About Mélanie.
I have been a primary care midwife with a specialization in global health and human rights for most of my adult life. Parallel to my medical practice, I have been an educator to thousands.
During my 20-plus years of teaching experience, I have taught obstetrical skills and preventative medicine to nurses, doctors, midwives, traditional birth attendants, and students. I have owned yoga studios and taught yoga teacher trainings, and meditation retreats. As co-founder of École Quantik Doula, I have trained hundreds of doulas around the world as our full-spectrum doula school quickly became the largest doula school for the French-speaking community. Concurrently, I am a 2nd year Masters Candidate in Evidence-Based Teaching for Health Professionals at Johns Hopkins University where I am developing a Trauma-Informed Care Training Program for Birth Practitioners for my Capstone Project. While I comfortably navigate the academic and medical worlds, my passion is to merge contemporary and ancestral knowledge.
As a lifelong activist, I have fought child sexual abuse, worked in harm-reduction in the context of gender and sexual-based violence, and promoted access to respectful care for the LGBTQ+ community.
About Marea.
From pursuing a PhD in seed conservation of indigenous plants to working as an activist and facilitator in reproductive health access, I feel most at home in the middle of the Venn Diagram, where my passions for academic research, ancestral knowledge and women's health come together. Since 2015 I have committed my career to developing evidence-based knowledge in health, empowerment and wellbeing for women and queer folks by working on sexual and reproductive rights research, knowledge brokering for maternal health and attending births with Melanie.
Drawing on experiences working across various sectors, including academia, development, and progressive advocacy organizations from Tanzania to Mexico and Norway, I continue to be guided by the commitment and desire to reclaim our body sovereignty. Born to a family of activists that worked on unpacking the norms and systems that restrict women and LGBTIQ+ individuals' access to support and protection, advocacy has been a part of my life since I can remember.
Currently, I am enrolled in the Psychedelic Practitioner Program at Synthesis Institute in The Netherlands. My wish is to continue to strengthen the ties between science and love. I am interested in the therapeutic potential for the treatment of birth trauma, postpartum depression and anxiety. I believe a whole-body approach to health and wellbeing is an exciting scientific field where I feel honored to play a part.
Our Values
Affirming Diversity
Mama Loup supports, celebrates and affirms diversity in all forms. At times we will speak about “women’s bodies” to acknowledge the political & historical need to advocate for cis-men to no longer be the standard upon which we can understand cis-women’s health. However, we also recognize that there are people across the gender spectrum for whom the term “women’s bodies” is exclusionary and who experience menstruation, pregnancy, and other seasons of reproductive health without identifying as a woman.
Reparations
Mama Loup acknowledges the Pueblo people as the rightful stewards of the land on which we live and work: O’gha Po'oge now named Santa Fe. Thank you for having protected the land, the water, the medicinal plants, the seeds, and the animals. Your work, prayers, and ceremonies have blessed and continue to bless this land of enchantment.
For these reasons and in response to the systematic discrimination all Mama Loup courses are free of charge for Indigenous peoples.
Giving Back Knowledge
For generations, knowledge has been withheld by a narrow and privileged group of people. Mama Loup strives to democratize the flow of knowledge. We reclaim intuition, ancestral tradition, relationship with nature, with our body, and our lineage as integral parts of knowledge building and resources.
For these reasons, our courses provide not only evidence-based knowledge, but also functional and herbal medicine, holistic approaches, and rites and rituals practices within all our Journeys.
Origin of the name Mama Loup
In Kenya, where I gave birth, there is a tradition to call people by the name of their first born. For exemple, If your first born is named Sophie, you are called Mama Sophie or Papa Sophie for the rest of your life, even if you have more children. I birthed my daughter in Kenya, next to a national park and where the hyenas were faintly laughing in the distance between my labour sounds, as if they were responding to my moans. I gave her the middle name of Loup—which means wolf, in French, my native language—and in the spirit of this tradition, I name this platform Mama Loup.
We want to dedicate this work to the next generation of people who menstruate.