Seven Minutes In Heaven With Doula and Childbirth Educator Shawna Queen

“I hope to create more dialogue around holistic healing in the LGBTQ community.”

Welcome to “Seven Minutes in Heaven,” GO Magazine’s brand new interview series that profiles a different queer lady each day, by asking her seven unique (and sometimes random) questions. Get to know the thoughts, feelings, and opinions of the groundbreaking, fierce forces-of-nature in the queer community.


Photo by Amber Eschenweck

Doula’s provide a beautiful service of helping people give birth to new life in this world. What is more magical than that? Shawna Queen has been working as a full-spectrum doula in the Detroit area. She provides amazing resources to new mothers before and after they give birth.

Queen hopes to expand her reach in the future by providing LGBTQ specific classes in the Detroit community to that queer and trans parents have the same access to holistic child rearing information as straight couples do.

Get to know the incredible force of nature that is Shawna Queen in our “Seven Minutes in Heaven” interview.

GO Magazine: Who are you and what do you do?

Shawna Queen: My name is Shawna Queen, I live in Detroit and I am a certified birth and postpartum Doula and childbirth educator. I’m currently in the process of starting up LGBTQ childbirth and newborn care classes in my area and focussing my Doula work on LGBTQ families. I also volunteer through a program that provides doulas to low income women in my community.

GO: What fuels your work/activism?

SQ: My desire to help women fuels my work and activism. Supporting and empowering women in their choices is my passion and I am happy to have found a career that gives me a platform to do just that.

GO: How do you hope to see bisexual visibility improve in the LGBTQ community?

SQ: I hope to see bisexual visibility improve in the way that bisexual identity is still regarded by some in the LGBTQ community. I think that, though it’s improving, bisexuality is at times scrutinized or even patronized and I think that leads to people not wanting to identify openly as bisexual. Creating an atmosphere of respect towards all sexual identities makes way for everyone to comfortably identify as who they truly are.

Photo by Amber Eschenweck

GO: Where do you go for inspiration when you’re feeling discouraged or depleted?

SQ: When I’m feeling discouraged or depleted I typically reach into my support system that I’ve been incredibly lucky to have. My partner Amber encourages me to take time to heal myself when I become burned out, talks sense into me when I feel overwhelmed and nurtures me when I’m feeling defeated. My best friend Taylor is the most encouraging, optimistic and logical person I’ve ever met and I need her perspective to keep me grounded when I get carried away with my anxiety.

GO: How do you hope to create more dialogue around holistic healing practices in the LGBTQ community?

SQ: I hope to create more dialogue around holistic healing in the LGBTQ community by teaching childbirth education classes tailored to LGBTQ people. I would say that my approach as a Doula is holistic in that I believe the mind and body are very connected and that both need to be mindfully taken care of.

Photo by Amber Eschenweck
GO: Who are you bisexual role models?

SQ: I don’t personally have any famous role models, bisexual or otherwise. I would say that any person who proudly identifies as bisexual contributes to the normalizing of that sexual identity and therefore they are a role model.

GO: Where can people find you?

SQ: I can be found on Instagram @detroitdoula or on my website www.thedetroitdoula.com.


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