We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sabia Wade. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sabia below.

Sabia, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I own Birthing Advocacy Doula Trainings, and For the Village Inc, as well as my brand, The Black Doula. My mission with all of these is to build bridges for a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable world through… – Advocating for liberation through Reproductive Justice
– Providing doula support and education for the full spectrum of life
– Providing spiritual care to those seeking accompaniment on their journey
– Supporting the distribution of financial wealth to BIPOC communities

Each of my businesses get there in different ways, BADT through education, FTV through direct care work, and TBD through advocacy, speaking, and sharing my business journey. I am radically transparent with that because I want folks to see possibility in action – because it’s the journey that comes with the most lessons, not the destination.

Overall, I just want people to be able to be who they are, have safe choices and reproductive freedom.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started out as a volunteer doula for the Prison Birth Project in 2015. That journey led me to work with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated folks, helping them in their pregnancy journey. It was not the cookie cutter, butterflies and rainbows doula journey that has become mainstream. It was real, it was hard, advocacy was at the core, and it’s what has shaped my journey. After moving to San Diego, I started For the Village, a non-profit aiming to bring free or low cost doula care to the community, centering services on Black pregnant people, because statistics show that no matter your socio-economic status, if you are Black and pregnant, you are at risk. Doulas help – they are not the solution – but they are a big part of mitigating inequitable treatment in the birthing process. From there, I created Birthing Advocacy Doula Trainings, a doula training organization based online, with 12 week trainings sessions offered twice a year. Our catalog of courses has since expanded to include an array of Continuing Education Courses, and other 12-week courses, with our newest 12-week course, Full Spectrum Lactation Educator Training, debuting this June!

As my own personal brand, I released my first book last March – Birthing Liberation: How Reproductive Justice Can Set Us Free, which has brought me to speaking engagements, sharing advocacy, anti-racism, and trauma healing principles in many pockets of the country, including universities, birth worker collectives, book stores for the public, and more.

Through my journey, I have been radically transparent in sharing my finances, my trials and tribulations, and lessons I have learned. I mentor other entrepreneurs, and I am growing my spiritual direction practice.

I am proud that my business are able to provide jobs for people, consistent income for them to support themselves and their families, I am proud that I wrote a whole book! I am proud that the book has been a source of lessons for so many people. And I am proud that our training organization gets so many referrals through word of mouth, which is a huge testament to the work that we do. Finally, I am proud that my non-profit is growing and scaling up, allowing us to reach even more people and support more births.

How did you build your audience on social media?

My social media presence has grown significantly over the last 5 years. A lot of that is because of the way I run my businesses. With every dollar I make, I figure out where I can put money into helping my business expand. That looks like hiring team members to handle things so that I have the time to go on a podcast, do a photoshoot, or create a new project that will help expand my reach. I also think it’s growth because I’m so upfront and real about what I’m going through. Again, radical transparency. If I’m having a bad day, I’m going to tell you. If I’m having a great day, I’m going to tell you. I don’t pretend, and I don’t hold back. I’m clear about my advocacy, I’m clear about what I stand for and I’m not going to hold back out of fear or to please a certain group of people.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I’ve had to unlearn having shame around being proud of my success. I’ve had to unlearn being too humble. Not recognizing or giving myself credit for what I’ve done is something I’m actively working on. Being in advocacy, and in particular, being a Black woman in advocacy, there is this expectation that we’re supposed to be broke and tired. Like, if we’re truly fighting the fight, we’re supposed to be in lack of something. But why? Why can’t we advocate AND be thriving. Advocate AND be well taken care of. Living in a state of lack is not the marker of success that I want to adhere to.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sabiawade.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sabiawade/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doulasabia
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabiawade/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/sabia_wade
• Other: Mentorship Community: https://found-free.circle.so/ Birthing Advocacy Doul Trainings: https://www.badoulatrainings.org/ For the Village: https://forthevillage.org/

Image Credits
https://kelleyraye.com/