Team Member Spotlight! Meet Taylor Lichtman
Taylor Lichtman is a birth doula, postpartum doula, placenta encapsulator, and childbirth educator with Doulas of Capitol Hill. She is a 2019 5 Star Mentor. In addition to her work as a doula she is a prenatal yoga instructor in DC.
1. When did you find your Passion, or when did it find you?
I always knew I wanted my work to be something that helped people in some way. I found my passion for doula work when I met a doula in my yoga teacher training in 2015. I was at the time I was working as a nanny, and yoga was a huge personal passion. Mindfulness and meeting people where they are, is necessary to both yoga and doula work, so they have always worked well together.
2. If a kid walked up to you asking for your advice and you only had a few minutes to give ‘em your best tip, what would it be?
Don’t be afraid to ask for help! A lot of times we are taught that the best thing is to be independent and to be able to do everything by ourselves, and that to ask for help is admitting defeat. That is quite simply not true. It takes a lot of adults way too long to learn that. Everyone’s life and knowledge is unique, everyone you know could teach you something, and you could teach everyone you know something too! So being anything other than yourself is pointless.
3. What makes you proud of yourself?
Being out as a queer woman. It’s not always easy knowing that not everyone is accepting, but it is important to me that children growing up, and all people for that matter, see all variations of what different people’s lived experiences are. If we aren’t honest about what we experience how will they know that maybe they aren’t alone in what they are experiencing.
4. What do you love about your life?
My human love Sam, and my dog love Daisy, and our adorable condo in Cap Hill that has become a home since things finally settled down after our wedding in September. Also, I really love that birth work makes my schedule irregular, it keeps me energized and means that I do get full days off in the middle of the week. I love going grocery shopping in the middle of the day when no one else is there, such a joy!
5. What did you want to be when you grew up?
Other than a Ballerina-Firefighter? haha. A teacher.
6. What are your top three values?
Honesty, Intersectional Feminism, Compassion.
7. Tell me about your favorite book or movie.
My favorite book is The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver. I have a tattoo of a quote from it. From a literary perspective it is very important, and rare in American literature to have a story to from the perspective of women. But the story is a cautionary tale of missionary work, and the effect that it has on everyone involved.
8. How do you like to be told you’re doing a good job?
If it is someone I am close with I like hugs. But if they are not a touchy person, just being told, “Thank you, what you did made such a big difference in my day/experience” is really heart warming.
9. Who is your role model and why?
As a specific person, I have always strived to be like my Mimi (my maternal grandmother). She is calm, funny, patient and strong. But generally, women who lift other women up. I just read that Brie Larson brought up her her Captain Marvel stunt doubles to accept an award with her. Like that. People that do that kind of stuff are my role model. We have been taught that success as women is a finite supply, and that is one the biggest lies that I want to dismantle. As a doula it is not lost on me that I am helping to welcome the next generation coming into the world, so I take my attitude about what I teach or project toward children very seriously.
10. If you had any superpower, what would it be?
If I had any super power it would definitely be flying or teleporting. That is always what I have said, but that is especially true now as a doula, there have definitely been some times I would have loved to have been able to bypass traffic.
11. How would you describe your (doula) style?
I think of my style as mindfulness within hospital based births.
12. Describe yourself in 5 words
Passion, Compassion, Quirky, Patient, Knowledgable