My Interview with Cheyenne Varner of The Educated Birth
If you don’t know Cheyenne Varner, then pull up a seat and let me introduce you to one of my favorite birth workers!
Cheyenne is the creator and illustrator of The Educated Birth - a collection of childbirth education and reproductive health materials that instructors can implement into their own teaching including illustration sets, infographics, printed materials, and slide-shows. If you’ve followed my work on social media, have ever taken a class with me, or visited my office, then you’ve likely seen Cheyenne’s illustrations depicting a range of diverse birthing people and expectant parents. Take a look at team TEB’s instagram.
Cheyenne is also the creator of Everyday Birth Magazine - which instead of featuring illustrations, focuses on photography of real families and real babies while also telling real birth stories. Each issue features one hospital birth story, one home birth story, and one birth center story. The magazine is a space that feels very balanced. Cheyenne describes it as being all the things, or all the options that are on the table and helpful to know about. Readers can take and use any or all of it in whatever ways work for them.
Additionally, Cheyenne has created a visual project called Life’s Work - a photo and audio documentary of pregnancy. For this project, Cheyenne spent five days at Roots Community Birth Center in Minneapolis following a Black woman midwife while capturing how the team at Roots engages with people in birth, prenatally and postpartum. She documented in audio, photography, and video to create what she calls an interactive-documentary education. It’s beautiful. Watch the trailer.
And if all of that hasn’t fully impressed you, Cheyenne is also a birth and postpartum doula who’s providing hands-on support to her community in Richmond, VA. Read about her doula support services here.
I told Cheyenne about how much I love that her work is so intentional and passion driven and asked her to talk about how she got started and what her work means to her. Here’s what she had to say.
Cheyenne: I came into the birth world in 2016 and as soon as I learned that birth work was a thing - that providing nonmedical support to pregnant people was a job that people were doing - I got trained within 2 months.
This was what I was looking to do since I was a kid. I was really involved with my mom throughout her pregnancies and was always in the space of caring for my siblings; we’re pretty spaced out in age. I was an 8 year-old reading The Big Baby Book - this really thick and dense book, and reading it cover to cover! I just always had that passion in me and to engage with this aspect of life.
So as a new birth worker, I interned at a birth center, and started taking on clients, and part of what motivated me to jump in as quickly as I could was learning about the maternal mortality rate and how that was disproportionately impacting Black women. And so being a Black woman and also knowing that piece of information, I was really looking for educational materials that were really speaking directly to us and I wasn’t finding that.
That’s what started me along this path. I’d always done illustrating as a hobby. My mom is a writer and illustrator and she makes her own children’s books. Growing up I used to help her bind them and put them together. What I got totally from my mom was this feeling of, “Oh you have an idea for something? Then just do it!” So that’s really how it started. I just started doing it!
It helped that there were people around me who were like, “Oh this is cool. I would use that. You should share it.” So I put it on Facebook, and I heard from so many people, and that’s when it really opened my eyes. Before, I was looking at this illustrating work from the gap, or the lack, that really related to me, but there are a lot of people who are seeing the lack and gap in birth education. Their experiences might not be mine, but we should all have something here.
So that’s when it really evolved and I started thinking about how this could really be intersectional, how it could be intentional, and how it could speak to the vast variety of experiences.
Naima: Thank you for all that you do, Cheyenne! You make being a birth worker better.
I was featured on these two blogs last week! Shout out to me : )
Lamaze International published my piece on Nike’s maternity ad - You Are The Toughest Athlete
The Birth Coach Method’s founder, Neri Life-Choma, wrote this piece on how I’m integrating transformational birth coaching skills into my practice
Upcoming Events and Ways to Work Together
Baby + Me Playtime with Laura Max is every Wednesday at 11:30 ET. Registration is required. Sign up here or share the link.
I’m available for 1:1 birth prep and coaching - book a session or refer a friend here
I'll be co-teaching The Advanced Holding Space for Pregnancy Loss course with Amy Wright Glenn again in October. More info and registration are here
If you know someone who could benefit from our Birth Support Fund, write to me at naima@foryourbirth.com.
Use my scheduling link to book a free 15 minute consultation
You’re invited to the final class in our series - Just Do You: Yoga for Birth Workers, Birth Givers + Friends with Black Mat Yoga
Saturday, May 29th at 12 PM EST
Let me know that you’ll be joining us by using this form to RSVP. I’ll send the zoom link after I receive your info.