✨ Expanding My Doula Practice

This year, Shekita Long Doula Services continued to evolve. I supported families across Metro Detroit through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum — blending mindfulness, ancestral practices, and evidence-based care.

I also launched new offerings, including my free Homebirth Guide and expanded Mindfulness-Based Childbirth Education services. Many families connected through my website, www.shekitalongdoula.com, and I’m so grateful for every birth story that unfolded this year.

🕊️ Speaking Engagements & Conferences

I had the honor of sharing my voice and perspective at several important gatherings this year:

• Women and Entheogens Conference- Restoring Birth as Ceremony: Indigenous Practices, Psychedelic Motherhood, and Health Equity.
• Motown Experience: Birth & Breastfeeding Conference (BMBFA) — “Cultural Roots of Nurturing: Reviving Ancestral Practices for Modern Breastfeeding”
• Lens to Motherhood: Equity in Bloom Reproductive Conference -Sacred Birthwork and & Psychedelic Pathways yo Care

These opportunities allowed me to bridge traditional wisdom and modern birthwork, connecting with other birthworkers, healers, and community leaders across the country.

🌿 Launching the Plant Parenthood Detroit Chapter

Together with Savannah Rae Bohlin and supported by Rebecca Kronman, LCSW, I co-led the launch of Plant Parenthood Detroit — a safe space for parents exploring mindful, psychedelic, and integrative approaches to parenting.

Our monthly Integration Circles at Per Ankh have grown into sacred, healing community gatherings — filled with storytelling, reflection, and genuine transformation.

🏡 Building the Three Fires Homebirth Collective

This year also marked the beginning of the Three Fires Homebirth Collective — a collaboration with student Midwife D’Cheya, and other powerful birthworkers.

Our goal is to make homebirth accessible and culturally grounded for Black and Indigenous families in Michigan. We’re building a Homebirth Scholarship Fund to remove barriers for families who desire community-based care, and I’m humbled by the growing support from local organizations and donors.

💜 Leadership, Mentorship & Collaboration

As Director of Community Outreach for the Lunar Doula Collective, I’ve continued working  to expand our reach and deepen our community partnerships.

I also became a mentor to two incredible doulas — Savannah and D’Cheya — who are each making their own powerful mark in this field. Watching their growth reminds me that this work is always intergenerational, reciprocal, and heart-centered.

🌍 Global Learning & Cultural Exchange

This year I began preparing for my journey to Johannesburg, South Africa with Wombs of the World and Dr. Mmatshilo Motsei — a trip dedicated to deepening cross-cultural understanding and ancestral connection in birthwork.
I’ve been actively fundraising and sharing this vision with community partners, because I know this journey will bring back wisdom to share with families here in Detroit.

🕊️ Advocacy & Collective Healing

Through my role on the Detroit Psychedelic Society, I’ve helped strengthen organizational structure, recruit new members, and shape conversations around plant medicine, trauma healing, and equity.

From supporting the Black Coalition for Safe Motherhood (ACTT Ambassador Program) to amplifying the voices of parents and families across Detroit, I’m deeply committed to transforming how our communities experience birth, healing, and care.

🌸 Closing Reflections

This year reminded me that birthwork is community work — and that healing doesn’t happen in isolation. Whether at a birth, a circle, a conference, or a neighborhood meeting, I’ve seen what’s possible when we return to ancestral values of care, accountability, and connection.

To everyone who collaborated, donated, attended, or simply offered encouragement — thank you. You are part of this growing movement toward restoring trust, safety, and sacredness in our birth experiences and beyond.

Here’s to more collaboration, more courage, and more community in 2026.

Shekita Long, CHW, CPST
Cultural and Community Doula
www.shekitalongdoula.com