Why I write About Maternal Education

What is Possible

I am a Canadian citizen and also am part Slovak and Roma. When I go to church, I tend to wear the same light blue dress with yellow flowers because I feel like myself. But if someone is from India, goes to a Catholic church, I often see them wearing something that is very professional. The church is definitely a place where we wear our best clothes, but I also think, that it is also a place where we wear something that represents who our ancestors are. If someone from India, they should feel like they can wear a saree to church; even though they are not Hindu. Sometimes, we place these labels on people and it creates limits on who they are and what they can do. We do this often times unknowingly and it creates a block for what we think is possible and then we place this block on others.

It does not do service to them and it actually robs a lot of people to feel like they can be creative and in charge of their own life.
In this post, I write about why I am passionate about maternal education and why I decided to further my passion.

Letting The Dust Settle

For a long time, I ignored the little pull towards this topic and I realized, that I am never not going to be learning about maternal health. For as many times, as I have changed my passions, some things stay true. For me, that is faith and maternal education.

I have taken some time to think, about where I want to invest my time, and after contemplative thinking and praying, I have accepted that I am a person who is meant to - breath in, this topic as well as, breath out - the wisdom I have accumulated over a decade of learning about it.

The History & Present

My grandma has been a dear person to me since I was little. She used to babysit me a lot and showed me the world through her eyes. She has cooked, home-cooked meals, and tended to the flowers, bees, peas, potatoes, tomatoes, raspberries, blackberries, pickles and whatever else that grew in her garden. She was a grandma from a fairy tale. I am forever, and, endlessly thankful, that I have gotten to know her through the eyes of an adult, and not the child she used to babysit. I watched her grow as much as she has seen my growth over the years. It breaks my heart still, that she is not here to to talk to me and to laugh with me, but to honor her legacy, I believe it is important to carry on her massage into the world. She has been the strongest grandma, I know and will always be.

One day, we got to talking about maternal education, and she disclosed to me, something she has never told anyone and held onto for 50 years. She has had an abortion when she was young and did not talk about it since then. I felt tremendous sadness for her, because to not feel like there is a soul you can trust and talk to about this, must have been so hard. I also felt tremendous honor to be trusted with this sort of, wrinkle in time moment for her, that I thought it was important to do a small ceremony to honor her child. Her and I gave her name, Astra, and we honored her as much as we honored the woman my grandma was and is, all at the same time. It was a sacred moment, and even though it was done over video, her life and mine forever changed. It changed so much, that, after all this time, I am moved to commit my life to this type of work. Our lives changed because of that sacred bonding, and also because I believe my grandma and I both realized, that we are all connected.

Roots

Even though my grandma is not here physically, her spirit is within me, through Jesus. Life in all its forms, is magical. And I believe to honor it, writing about it on regular basis, is what will continue the legacy of what my grandma taught me - that no woman should hold onto a birth story for all those years, ever. I say birth, because, Astra is connected to the family, even though she is not here physically. Her spirit lives on through the ancestry line. And if the tree is meant to bear fruit, her name needs to be connected to the root of it ! Astra would have been my aunt in this world, and because God teaches us, on “earth as it is in Heaven,” I am meant to honor her too, in this life too. What was beautiful, that through the ceremony, both my grandma and I said a prayer but we also saw each other for who we truly are (were): two women with lives that are hard to explain to many people. Our gifts were shared and in one moment, we felt seen, heard, appreciated, but most importantly, we accepted each other for who we truly are (were).

Her Legacy Lives On

Maternal education is something, that has been part of my life for many years now, and I reckon it will carry on with me because my love for my grandma is everlasting. I somehow cannot separate my love for her and my passion for that topic because it is somehow - how I keep her legacy living.

Jesus chooses to whom we are of service of, just like he does with marriage. He chooses to whom we serve and to whom we are to commit. Every marriage is a testament of heaven on earth. It is a testimony of pure love God has for its people, and that is how I want to live my life. I want my life to be a testament of my love for Heaven and to do that I believe my passion for maternal education is a way to serve others, in the best way I know how. It is also how I am able to live out my own truth. I think one of the hardest things we will ever do, is to connect our inner world with our outer world. Basically - to bring forth, into the world, what is within your heart.

Maternal education, will always be important to me and I believe no woman, should go through pregnancy after loss, alone. I believe no woman should hold onto her story of loss and keep it inside. I hope this space serves as a safe space to share the importance of maternal education for women who want to have pregnancy after loss, and also for women are LGBT+ and want to adopt or, are on the spectrum and hope to one day have a family of their own.

Xo,
Anika