Dear Beloved Community,

After 11 years of midwifery and 5 life changing years as Executive Director, I will be transitioning out of my position at Breath of My Heart Birthplace at the end of 2021. The work I have done with Breath of My Heart has formed so much of who I am today, and for these experiences with clients, colleagues and community I will be forever grateful.

When I began this work I was a fledgling midwife, just beginning to practice– I was still very new to this community and to the deep roots that are feeding birthwork in Northern NM through generational practice and ancestral knowing. At the outset I did not know what role I might have in this work, if any, and was eager to accompany the visionary people with whom I was coming into relationship. I offered myself as a midwife who, through my own experience as a Trans and queer person, would do my best to center respect and dignity in the caregiver role that I was still getting acquainted with. One of the greatest gifts I was offered in those early days was trust– the trust of families and community members. This gift has made possible all the growth and movement that has come since that time. 

I am proud of so much of the work that I have been a part of over these years. I am proud of the clinical organization and licensed Birth Center that we have built– giving respectful midwifery care a home in Espanola. I am proud and humbled to have attended hundreds of births in this region and for the special bond I feel with families who have chosen me as their midwife and Breath of My Heart as their care providers. I am proud of the incredible team of people we have gathered and built– the folks from this community, to whom this work truly is owed and belongs. 

Over the last 5 years we have had tremendous success in growing the organization in significant ways. We quadrupled the organizational budget and purchased an incredible  facility in Espanola. We increased our staff from 2 to 10. I am proud that we led significant policy change at the New Mexico legislature and beyond to tangibly increase access to midwifery care and community birth for low income and BIPOC New Mexicans. And perhaps most of all, I am proud of the beloved community we have built: organizational partners, staff, and clients — a gathering across race, class, gender, and lived experiences– to honor and delight in our babies and children. I am in awe of the fierce protection we wish to offer our future generations through this effort. 

As you already know, we have an incredible team of leaders who are stepping up to hold this work and take it into its next iteration. I am humbled at the opportunity to pass my responsibilities and accomplishments on to these three talented, visionary people, who I am grateful to also call my friends. Breath of My Heart was always envisioned to be community led– that was clear. When I became Executive Director I knew this role was a bridge to a future moment where the work could be held fully by midwives and community leaders of the Northern Pueblos and Espanola Valley communities. I am so thrilled that this day has come–what a huge win for Espanola and these Tewa homelands. 

As for my next steps I will be taking some much needed time to rest, reflect and enjoy my beautiful family. These last 11 years, and especially this pandemic time, have offered me so much to learn, question and unravel both internally and externally. I look forward to continuing to support the new leaders of Breath of My Heart during this ongoing transition. I will be staying in community and in the work to reclaim birth and reproductive healthcare for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities in creative and innovative ways. 

My last day is December 31st. Please feel free to reach out to me if you wish to stay in touch at jessica.goodfriend@gmail.com.

This heart work has and will continue to fill me so deeply. 

With love and appreciation, 

Jessica

“We are in a time of growth and creative change.”

Breath of My Heart Birthplace/Navi Pin Haa un Mu, has always been a dream about transformation– not only the shifts  that occur for each individual and family during the process of bringing forward a new relative, but the transformation that occurs when we return to our roots, the knowing and instructions of our ancestors. The name itself– Navi pin haa un mu–  breath of my heart, bestowed to the birth center by Tewa grandmothers, resounds into the sacred connection that we have with our children, and by extension, all our relations. 

We are in a time of growth and creative change. As our birth center has developed we have continued the vision of a sustainable workplace for Midwives and other birthworkers by adapting the role of Executive Director into a shared leadership model made up of three positions: Clinical Director, Organizational Director, and Operations Manager.

Alongside our community we have been experiencing the rapid transformation of our work, our organization and our own lives. We have felt the grief, loss and shock of being front line service providers during a global pandemic and within the context of ongoing systemic violence. With these difficult experiences have also come parallel experiences of positive change and possibility, the self knowledge that we cannot continue in the ways that we have before if we want to move towards our vision of collective liberation. We have been guided to delve deeply into long term solutions of rematriating Indigenous birthwork into our community fiber and enact the next steps of the process: to be Tewa led on Tewa land. We know that by growing our internal strengths and capacity for supporting Indigenous and local community leaders, we can support shared goals of healing and birth justice in Indigenous and land-based communities. 

So it is both with excitement and deep acknowledgement of the challenges ahead that we introduce to you our new leadership team for Breath of My Heart.We are so honored to welcome these individuals into important roles in our community organization. We commit to supporting them as they take on the shared work of re-matriating birthwork and midwifery, seeding Pueblo lands and Acequia communities with Native and Chicanx midwives, and centering the strengths of Indigenous and land based families through the principles of environmental health and reproductive justice. Please join us in receiving our new team of leaders by offering a monetary donation or reaching out directly to them to offer words of solidarity and support as they begin.

Clinical Director: Glenna Belin is a Licensed Midwife from Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo. She became a midwife through apprenticing in Northern New Mexico in a home birth setting, similar to traditional midwifery passing from generation to generation. Upon being licensed in 2018, Belin became the first Indigenous midwife from a NM tribe to receive ‘Licensed Midwife’ status since its creation in the 80s. Some of her career highlights thus far include receiving both her grandchildren in their ancestral family home in their Pueblo village. Belin participated as a community member in the initial community convening that gave rise to BMH in 2011 and has worked with the organization as an apprentice, assistant, and staff midwife since 2013. She is humbled to accept the role of clinical director and embraces the opportunity. She is dedicated to supporting families in the Espanola Valley. As a tribal member of Ohkay Owingeh she has an affinity for working with the Pueblos and indigenous population. Coming into a role of leadership she is excited to move forward with the projects Breath of My Heart has in store. Belin@breathofmyheart.org

Organizational Director: Beata Tsosie-Peña is from Santa Clara Pueblo and El Rito, NM. She is certified as an Infant Massage Instructor, as a Developmental Specialist I-Advanced, an Educator(B.A. and A.A), a full spectrum Doula and Lactation Counselor, and in Indigenous Sustainable Design (permaculture).  She is a Pueblo representative for the New Mexico Governor’s Task Force on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives serving a second term and  serves on two local community boards. She was also a founding board member of Breath of My Heart Birthplace. The realities of living next to a nuclear weapons complex called her into environmental health and reproductive  justice work and advocacy for over a decade. She does this work in honor of her roles as a Tewa mother,partner, aunty, seedkeeper,artist, farmer, and relative to all beings. Beata@breathofmyheart.org

Operations Manager and Birth Assistant: Jeanette is a wife and a mother of 5. She is originally from Española and married into Santa Clara Pueblo.She is certified as a birth assistant, full circle doula through International Center for Traditional Childbearing and  is a Certified infant Touch & Massage Instructor. She is also a certified Lactation specialist and is currently working toward becoming a certified Lactation Educator. She participated as a member of the initial community convening that gave rise to BMH and has worked with Breath of My Heart since 2013. Her passion in life is of course family first, followed by being an advocate for mothers and families in her community. Jeanette@breathofmyheart.org