Today we’d like to introduce you to Keonia Wiggins.
Hi Keonia, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I was born and partially raised in Huntsville, Alabama. I grew up half of the time in the city where I was always involved in dance, church, and community/youth service organizations. The other half of my upbringing was spent country living on my grandparent’s farm, started with a trailer and land with goats, chickens, and a pig we named Big Mama Lucy and eventually grew into more land, a home my grandfather built and lots of family gatherings. I learned early on the laws of the land and how many remedies can be found in my own backyard.
I attended Lee High School in Huntsville, Alabama where I navigated the magnet program in dance, musical theater/drama, and creative writing. I have always been eager and curious about any genre of art, so with opportunity, I was able to experience three facets of art/culture that I still draw peace and great memories from today.
I graduated top 20 of my class, with membership in the National Honor Society and the title of Vice President of my Senior class. I went on to pursue a career in Occupational Therapy from The Illustrious Tuskegee University. College was my reality check on how challenging it could be at times for me to manage multiple roles in life, my freshman year I made the dance line and much of my college “social life” was spent at games, events, and rehearsals. Sophomore year I became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. where I worked hard and earned President and Vice President of my chapter. My degree program extended one year after my classmates I came in with and I graduated from Tuskegee University in 2015 with a Master’s of Science in Occupational Therapy. I relocated to Atlanta, Ga where I had accepted a job offer prior to graduation.
A small town girl in a big city made for a lot of mistakes. As I type this, I am not even sure how to tell anyone how I got to where I am or where I am exactly as I’m always striving. In 2016 I read an interview from one of my favorite artists/creators Erykah Badu. She spoke about her work as a birth doula and given my childhood interest in becoming an obstetrician I was locked in on starting a path to becoming a birth doula myself.
In January of 2017, I took a solo trip to Chattanooga, TN to be trained by a DONA-certified birth doula and began my doula journey, shortly after I returned from training a friend of mine informed me that her birth doula had canceled due to circumstance and humbly asked if I would attend her birth, I felt unworthy of a moment so sacred, I started crying right there and dried my eyes and said the dumbest thing you could say to a pregnant woman soliciting your support “I will think about it.” I was floored and shocked and obviously not believing in my natural ability–as she was. Within the next few seconds, I came to and I accepted my first birth. “Fancy” as I like to call her was born in February of that year and overnight in her home and it was the most beautiful experience I’d ever shared and I knew I wanted more from it in this life.
I went on to take doula care as seriously as I could during a time when there were not many known black doulas or information out there to support our purpose/call of action, I started showing up as “doula” in all of my relationships and I even started calling out of work sometimes for clients, this is when I knew I’d found passion, a calling.
In the state of Georgia in the year 2021, July, I assisted a life-changing birth, my 4th official doula attendance and I will spare the details, but history was made in that hospital room and I thank God for making me a witness.
I began to understand my doula care as full spectrum versus restricted to birth/postpartum. I started to explore the connection between lack of ability to enjoy/receive/create intimacy as a blockage produced by dissociation in the body due to sexual confusion/non-acceptance/or plain ignorance about our bodies, sensual minds, and shadows behind our encounters. This helped me coin the term for myself as Intimacy Doula and I now offer services to train individuals and couples on ways to create and maintain intimacy separately as well as a unit.
I got to where I am today with the beliefs of the extremely small amount of individuals who recognize my work as pioneering. I have never been able to explain where I am with my projects, what I plan to do when everything finally comes together, or how I want to talk about sex and sensuality in healthy ways to educate and heal a universally broken community. I am a doer often I take risks and the only thing I overthink are my emotions if I hit a block. I start over as many times as I need to, I reinvent myself as many times as I allow, and I prioritize setting boundaries to protect the legacy I’m building.
I owe a portion of my success to my best friend and partner and him giving me our beautiful son who serves as my daily motivation. I pay homage to my late grandmother for her sacrifices and her constant belief in me beyond this earth. She would tell the world “she’s a midwife, she delivers babies” and my mission is to live out that dream in real-time by continuing my doula work and being faithful to my opportunity to delve in midwifery to expand on my journey. Thankful to my tribe (FOE) for being by my side with no hesitation. I thank my mother for her teaching spirit and the constant reminder that life requires you to be a student much more than it calls you to teach.
I am thankful to own an herbal apothecary, host clients in my doula business Yeyo Divine Arts/Intimacy, and excited that my occupational therapy and esthetician’s licenses open doors and merge my path to teaching more of my community about self-care and holistic wellness.
My mama says “Atlanta either makes you or breaks you” and well, I think I’ve been MADE.
Alright, 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?
Some struggles I’ve had along the way are financial in nature as well as lacking consistent community. Being an entrepreneur as well as a mother takes a lot of sacrifices. I’ve gone without a lot but my dreams feel bigger than focusing on what I don’t have or can’t afford. I’ve sat out a lot, I’ve been working day in and out on my goals and dreams and always in hermit mode so I lost a lot of relationships that couldn’t withstand the detachment, all is well and I always stand in gratitude for any lesson, my dreams are bigger than temporary emotions.
Other challenges include my lack of knowledge in certain areas that caused me to take the long route a lot of times, and can’t forget to mention, the road gets tough for me because I’m still learning how to ask for help. I’ve had a strained relationship with ‘mentors’ and I continue to pray for the ones who will actually assist in propelling me versus stifling everything I have to offer that isn’t consistent with their personal goals and dreams.
As you know, we’re big fans of Yeyo Divine Birth Arts & Intimacy. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
My doula practice is rooted in naturopathy, eastern medicine and pushes a spiritual theme of ‘oneness’ with all that is natural and all that flows. I provide doula support services for antepartum (pregnancy), birth, postpartum, transition (to include death/dying or gender transitions) and intimacy/self-love.
I specialize in Vedic healing and push emphasis on naturally supportive environments. Most of my doula sessions include submergence in nature and natural habitats to reconnect with self and introduce receptiveness for advocacy from me.
I am most proud of how organic my practice has remained over time, I enjoy seeing many more doulas, especially doulas of color emerge and assist with unprecedented times in the maternal health world.
My services are extremely friendly to the minority communities to include people of color and the LGBTQIA community. I welcome all and I offer sliding scale rates when necessary.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up I always had an alter ego. I was nerdy, shy, and tomboyish on the inside, but my mother put me in pageants and on teams and I learned to soften into feminine energy and hone it when necessary. I’ve always been fun-loving and loved to stay active, I always took up an interest in occult studies as well as went through my emotional phase and mysterious girl era, xoxo–gossip girl. Haha!
I have and have always possessed an undying love for the music of most genres in theory, industry, and performance. Growing up I had the biggest (healthy for the times) obsession with Beyonce, it also did not help that my original due date to be born was September 4th. (that being Beyonce’s birthday.) I came three days later, but that did not stop me from taking interest in Beyonce’s rise to fame and her work ethic, her work patterns and productions as well as attention to detail have always resonated with me.
Pricing:
- My doula packages begin at $450 base
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yeyo_divineintimacy/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Twitter: twitter.com/naturaldoulaatl
