Sheantavia’s Story

Sheantavia knows the importance of having supportive relationships. She said she almost gave up during labor with her first child, but her New Moms’ doula is the one who helped her press on.

“There’s never too many people. There’s never too much help,” said the 25-year-old mother of two. “My doula was like ‘no, you can keep doing it.’”

Doulas at New Moms work with expecting mothers to provide emotional, physical, informational, and psychological support during their pregnancy and birth experience.

Sheantavia said she deeply connected with her doula, Mary, who she started meeting with while she was pregnant.

“We kind of like had a bond and I miss her lots,” Sheantavia said.

When Sheantavia found out she was pregnant with her second child, she knew immediately that she wanted to work with New Moms again.

“I said ‘yep, I’m definitely going back to New Moms for the doula services. Definitely.’”

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she wasn’t able to have her doula, Chevy Flores, with her at delivery like she wanted. Sheantavia said she was disappointed, but it helped knowing Chevy was only one call away.

In addition to being part of our doula program, Sheantavia is also enrolled in our Family Support program and meets regularly with one of our New Moms coaches. Her coach says Sheantavia has grown showing real strength as a woman and mother.

“She has shown great resiliency and began taking lead on her own to do better for herself and her children,” said Ayeshah, a New Moms Family Support coach. “She has been very consistent and remains engaged during our virtual visits.”

Sheantavia said she’s found working with Ayesha very helpful because keeps her focused on her short-term and long-term goals. Right now, her priority is to have a job but eventually, Sheantavia said she wants to enroll in college and take online classes. She said being pregnant during a pandemic put her in a tough financial situation but recently she started a job at Walgreens stocking shelves. Long term, she dreams of opening her own daycare because she likes working with kids.

She said she would tell other young moms to “stick with” New Moms because she’s felt supported and cared for by our staff when she needed it most.