” hips but Birthing hips.

Not dainty light spritely

but feet and legs sunk deep in Earth,

heavy with responsibility:

Weighted,

Big.

Vast with circle of Love.

~ Deborah McNamara

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Interview with Katie Wise

Hello, Today I am going to introduce you a real “do’er”

in the local birthing community, someone who has accomplished more than her youthful appear-ance lets on. I first met her when I painted her for her second pregnancy and since we have crossed paths she is always up to something new! May I introduce: Katie Wise.

It is an absolutely gorgeous Colo-rado summer day; I am walk-ing away from the parking lot, where I parked, on a wide side-walk or pedway. A fine exam-ple of community living, Nyland Cohousing. There is enough his-tory in the community to write volumes, but that is for another day. Today I’ve come to paint henna, talk birth, women and babies with Katie Wise, a leader and in the birth community and a true inspiration for many local women who know her.

SK: Hi, Katie! This is such a beautiful backyard!!! Thank you so much for inviting me to your home and making time in your busy schedule for the Artfull Mother Readers. It’s really good to see you again!

KW: It’s really good to see you too, SarahKate! Thank you, this is the first time I’ve had a backyard, you know, we had the back deck once, but that’s not the same energy at all…. you could wander out here for... acres, it goes on forever. I love Nyland.

SK: I can see that you do, and looks like it’s a good fit for you and your family.

Katie, you’ve been working with pregnant & postpartum women for some time now, can you give me a brief description of what

kinds of stuff you’re working on with birth, and maybe a little background about yourself, for those readers who don’t know about you, yet?

KW: Ok, sure. To start out: I am a wife & mother of 2 chil-dren: Phoenix is 6 years old and Isadora is 3. Boulder is my home town, and I moved back here to Boulder from Santa Monica in 2008. That same year I de-cided to sell my studio in Santa Monica called, “Yo mama,” get married, open a new Yo mama studio here in Boulder, get preg-nant and have a baby. Looking back, I might have taken it a bit fast.

Today, I am one of the owners of the NEW mama’hood (Den-ver & Boulder) YEA!!!, where I’m the Director of Yoga and Childbirth Education. so I pretty much oversee these depart-ments at both locations, which is really exciting. I have three amazing partners now in the business- Linda Appel Lipsius, the CEO, Amanda Ogden the Director of Lactation Services and Allison Schneider, the Direc-tor of Everything (she creates the beautiful and useful retail space, and manages the staff) I also teach pre- and postnatal yoga at mama’hood (both loca-tions) and I train yoga teachers, to teach pre- and postnatal yoga, and I train doulas. We do teacher trainings here in Boulder and in Orlando, Florida, too.

SK: Wow, Katie, it looks like you have a very full, “business life” with some really meaning-ful accomplishments and still going strong. One of the things I really admire is how much of your work is “hands on,” teach-ing birth and yoga classes at 2 locations, taking Doula clients

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and handling the big picture stuff at the mama’hood! You’re an inspira-tion Katie, you really have created a lot and are giving a lot to our com-munity! For all of the women in Boulder, thank you!!!

KW: It’s truly my pleasure- and right back atcha, SarahKate.

SK: Tell me Katie, what are you do-ing artistically, you know, from your creative side? Are you in touch with your “Artfull Mother” ?

KW: Thank you for asking Sarah-Kate, I think I am in touch with my Artfull Mother. In addition to my lifelong passion for yoga and con-scious birth, I have opened up in the last year or so to a deep passion for music, through leading a Kir-tan Band. You’ve come to some of our gigs- we lead somewhat non-conventional Kirtans, with original chants, mashed up with some Classic Rock.. From the first time I heard it, I was blown away. I’ve always loved to sing in my yoga classes, there’s something about singing for me. With Kirtan, just hearing this wave of people’s voices coming back, it so beautiful. I started studying with Mike Cohen, in person and over sky-pe, then I response sang with another Kirtan leader in town, then I started writing chants and leading my own band. Now I think I have about 8 original chants, and I’m heading into the studio to begin recording an album.

I’ve been on a couple tours with Mike, I sang at the Shasta festival, at

Mount Shasta, in Northern California and in Cleveland, Ohio this year, too. It’s kind of taken on a life of it’s own.

SK: You guys were great, I love the power of chant & responses and the “harmonium” sounds like pure plea-sure, so rich, it was great to see you and your band at the mama’ hood Boulder, the highlight of my evening for sure!

