Ep. 34 - Cara Gillette tells her story from midwife to suddenly divorced mother of 4 to master's degree and a professional trainer and consultant. She shares her joy of bringing new life in this world and tells why she is an advocate for community living. Her personal journey speaks to a long-standing interest in civil rights, along with her professional interest in promoting affordable housing opportunities, and a period of her life when she practiced midwifery. One life changing moment changed the way she looks at human rights.
Top Takeaways:
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- Understanding the inequalities of the world and be the change you want in this world
- Learning to form a community of people who understand their differences but still choose each other
- The positive lessons of community living
- How to pick yourself up after a divorce and find your purpose even as a single mother
- Finding time to balance school, full-time work, and being a single mother to teenagers
Learn how she surived an unforeseen divorce and raised 4 children on her own.
"Do not let anyone shut you up! Speak up for your rights because those rights are at risk."
She believes every woman should give birth the way she feels most comfortable and there is no wrong way or one more spiritual than the other. She believes without the roadblocks she would not have grown. Three years after her divorce, while raising 4 children, she decided to further her education. Cara completed her bachelor's and master's degrees and is a highly respected professional consultant and trainer with Nan McKay and Associates.
She shares how she learned to fix her "brokenness" with descriptions of her sense of being unworthy after the trauma of a divorce she had never envisioned; and the necessity of garnering the courage to find happiness within herself in order to keep on keeping on.
Cara's story will seem both new and old bringing up similarities from stories of other women you know who successfully reengineered themselves and their future following a divorce, while also providing for a new story with the sharing of what it means to be a part of community living.
Learn what it's like to be a midwife!
Key Moments:
Cara narrates her story of forming and living in a community and practicing midwifery with specialization in natural birth [1:10]
She describes how she handled a divorce, and being a single mother at a young age with underlying pain [10:38]
Learning to balance life, work, and education while still handling being a single mother to teenagers [13:03]
She talks about the feelings of unworthiness she felt after the trauma of her divorce and how going back to school helped her [15:12]
Her advice for younger women today [19:39]
Relevant Links
LinkedIn Cara Gillette
Birth Story Movie
Wikipedia Farm Midwives
Nan McKay Associate
The Farm Midwives
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