Today we’d like to introduce you to Djifa Richards.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Speaking as the founder of The Womb Collective, I would say my/our story starts with my work as a Doula and a Pediatric Physician Assistant in the Greater Metro Atlanta area over the course of the last 23 years. Actually, it started with the individual roads that brought the women of The Womb Collective to their respective paths and then to each other. However, the road has taken twists and turns so we can jump in a little further on. I started A Womban’s Place as my Doula business in 2012 at a time when I was already established as Pediatric PA at a practice in Stone Mountain. Over the years, the conversations I had with my clients, the education I provided, the preventative lifestyle changes I discussed with my teenage patients began to show a pattern. At the same time, the increase in the number of clients that were dealing with female health issues and either not satisfied with their care, traumatized by the medical approach or having a desire to approach their health differently was staggering. In the midst of it all, I realized that in my offering of a different approach, the constant was a holistic approach. I thought about the possibilities of relating to female health through different ideological eyes. The Womb Collective was created because I saw a holistic relationship between Chiropractic, Massage, Mental Therapy, Herbal medicine and Doula/Womb Wellness advocacy that had amazing potential to make great change for women. As a Doula, I referred my clients out for all of the above throughout their pregnancy. As a Pediatric PA, I recommended these options often for dysmenorrhea and other recurring complaints. It only made sense to bring them together under one roof. A place where the care was integrative and the providers to a holistic team approach. A place dedicated to women but not just to their female organs…dedicated to the whole women.
So I reached out to women whom I respected their healing work in their craft and asked them to help me birth The Womb Collective! Our healing team is a sisterhood of five amazing women! Tamara Akua Hunter is our Mental Wellness practitioner and specializes in Reproductive and Perinatal Mental Health. Stephanie Sylverin is our Massage Wellness practitioner and is certified in Fertility, Pregnancy, Labor and Postpartum Massage. Zaire Sabb is our Herbal Wellness practitioner and has years studying herbs internationally with multiple esteemed herbalists. LaKendra Fulbright is our Chiropractic Wellness practitioner trained in Webster technique and specializing in Perinatal chiropractic care. Lastly, there is myself, Djifa Richards, Doula and Womb Wellness advocate as our Birth Wellness practitioner.
That is us! Five women dedicated to and passionate about healing wombs one generation at a time.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Honestly, it has been a smooth road. Every new business, every new relationship comes with bumps and sharp turns but when it is organic, when it makes sense, when it fills a need authentically even the bumps just make the journey an adventure. If I had to pick something, I would say one of the “struggles” has been getting ourselves seen. This current culture of social media of the dependency on social media to speak for you makes us have to spend energy in a space that isn’t exactly our lane. Lol! So pulling visibility for our Lives, our teen retreats, Womb Wellness retreat and other activities has been somewhat slow. However at the same time all have been well attended because of word of mouth and testimony from those who have experienced who and what we are.
Bigger than that for us though is the desire to be able to offer a sliding scale for our services. THAT is important to us; the ability for everyone who desires and needs us to be able to have access. We are working on becoming a 501c-3 so that we can open up avenues to achieve this goal.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
The Womb Collective mission is to improve the health of all women by redefining the modern-day approach to womb care by using a holistic lens. The interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit are often overlooked in day-to-day conventional medical practices. The impact of such oversight has had and continues to have long-reaching effects on the quality of women’s health. Our goal is to integrate chiropractic, Herbal, Massage, Mental, and Birth wellness modalities to seek balanced womb health. The Womb Collective is dedicated to offering alternative methods to healing diseases of the womb such as Fibroids and Endometriosis and enhancing a positive womb environment to support fertility and healthy Postpartum recovery. We are passionately committed to healing generations one womb at a time.
That is our mission statement. Our uniqueness is in our approach. We have created four different healing packages that we offer to our clients; Fertility Wellness, Birth Wellness, Postpartum Wellness and Womb Wellness. Every client is offered an in-person intimate consultation with the five health practitioners that allows for the client to tell their story and for us to hear them with a collective ear. Healing plans are put together based on what each woman individually needs. Each plan is a six month period of focused and intentional care with the option to renew if desired or needed. Throughout the entire six months the practitioners work as one to evaluate and communicate about each woman’s womb journey.
We are extremely proud and connected to our work. Each consultation, each conversation, each testimony is validation that the work we are doing is needed and supported. I can not think of too many other places that hold space for women in THIS holistic, integrative and loving way.
What are your plans for the future?
What are our plans? So many things. The needs and the possibilities are great and exciting! If I had to name to a few…We are absolutely looking to have a brick and mortar which will allow for us to host our women in an environment that IS home. We have plans for events that feed the soul as well as educate and heal. We also are very focused on securing the non-profit in order to provide a sliding scale as well as open up the door for programs and partnerships with high schools and colleges/universities (country-wide) that focus on educating and guiding younger women in regards to womb health. Finally, we would love to host a larger Womb Wellness retreat, perhaps internationally, every five years that allows to bring all of our participants together in one space. Our annual Womb Wellness Retreat in October is one of our favorite soul-filling experiences for us AND our participants. It is a wonderful way for us to grow our family and we would like to take them with us along the way!
Contact Info:
- Email: info@wombcollective.com
- Website: www.wombcollective.com
- Instagram: @the_womb_collective
- Facebook: @wombcollective
- Youtube: https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCymuFJeF89eGnOPCIiVddwA
Image Credits
Krystal Horn @kkhorhnphotography