KW: AWW, SarahKate, Thank you! I think it’s amazing, too! That night was a lot of fun; being in the new space is a dream come true. We took some time setting up this space, the moveable walls create a big space when we need it and great sized classrooms otherwise. We learned a lot from the Yo Mama in the Treehouse building, though, it’s funny, but I’m still getting used to not being at the tree house.

SK: …Yea, not having all those stairs to climb!

KW: Oh my gosh! Those stairs! I hated those stairs! OK, I was so ready to be done with those stairs.

SK: From early in your career, you’ve been involved with Childbirth Edu-cation. Can you talk little about your role at the mama’hood regarding Childbirth Classes?

KW: I am the Director of Childbirth Education at mama’hood, I have been teaching childbirth classes for some time now and I still get excited about teaching childbirth classes - I created a program called “Inspired Birth” which has a hypnosis element called Hypno Mama.

SK: So you get to teach Childbirth classes too, wow! I bet that is satisfy-ing! You’re teaching some different classes, too, how is that going?

KW: Yea, I really love teaching. I get a lot out of it personally, it’s really important to me, to stay connected to the women! I regularly teach “Baby and Me” and prenatal classes at both mama’hood locations- Denver and Boulder- and I have my In-spired Birth Classes which I think are a holistic, really fun way to get ready to have a baby and there is a new In-spired Birth class starting each month at one location or the other.

You know in addition to teaching I am also a practicing Doula; I’ve been at more than 260 births and still counting.

The early motherhood time, which in ayurvedic terms is 2 years, is a time of big change for every woman. Taking care of new moms is a really strong passion for me. I’m passionate about working with women, helping them to recognize this time, with it’s chal-lenges, as an incredible opportunity for personal growth as well as becom-ing a mother. And that there are a million right ways to do it.

SK: Would you say there is a common theme or some idea you want your students to know or get from your classes?

KW: You asked me about a common thread running through my work; I would say that is easily about encour-aging and supporting a ‘transforma-tion’ during pregnancy, birth and postpartum.

Not many people know about my ex-perience with Postpartum Depression after my the birth of my first child. I’ve started to share about it often in the hopes to lessen the stigma, and to bring more awareness; it’s very much a personal journey.

SK: I’ve known you for some time and I adorned you for your 2nd preg-

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nancy. Can you talk about what you did differently with your second pregnancy, what worked for you?

KW: The change was massive, the second time around! A full-on, team effort, you were around for some of it,SarahKate, it was no joke!

I had 4 birth doulas, the Boulder Doula Circle at the time was Maria, Jenevieve, Ally and HeatherLyn- an amazing team. Then I had 2 post-partum doulas - Sonya Bastow, who was training Prem Amrita, along with Kate Kripke helping with my mood and brain. I had Jake Fratkin doing acupuncture and herbs for me and I was getting chiropractic, and bodywork done as needed.

I also saw a psychiatrist, Karen Horst, whom I talked

to about the danger signs, what to look for and appropriate medica-tions, if they became necessary. Kate and Karen Horst work closely together, and what was also nice about that was that we literally all went to see her: my mom, my hus-band and I. Together we came up with plans for sleep and medicine that I felt really good about, as a last resort.

SK: Communication between provid-ers is really important, when they are working together, it’s great!

KW: So true! In addition to all that, I worked with Jeni, this time as my midwife. She said was that one of the issues with my first birth- was my working right up to my due date, so there was no time to decelerate- it was just 60 to zero.

So with Izzi, she made me make a commitment to her, to “to slow down.” She said, “3 months, before the birth” and I said, “No way!” “OK, how about 1 month?” I bargained. So a month before my due date, the second time around, I went on “ma-ternity leave.”

Jeni said; “... it takes about 2 weeks to ‘detox’ from the “doing energy,” “to-do lists,” “email” the sort of “I’m valuable because of my contribution in the world” energy.

Then at the third week, it’s the...“Well, if I’m not that, who am I?” space and the 4th week is the ‘blossoming of the feminine being’ the “oh well, maybe I do want to learn how to do gluten free baked goods,” “maybe I want to learn the

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guitar,” “maybe I want to talk to my neighbor in the garden, together we’ll weed a little bit” and so I did that with my second … this very soft, easy-going space. I started playing a lot of music and gardening. And then Izzi was born- a much easier transition to go from doing very little to taking care of a baby. It was all about being.

SK: You’ve told me how the birth professionals made a difference in your birth, tell me: What about about Community? Where did you find your community and how did they help?

