Rachel was born and raised in Oakland, CA. She is a mother of two beautiful sons and resides in NY. She is an actor and graduate of The Juilliard School, a founding MIRROR instructor, doula, and lactation counselor. Rachel founded Birth Queen to combat the Black maternal health crisis. Black mothers can be confident knowing there is someone advocating for them and breathing new life into the birth world with funding, education, and support.

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Key Takeaways 

• The guilt women go through when they don't feel strong after having a baby. You’re not broken, you’re just healing and we need to deal with that (6:50)
• Having anxiety attacks daily while pregnant with her second child because she was scared to have another Black son during the summer of 2020 (13:05)
• Founding Birth Queen: An organization with the mission to provide education, support, and resources to Black birthing people while also funding more training for Black birth workers (14:30)
• The background of racism in birth: Dr. Marion Sims practiced c-sections on slaves, a lot of them survived without anesthesia leading to his conclusion that Black women don't feel pain the same way as white women. Leads to both an unconscious and conscious bias. (15:10)
• All moms deserve better care than they’re deserving (17:39)
• Ways that black women are judged even during labor: wearing a ring, how they do their hair, etc. (17:43)
• How to properly do a kegel (25:09)
• Diastasis recti: most of us have at least some separation. What to do during pregnancy and postpartum to prevent it. You can be an all-star athlete or couch potato and get diastasis recti  (42:28)
• Returning to fitness postpartum. Everyone is different and she has different recommendations depending on each person's experience. Won't tell anyone to do high impact for 3-6 months postpartum (46:57)
• The damage seeing images of trainers and fit people on social media postpartum and feeling like we should be able to do that too (51:05)

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Thank you to ChildLife Essentials for sponsoring this episode! ChildLife Essentials has been a trusted children's supplements brand for over 20 years. Now available on amazon.com/childlife

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