Who we are

NADIA TORRES

I was born on an army base in Tennessee, raised in the suburbs in Clarkston, MI, and now live in Arlington, MA. I am cohabitating with my best friends and my brother in an intentional radical return to community dwelling. I am mixed race, Boricua. Mis ancestros are from Western Europe, Western Africa, and son los Taínos de Borikén, the island now known as Puerto Rico. I am on a journey of healing and decolonizing, of connecting with mis raíces, of reaching for mi familia and mi gente and my sister women of color, of searching for and learning mi cultura and indigenous practices. 

My heart and soul has always been with the motherbaby. It’s taken me most of my life to untangle the weeds of internalized racism and oppressive colonialism twisted around my brown ankles and finally step toward my passion, to truly serve women authentically. My 15 years of independent research & study of pregnancy and birth, my brief forays into the professional world of medicalized birth, my 8 years as a full-time nanny, my ever-strengthening connection to ancestral wisdom, and my extensive experience holding space as a facilitator and counselor can all finally come together as I step up for you as your radical birth keeper. 

I am also a photographer! Check me out here.

NOLI ROSEN

I was conceived in the salty air of the South Carolina lowcountry and born in the busy suburbs of Massachusetts. My mom labored for almost three days, and despite being subjected to the classic cascade of hospital intervention, she finally, triumphantly, delivered me by VBAC.

I was raised as a radical, secular Jew. Both of my parents are musicians and community organizers, and it was from them that I learned to speak up against injustice, ideally in song. From my beloved older sister, I learned integrity, self-responsibility, and sisterhood absolute.

My interest in birthkeeping was kindled doing anthropological research on the coast of Ecuador. For one month I was living and learning with a midwife who had been serving rural women for almost 40 years up and down la Ruta del Spondylus. I returned to the USA on fire about birth, and Nadia welcomed me with open arms. I dove into my own independent research on undisturbed, physiological birth, studied with Nadia, and we became part of a global network of birthkeepers educating themselves and their communities about women’s health outside of the medical system.

The other two passions I want to mention here, which deeply inform my birthkeeping, are dance and peer counseling. My work as a professional contemporary dancer teaches me that everything happens by and through the body. We are not floating heads. I have been practicing and teaching peer counseling for over a decade, and this practice is integral to my skill as a facilitator and coach for our clients, as we support people to heal from trauma through emotional & nonverbal release.

The last thing I want you to know about me is that I love this work! It is my purpose, my love and light, and I wake up every morning so grateful and genuinely thrilled to devote my life to it, hand-in-hand with my sister, Nadia.

Thank you for listening. I hope you reach out so we can learn about who you are, too.