We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ife Adebowale . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ife below.
Hi Ife, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.
As a child/teenager, I couldn’t have imagined being able to answer this question in a positive light. Today, as a parent of 5 myself, the very 1st thing I would say that they got right was bringing my siblings and I up in a loving, 2 parent home. The strength and generational bond that is strong within my family is something that should be applauded and modeled for by others. As a New African American families, we have had to face so much adversary in our nation’s history. The strength and backbone of my parents and that being instilled as well as their lessons of resilience, dedication, and determination were a plus.
Ife, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Ife Adebowale, known as Mama or Doula Ife (E-Faye) is a pioneer of Holistic Black Doulas in Columbus, GA. She began her birthwork in 2015 when she was summoned by Dr. Ameena Ali to begin an ancestral path of birthwork. After accepting the calling and completing her studies as a Certified Holistic Birth and Postpartum doula and birthing her 4th daughter unassisted, she began teaching birth education and attending homebirths part-time from 2016-2018.
In 2018, after losing her 12.5 year old job at a prominent corporation, she was determined NOT to sacrifice her time, energy, and integrity having to go find another job. She PRAYED and MEDITATED on what she would and had to do. Afterwards, she was releasing and journaling and she heard the ancestors say, “you have been released, now fulfil your assignment and purpose”. It was at this very moment, she knew what she had to do. Her thoughts were impregnated with purpose of making CLB exactly what she envisioned, what the ancestors laid forth for her, and what her community needed. She pours everything into CLB. Labor wasn’t easy, but CLB was rebirth in 2019. Today, as of January of 2023, CLB has serviced over 62 families and we have had the honor of catching 18 babies.
Cherishing Life Beginnings Doula and Childbirth Services, LLC (CLB) was established in 2015 out of the necessity of:
1. Needing BIPOC Doulas available in Columbus, GA and surrounding areas
2. The need of having support for homebirths
3. Advocation of Care for ALL women but specifically BIPOC women
4. Educating ALL women on childbirth and Breastfeeding
5. Providing jobs and entrepreneurial training for those interested in aiding with building the village again.
CLB provides education and creates a sense of empowerment and confidence for women and her tribe on the ability to birth naturally, normalizing homebirths with attendants or freebirths, take their birth rights back and make informed decisions based on evidence based information, but more importantly, to tell their birth story when, where, and how they want too WITHOUT FEAR! Cherishing Life Beginnings Doula and Birth Educational Services, LLC offers:
*Certified Birth and Postpartum Doula Services
*Birth and Postpartum Doula Training
*Childbirth Education
*Breastfeeding Education and Consultation
*Yoni Steaming
*Belly-Binding Wrapping
*Placenta Encapsulation
*Womb Wellness Products
*Prenatal Yoga
*Traditional Student Midwifery Services
*Birth Business Guidance/Coaching
Although I work in all capacity, my LOVE is in homebirths. I love assisting low-risk Mother Earths that trust their bodies and themselves to bring forth life without medical intervention or other methods outside of a natural birth.
If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?
Yes, I just would have chosen this profession and would have specialized in my studies as a Midwife. If I would have been connected and knew myself better when I was younger, I would be more advanced in my profession. My first birth experience was when I was 18 years of age and my 1st cousin was 17 having her 1st child. I was her a “doula” and wouldn’t know what that title was until I was 36 years of age when I was summoned to become a doula. Unbeknownst to me, that experience would be the catalyst of my future purpose, Birthwork.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I have been trying to figure out how to scale my doula business into a six-figure business for the last two years. I thought being a doula was just birth and postpartum services BUT let me tell you, Birthpreneurship is SO MUCH more than this. I am a full-time birthkeeper so if I don’t work, I don’t eat. When my doula business began to slow down, I had to find another means of income but why reinvent the wheel, right?
Finances can be difficult to navigate, particularly as women in a profession that is largely based on nurturing others – which historically women have done in the context of tribal living. I never wanted to seem greedy when doing birth work and for a long time, I wasn’t charging what my time and experience were actually worth. Unfortunately, I had to unlearn what I thought was a doula was and be more creative in the industry. In order to do this, I had to go back to the drawing board.
Today, we not only offer Certified Holistic Doula Services, we now offer birth education, womb-wellness consultations and products, yoga and breath-work instructions, day and overnight postpartum services, pampering sessions, and much more.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cherishinglifebeginnings.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cherishinglifebeginningsdoula/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CLBDoulaService/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/latala-cofield-0386a152/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/cherishing-life-beginnings-columbus