Meet Jade Anderson of Brightened Horizons Birth Services

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jade Anderson.

Jade, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I am a daughter, single-handedly raised by my eclectic powerhouse of a mother, alongside my severely disabled baby brother. My mother worked nights full time as a nursing assistant, all while lovingly advocating for my disabled brother. In my eyes, her love for me and my brother cultivated compassion and care for humankind in every bodily shape and form. From an early age, I was found in the special ed classrooms instead of on the playground playing with peers. I learned how truly powerful and beneficial therapy, hands-on training, and love was to the human form. As I grew into an adult, I understood that teaching, loving, and advocating for special needs individuals was my calling. I became a foster mom and a habilitation specialist for disabled children and adults for many years. I believe that much of my understanding of the human body came from my childhood years thanks to my sweet brother. About 12 years ago, my brother moved in with us due to my mother injuring her back and being unable to lift him. He is a huge part of our family and I love how his presence is shaping my children’s lives as it did mine. But this is just a brief part of the story to where I find myself now.

I believe that my journey to becoming a doula and future midwife began with the medicated hospital birth of my first child. Interesting enough after caring for others for so many years, transitioning into motherhood was hard for me. I didn’t understand the reason why, since I had always heard that motherhood comes naturally. I just expected it to ‘happen’ to me too. I eventually fell into the routine of motherhood, and we decided to have another child a few years later. Feeling as if a puzzle piece was missing in my last medicated hospital birth, I strived for something different this time. I had chosen to birth my second child in a birthing center with midwives who gave me the gift of time and helped me understand that I was the wisdom keeper of my own body. I had educated myself, I was able to make decisions, and those decisions were respected. My transition to motherhood with my second child was fully nurtured this time around and helped me become the strong confident mother I knew was in me all along.

I was so intrigued by the different experiences I had in my body and mind during birth that I reached for answers in the healing arts world. That’s when I discovered yoga and as soon as my children were in school full time, I dove into a yoga therapy program at SWIHA (Southwest Institute for the Healing Arts) where I found bodywork, cranial unwinding, and polarity therapy. In studying these healing methods, the theories rooted themselves into my understanding of the human experience and ignited a passion in me that I had never known before. My dreams at that time were to open a one-stop shop healing center and create a yoga therapy program to teach yoga in a special education setting. This dream eventually led me to want to open a one-stop-shop in the birthing world.

During my program at SWIHA, I became pregnant with our third child. I started creating belly casts for other pregnant mamas, studying essential oils for pregnancy, discovering prenatal yoga, and loving all things about the female form while carrying a child. My whole pregnancy was surrounded in the healing arts and was a profound experience. I found an experienced midwife who helped us birth our little girl into water at our Central Phoenix home. I felt so alive and uniquely connected with my womanhood. I learned so much during this experience from my midwife that I knew one day when my children were older, I would become a midwife as well. Fast forward a few years later and our last baby, a whopping 10lbs 6oz, Nolan Niccoli came into this world through the water at home making us seven. Happy as can be, I still found myself longing to be a midwife and constantly planning my return to the books. With Lily, Damien and Adeline already in school, I entered Nolan into preschool to start up my schooling again and met a friend who was pregnant with her second child.

Our relationship quickly grew with her seeking my understanding of birthing experiences in hopes for her to have a successful VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). It was her who introduced me to the word “Doula”. My mind was blown! I hadn’t known that I could be a supporter, an educator, a hand holding, nerve-calming, family care guru during pregnancy and birth without being a midwife! I could be part of a family’s birth journey and give all that I’d learned over my years NOW… so I became her Doula. It was through supporting her amazing birth that I revealed my current calling as a Doula. I am so appreciative to her and every moment that I get to be part of these family’s voyages. Thank you Kirstin!!

Over the last two years, I have been so blessed, been given so many wonderful opportunities to meet amazing women in my community and I am in awe of them every day. Being a birth professional has its own unique challenges. I found out very quickly how tiring a long birth can be without support; how extremely frustrating it can be to think you know most things about birth until you don’t and how doulas can carry a person’s birth trauma with them. I realized very quickly that I didn’t want to be a solo doula in the birth world that I needed support too. Nothing comes perfectly without practice and practice is hard to find without the experience, so I sought after a seasoned doula. The moment I was introduced to Gila Shire (YoGila), I felt a connection and knew immediately that I had found my mentor. She took me under her wing letting me shadow her during her clients’ births and has provided many learning experiences that have built me up to be a confident doula. I am still shadowing Gila at most of her births as a team and am her backup support. I am also proud to say she’s become a great friend. Gila you’re amazing, thank you for your support and love!

I also believe every doula needs one or two dependable backup supports and good friends that love all things birth. I got lucky and found two; Kate Taylor and Bailey Wilson of made mama doulas. These lovely ladies are inspiring birth and family photographers, as well as birth and postpartum doulas. The two of them along with Gila have become my partners in creation and we are working on introducing some new things to Phoenix mid-year. Currently, I’m taking classes one by one in order to reach my dreams of becoming a certified nurse-midwife. I am however, fully living in the present as a Doula and am loving every second I am able to walk the delicate journey into parenthood with families.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I feel like no road worth travelling is without its bumps and fork in the road. Furthermore, I am so grateful for the challenges that I’ve come to a head with because they’ve all made me the individual that I am today.

One challenge I’ve found as a Doula is the upkeep with changes in hospital protocols, procedures, and guidelines that are constantly being updated by ACOG. I am of the belief that as a Doula one should be updated with the most current information for their families benefit and continuing education is so important. Besides my knowledge in the healing modalities I’ve mentioned above, I was Dona Doula educated, am a certified holistic Doula trained by Whapio. I have taken Spinning Babies courses to understand the physiology of birth, courses in baby loss studied evidence-based birth, and am constantly educating myself. There’s so much value in education.

Doula’s as a whole in Arizona are facing some unique challenges during this coronavirus pandemic. Right now, hospitals aren’t accepting more than one support person making it difficult to be there for our families that have already invested in us to be part of their experience. We are having to evolve and provide virtual assistance unless our families choose a birthing center or home birth setting. Doulas in Arizona are fighting hard to make our profession creditable so that we can be considered part of the team for healthy outcomes and for insurance reimbursement for families. I am so proud to be a Doula during this changing environment and can’t wait to see what comes next.

Brightened Horizons Birth Services – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I own brightened horizons birth services, and as a Doula I serve birthing families during this incredible transformation of life. I come with a strong educational foundation to help guide parents to make their own choices for their families. My hands and heart help a birthing mother ease through the transitions of labor and guide a partner to be the most present they’ve ever been. Birth is an amazing journey for a human and deserves as much if not more thought than some of the most important life events for birth is impactful. As a Doula, I strive to help families make a memory that will last forever.

My sister doulas and I are in the works of creating and expanding. Together we are a group of birth professionals offering a multitude of services for all things pregnancy-related. We will offer birth, pregnancy, and family education courses will have weekly social events, yoga, massage, birth and family photography. We are very proud of the group of women we have pulled together for this collective and the different experiences and strengths that we each bring to the table. We are excited for what’s to come next so stay tuned!

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I’ve had many proud moments in my lifetime but there’s truly nothing as unique as experiencing hand in hand the resonating expansion of delight when a new mother looks at her baby for the first time and realizes that she “did it”! Creation of life is magnificent and I can’t claim that as my proud moment, but I get to witness it and I am beyond proud of these mothers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.brightenedhorizons.com
• Email: jade@brightenedhorizons.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightenedhorizons/
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/brightenedhorizonsbirth/

Image Credit:
Bailey Wilson

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