On this episode, I talk to Monste Olmos about her work as a birth worker, and the ways that she uses herbs and other ancestral practices to support people's reproductive experiences. We talk about abortion being an ancestral practice, something that has happened all throughout history, before western medicine and the advent of abortion pills. Montse shares her experiences around pregnancy and abortion, and we talk about what it means to share our stories and knowledge publicly.
Montse Olmos (she/her) was born in Mexico City and grew up in the states of Nuevo León and
Tamaulipas. She comes from a mixed lineage and identifies as Totonaca-Nahuatl. Trained by
Ancient Song Doula Services, she is a Full-Spectrum Birth Companion (with a focus on fertility, abortion, postpartum and everyting in between) for QTBIPOC folx. Montse is passionate about addressing racism within the birth community and globally. She created the first-of-its-kind online course titled, Cultural Appropriation in Rebozo Work, which addresses the decolonial history of this sacred textile and connects it to anti-racism education. Montse is also an international speaker on Indigenous sovereignty and autonomy as well as issues such as extractivism and the commodification of Indigenous knowledge and traditions. She has presented her work at the National Midwifery Institute, The Educated Birth and the SIAParto Conference in Brazil, to name a few. Currently, Montse is an abortion educator at DOPO, a UK-based organization dedicated to providing abortion support and educational resources to all gender birthing people. In addition, she provides mentorship to other Doulas at Manhattan Birth. When she’s not investing her time in birth work, Montse cultivates corn, beans, squash and medicinal herbs. She also performs traditional music with her band, Grupo Tepeyolohtli, is a traditional danzante, and homeschools her two daughters.
Links:
Montse's Instagram: @mujer_dela_tierra
Montse's Linktree (with offerings & ways to support her work)
Herbal Abortion Intro Class
Montse's Patreon
Ancient Song Doula Services
Abortion, with love
Website
Instagram: @abortionwithlove
Twitter: @AbortionWithLuv