I first started working with pregnant women and midwives in 1996 as a public health volunteer in The Gambia, West Africa. There I served two-and-a-half years in the Peace Corps, living in a Mandinka village on the Gambia River called Sara Kunda. My adopted father, Baba, gave me the name Sutay which means "to recognize." The first birth I ever attended was that of my adopted sister, Fatou's first child. She, her mother, and I traveled to a clinic in a donkey cart under the moon, the howl of hyenas all around us. The clinic, it turned out, was dark and deserted, but it was time for Fatou's baby girl to arrive—by candle light on a concrete slab.
Inspired by my work with Gambian women, upon returning to the United States, I earned my Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. I then worked as a Registered Nurse in Johns Hopkins Hospital, specializing in Labor & Delivery, Antepartum, Postpartum and Nursery. During this time, I obtained a teacher certification in Integrated Yoga Therapy and met my husband.
Josh and I went on a year-and-a-half volunteer honeymoon, an incredible trip during which I worked with women on malnutrition issues in North Bengal, India; taught reproductive health in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka; and assisted in a Planned Parenthood clinic in Accra, Ghana. I also studied yoga and meditation in India and Thai massage and reflexology in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I returned to Africa ten years since I first traveled there, to Sara Kunda, where I was reunited with Baba, Fatou, and her eldest daughter, little Sutay (now ten years old!).
We returned to my native Colorado, where I worked as a Labor & Delivery Nurse at Boulder Community Hospital and also completed a Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training with Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa.
The following fall, Shanti Ayla Berman was born, in a birthing tub at home on a crisp October day in Boulder — it took 36 hours of back labor and 4 hours of pushing; with Josh right behind me and my midwives, mother, and sister Siobain by my side. Shanti means peace in Sanskrit and Ayla is Turkish for circle of cristalic light around the sun or moon (also Hebrew for oak tree).
Almost three years later, I delivered Zenlana Summer Berman—into my husband's arms in our bathroom, with a full head of chestnut hair. Her name combines zen ("peace and tranquility") with lana (Hawaiian for "calm as still water").
In addition to dancing with my daughters, I teach childbirth and yoga classes at Boulder Community Hospital and offer private instruction and support to pregnant women and new moms, including doula services. We live in Nomad Cohousing in North Boulder.
Email: sutay7 AT gmail DOT com