Hoku Birth Services

My favorite Sunday of the month is coming up! Please join us for community, deep connection, and the opportunity to be totally real about the experience of pregnancy and birth in these times. Open to all pregnant people via a confidential zoom meeting. Any and all stages of pregnancy are welcome. To RSVP please email [email protected]. Excited to see you then!

Postpartum nourishment for Mamas doesn't need to be complicated. Feed them foods their ancestors had relationships with. Their cells will remember. Their wombs will heal. Their Spirits will be lifted and held.... This ulu (breadfruit) and marunggay (moringa) were prepared as both a simple-to-digest warming soup and in an easy-to-grab frittata for a family of Hawaiian and Filipino ancestry. #ancestralfoods #ancestralmedicine #postpartumhealinginhawaii #birthonmaui #mauidoula #plantationculture #indigenousbirthkeeper #decolonizemidwifery #decolonizeyourdiet #birthmatters #postpartummatters

Handwritten letters are definitely one of my love languages. There is such sweet meaningfulness and connection in keeping in touch at the pace of "snail mail" (which--let's be real--isn't even slow nowadays) with a dear friend who lives on the exact opposite end of the country. Old school communication in rapidly moving and changing times. Pen and paper. Time. Thoughtfulness.... Mahalo @artistkatiehillman for making the promise that we'd never apologize for the length of time between our letters. You get me.

While pregnant, I would have paid Dr. Kourtney just to lay face-down for 30 minutes on pregnancy pillows, but the chiropractic adjustments I got while hpai were not only helpful for my pregnancy, but also for swift, purposeful labors and easeful recoveries. Dr. Kourtney adjusted me all the way through two full pregnancies as well as a miscarriage I had at around 19 weeks. Her hands have held me through more than can be told with words. ... These little humans are lucky enough to have been getting adjustments since they were in utero. Within hours of entering this world, Kourtney was there holding them. Through the years she has been here to ease them as they teeth, and learn to crawl and walk and run, through broken bones and surgeries, and learning new sports and skills, and through so. many. falls. They know Kourtney as their Primary Care Physician. Her hands have held them through more than can be told with words. Their adjustments have changed as they've gotten older--from tender one-finger pressure to big kid adjustments!--but they have always responded so well and come out with more light in their eyes, more energy, and better sleep and digestion. Now, we get to Dr. Kourtney's and they both rumble up her staircase to tell her EVERYTHING that has happened in their bodies since last seeing her. And I stand in awe of their capacity to know their bodies so well. To recognize home within their selfs. To trust in their abilities to grow and heal and regenerate from within. To trust someone who really hears them and only has their best interests at heart. These are things that took me YEARS to learn and reprogram for myself. What a gift it is for them to experience this all their lives. #chiropractic #chirokids #studiochiropractic #mauichiropractor #chiroforpregnancy

Ihaven't taken a moment to introduce myself here in awhile (ever?) & I'm recognizing as a sporadic social media consumer that this is a thing people do. Aloha. I'm Haley. I was born and raised in a tiny plantation camp in the middle of pineapple and sugar cane fields called Hliimaile on Maui. I come from island people, with roots that have been uplifted from the soils of Puerto Rico (Taíno & African & Spanish heritage), the Philippines, Japan and the Azores in Portugal. ...My ancestors 5 generations ago were brought to Hawaii on boats and never could earn their ways back home. And so, here I stand. I was raised by the camps and in the camps, and these are the people who hold me accountable in the world & in all the work I do. The many cultures of hard-working, earnest humans who truly want better for my generation. The ones who have sat under our family's tin roof sharing collective bounty, wisdom and knowledge. When I started as a doula years ago I couldn't figure out my place in the birth world. I wasn't interested in being another pawn in the medical system that treats women--especially women of color--like objects, and birth as a medical emergency. There was a reverence with birth that the world wasn't understanding and I just couldn't pinpoint it. It wasn't until I met other indigenous birthkeepers that I recognized the ways in which I could be of service AND pass on generational knowledge in a way that resonated in my soul. These practices were sustainable, valuable and healing for multiple generations. The work of being a birthkeeper wasn't "just" knowing what to do in case of an emergency, it was about holding space for ceremony, nourishing a family, recognizing the herbs & words that encourage a woman's petals to unfurl in perfect timing. Like my grandmother and her mother before her, I somehow hold within me the wisdom to do this profound work for my community. It is an honor to do it in ways that finally feel aligned. I trust women & I trust birth. I currently attend births on Maui and am becoming clearer on my path as it unfolds. I'm curious how you found me & what you're seeking from this space. Please let me know.

Gathering plants for Closing of the Bones ceremonies is a sacred act. Most, if not all, of the medicines I collect are from my own backyard--specifically chosen, planted, tended to and gathered for the purpose of serving new families in our island community. Many of the people I hold ceremony for have been in relationship with me for at least a year. I have witnessed them as their womb grew, their breasts filled, their heart expanded. I have honored their exploration of what... it means to feel powerful in their bodies--to both surrender and also become the authority in their experience of pregnancy and labor, and then birth and motherhood. I have held space for them to journey into unknown territory and gather the spirit of their child--watched them dig deeper and open wider than they ever believed they could--and then return as new spirits with their babies. In a society that places so much value on the beginning of new cycles (baby announcements, baby showers and blessingways), we tend to forget to close off these cycles and honor all that has needed to happen physically, spiritually and emotionally through pregnancy and the initial postpartum period. The Closing ceremony is the final piece to the rite of passage that is Birth. It has been practiced in many cultures for generations, and it's my deep hope that its value will be known again. #closingofthebones #birthasceremony #birthmatters #postpartummatters #postpartum #birthonmaui #mauimama #mauibirth #mauidoula #indigenousbirthkeeper #mauibirth #ancestralhealing