KW: Did I mention I love Nyland? SK: I know you got some healing support here.

KW: Yea, we did! We needed the support!

We moved to Nyland cohousing when I wa 6 months pregnant with Izzi. I reached out right away saying, “I’m about to have a baby, the first time I had postpartum depression and anxiety and I have a basket full of needs, will anyone help?”

The Nyland community (known for their community support) rallied. It was amazing; we had this “care calendar” that was HUGE, almost embarassing, there were commu-nity meals coming, housework was on there twice a week, we had an errand on there every 4 days and there was even childcare on there for Phoenix too, we had all this beauti-ful support. And this is in addition to the postpartum doulas coming a couple times a week.

I had a Nyland friend, a mother of

3 boys, who set up the care cal-endar for me. I thought it was the most obnoxious care calendar in the world. We sent it out and the Com-munity filled it right up! Everybody just made it happen.

KW: Now, that is what I say to my moms: make your support request embarrassing, make it obnoxious, make the care calendar something that you are almost ashamed to send out and then it might be close to the amount of support you need.

I dare them, “ask for more help than they ever think they can use” if you don’t NEED it, you can call if off… or use it to thrive even more. It’s really hard to convince first time moms of what they really need because I think they hear it and say, “Well, that won’t be me... I have great husband or whatever... and so therefore, I don’t need that level of support,” and more often than not,

it’s just not true.

And the ones that take my dare …. and they look so rested and well and say, “I took your dare and I’m so glad I did and I feel amazing!” and it’s often my second time moms, who finally take the advice.

I felt better 4 months after Izzi was born than I did two years after Phoenix’s birth. The time - energy investment into that first month or two, is paid back many times over in the long term health of the mama and the family.

SK: That must have felt so wonder-ful to have the community there to support you!

KW: It was amazing, the outreach and care from the Nyland community is really incredible. We did some other things differently

Katie’s daughter was born 3 years ago on the fall solstice!

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too, John did some bottles, we still exclusively breastfeed, but he did 2 bottles a week, usually Friday and Saturday nights. We had a little mini fridge and a little bottle warmer so it was really fast and easy to make a bottle and give that to Izzi. A couple times a week, I would get 4 to 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep, that was huge for mental health! Huge! By Thursday night I would start to get a little symptomatic- but then after two nights of bigger chunks of sleep, by Sunday I loved

motherhood again. What we ac-tually figured out that I had, even more specifically that the Postpar-tum Depression or Anxiety was post-partum OCD. It’s really unique and not very fun, one of the symptoms of it can be intrusive thoughts about harming your baby.

SK: I’m so glad you took a different approach this time; what a godsend to have such great support for your bouts of Postpartum OCD. I really had no idea about OCD and those

thoughts- that had to be horrible.

KW: It was awful! It’s hard to re-member all of the first time; I felt more anxiety then. And again, I felt I was all alone. I didn’t know what any of it meant. This time I had Kate working with me; I was able to be a witness of my thoughts and was much more able to say, “OK, I’m getting a little symptomatic, I need sleep.” instead of thinking; “I’m a ter-rible mom, I’m failing at this.”

Coleen texted me shortly after her birth and I came to her home and adorned both her and her mother with postpartum henna, a design of lotuses & hearts.

3 generations of women

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The second time, I didn’t be-lieve the crazy thoughts in my head, I just thought- “that’s an awful thought- I need to get more sleep.” Interestingly, with Izzi, I didn’t have a level of mental health that needed medication, but what I had were mild symptoms, fol-lowed by action and immedi-ate care.

And then around 3 months, Kate said, “you might con-sider some Zoloft, that is our choice one.” She said, “as a preventative, when you go back to work.”

Zoloft seemed kind of intense, as a preventative, I would do it if she said I really needed it, but as a preventative... I was reluctant. I asked, could I try something else? We were do-ing sleep and regular walks, I thought about it and sug-gested, “If I could get 3 yoga classes a week, I think I could manage these thoughts & feelings.”

John and I talked about it and agreed to make space in our schedules. Kate agreed to it too, she said, if it’s needed you can reconsider medicine, but let’s give the classes a try, so I did. I started right away, it was December of 2012, 3 times a week.

Funny, I’ve kept at least that many weekly classes for my-self, it’s still a big part of my mental health regime, to this day. We now call my yoga

practice, my Yoloft.

SK: Wow, Katie, thank you for your time this afternoon. You are an amazing resource to our birthing community! This is an important story women really need to hear and it takes a good bit of bravery to share. Thank you for shar-ing your experience, and for dispelling the myth of the image of the perfect mom... who doesn’t need any outside support.

KW: Now, I think the perfect mom is the one who uses her village. We’re trying to do this very natural thing of taking care of a baby in a very un-natural environment- there’s no way that we would have had one baby with two par-ents alone in a cave. Places like Nyland and the mama ‘hood provide a village. We need a village…we live in a village, to support one each other.

Katie Wise can often be found working in the office, teach-ing yoga or birth classes at ei-ther locations of mama’hood Boulder/Denver. She teaches Inspired Birth classes regular-ly, as well as yoga classes for prenatal, postnatal, and yoga teacher trainings.

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Sarah was pregnant last summer, requesting poppies in her henna design. Looking back on her pregnancy, she says, “This was the most empowering thing I experienced during pregnancy.” We photographed her at sunrise and it was such a beautiful morning; mist on the lakes and the Flatirons lit up with the morning sun. Just gorgeous.

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Unconventional Families

“I was pleasantly surprised by Julia and Lindy, when they came in for pregnancy henna this spring. Julia was pregnant with Luna and had returned home to live with her family while she was pregnant and giving birth.”

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Lindy: Isn’t this great? Enjoying this delicious baby and Julia, our own lovely daughter, enjoying the whole environment of all of us, we’re so in this together, we’re so mixed in with each other…

Julia: I think the way we’re living is so perfect; this is community, our little communal family, it’s a recollection of days gone by, it’s such a perfect way to raise a child.

SarahKate: That was Julie speaking, the grown daughter of Lindy. I was pleasantly surprised by Julia and Lindy, when they came in for preg-nancy henna this spring. Julia was pregnant with Luna and had returned home to live with her family while she was pregnant and giving birth.

As I got to know them both, was able to enjoy their company, I was re-ally happy to get a chance to paint Julia, having her mom so involved made this 3 Generations shoot, especially

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inspiring.

SK: Would you describe yourselves as being close?

LK: Yes I would say so, we’ve always been close, but, we’re WAY close now. Julia had moved away, living her independent life. With the first thoughts of her coming home, there may have been a tiny bit of apprehen-sion, but now? Now we’ve grown so close and at ease with each other, I think we really live well together, all of us, don’t we?

JK: We really do!

LK: The birth of this baby brought “magic” to our lives, to our relation-ships; she made a great contribution to our family. I feel like we’re more comfortable and easy and loving and natural, with each other, than ever and it’s just so magical.

SK: Aww...this is so beautiful to hear, with all the complaining and break-ing up these days, I am so happy to hear and see you glowing, thriving so

wonderfully.

SK: Well you know this magazine, Artfull Mother is about women and the art that empowers them. What role, if any would you say creating art plays in your life? JK: Well, I like to do art projects a lot, I always have something I am working on, I love to paint and draw and having Luna is really inspiring me. The last couple of years, I have not been as artistic, but now I feel crafty. I can’t wait to do all kinds of things I have been seeing, like little handprints, I asked my mom if she would teach me to use the sewing machine; I want to start sewing her clothes.

LK: And don’t forget you made that beautiful quilt, a rainbow quilt and that star blanket too!

JK: Oh, yeah, that’s right! I started making a crochet blanket for Luna a few days before I went into labor and then I finished it the first couple weeks after she was born. I also made a little mobile and my 12 year old niece, who is a crocheter, she helped out too!

LK: Oh yeah, and you made the belly casts, she’s been very crafty!

SK: Would you say it’s brought out the Artfull Mother in you, haha?? I’m a big proponent of making art,

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of course, sometimes I feel I NEED TO MAKE ART, I feel it’s what keeps me sane, doing art makes me feel better.

LK: I remember when my kids were little, I did a lot more of it. A lot! You know, we were always doing something, making presents for the fam-ily with the children helping, making ornaments…. making costumes…

SK: Julia, you chose a lotus flower for the henna design for your pregnancy. Does the lotus have a special meaning for you?

JK: I am attracted to flowers and I love mandala designs. At the time, I was thinking of how the lotus grows out of the mud; it’s one flowers that blooms out of the mud and it creates this big gorgeous flower. I think it’s one of those revelations that beauty can come out of the dark muddy stuff.

SK: Oh, and a peacock too, anything there?

JK: Peacocks are so beautiful and you mentioned they rep-resent love, luck and prosper-ity, which seemed like a really good thing to have for her for both of us.

I can hardly believe how much love and luck and prosperity she has brought us, in ways I could have never guessed when you were painting me.

SK: I meet all kinds of women and I am usually impressed by the strong, beautiful, smart and loving women I meet in my work. I have to say as I drove away from their home I was filled with a profound feeling that all was right in the world, at least in their little section of the world.Julia with her mother Lindy and her

daughter Luna ~ 3 generations of women in Boulder, Colorado.

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B e l l i e s t o B a b i e s

Aislinn’s art honoring her pregnancy & postpartum experience: Before creating this art, Aislinn told me about her family and how she wanted to represent her children as owls.

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Aislinn wanted 4 owls on her belly, one for her un-born son and the other 3 for his older brothers.

A r t f o r t h e B e l l y

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A r t f o r t h e B a b y

Aislinn chose flowers and paisleys for her postpartum henna design, which was applied just days after her birth. Shown here is her sweet baby boy held by his 3 brothers, his father and his mother.

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A r t f o r t h e B e l l y

Deb came every month for 6 months to be adorned for her pregnancy. Her henna design started with a caterpillar in March and ended with a butterfly in August. See her progres-sion on the following page.

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A r t f o r t h e B a b y

Her first born, a son, was born in September. Her postpartum henna carries on the butterfly in the garden theme.

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Erica went into labor a full day be-fore she called in her support team. She walked and labored with her husband and her daughter, updating us to her progress. After the sun set, her contrac-tions began to intensify. Five minutes apart, four minutes apart, three minutes apart... When I arrived, she was on her knees in her bedroom, the fan whirling above. Each contraction demanded her full at-tention, but she remained peaceful and calm throughout the waves. Her doula

arrived shortly after me, and the contrac-tions became more intense. She rested her head in her husband’s lap and soaked in a minute of a rest in between the hard work she was doing. When she started to feel pressure with each contraction, we knew it was time to go. We made our way to the hospital and discovered she was 8 centimeters dilated upon arrival. The next few hours in-volved a hot shower, encouraging words, and the strength of one woman.

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She gave birth on hands and knees mid-morning. The joy on her face when she brought her son up into her arms was unmatched. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. He immediately was placed on her chest and breastfed within the first five minutes of life. The nurses and the midwife gave this

new family the time and space they desired. They soaked up their son, and he rested peacefully in their arms. ~ Monet Nicole is a Colorado Springs, Boulder and Denver birth photographer and vidographer.

MonetNicole.com

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Carrie came to me for her 1st pregnancy, postpartum & breast-feeding sessions with her son, and her 2nd pregnancy and postpartum with her daughter. She says, “I really enjoy having the henna on my body, it’s one of those things, seeing it, picking out something, a design that’s special to me, on that occasion. Each time I look at those pictures, with the designs on my body, it con-nects me back, in tune with the pregnancy, or the breastfeeding, or the newborn, whichever it was. That’s what is really fun about it, the compliments and the memo-ries. And just having that photog-raphy session, with my child and the henna, those special bonds, it all came full circle, it came out so well. And just these ideas, I’m not sure where they came from for the animals. But it is a special connec-tion though when I see a whale, my connection with Kingston is whales.. and elephants with Leia and now the little baby bird too. I think I will always remember how she was as a newborn, like a little baby bird.”

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Amy Haderer resides in Denver, CO with her husband and six children. She graduated with a BFA in Illustra-tion in 2005 and has since applied herself to many different artistic ven-ues. No matter what her passions are, they frequently mix with her passion for visual art and she

loves experimenting with new con-cepts, mediums and ideas.The Mandala Journey started as a way to meditate, process emotions, and prepare for the birth of her third daughter Seren. Doing these pieces daily during her pregnancy helped Amy to have the beautiful, peaceful

home birth she dreamed of.She has been very active in the birth community, serving as a birth doula, leading a breastfeeding support group through La Leche League, and man-aging a prenatal and postpartum support group for the freestanding Mountain Midwifery Birth Center.

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This activism started after she gave birth to her second child in 2008 at the birth center where she had such a wonderful experience, She wanted to be a part of that world forever.

Someday she dreams of becoming an out-of-hospital midwife.Since Lyric’s birth, Amy’s passion for art and birth have converged into forming a henna (mehndi) service

in Denver specializing in pregnancy, dabbling in decorating belly casts, and now the Mandala Journey.

themandalajourney.com

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