An Important Letter from Our Founder on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI)

To the PWG community,

I am writing this letter to openly call myself out … and in.

We recently sent out a letter with the subject line: ALL parents deserve support.

In this letter, I was excited to announce our new name - Parent Wellness Group and our new free six week series - Parent Postpartum Wellness Series.

While the group of providers I have brought together in this series is AMAZING, and they are all colleagues/friends/providers who have been instrumental in my perinatal healing journey, they are all white parents. They do not represent ALL parents.

In my own sense of urgency to get this series and much needed support out in the world, I fully missed the mark and I realized it pretty much the moment the series went live. And while I wish I had noticed it earlier, I’m fully owning and trusting how this has unfolded because it is pushing me to take a good hard look at WHY I missed the mark on this significant component of a series that is meant to support all parents.

Speaking of trusting the timing, thankfully I had a session with my new (AND INCREDIBLE) anti-racism and DEI coach - Ashani Mfuko within 24 hours of realizing this mistake.

Getting support and some much needed direct and loving feedback from Ashani reminded me that staying committed to my own personal and professional anti-racism work and goals means getting regular ongoing support and establishing systems and habits to keep me on track. She reminded me that just like mothering myself and staying committed to my own self-care practices, being anti-racist is a lifestyle NOT a diet.

I am re-committing (in mindfulness terms we call this beginning again) to my own ACTIVE anti-racism work because supporting ALL parents is truly my life’s work. This not only means hiring diverse clinicians (which we are actively working on!), but it also means broadening my and the PWG network to include providers in the perinatal space from all backgrounds. 

The bottom line is I want to publicly apologize for missing the mark on this and let you know that I will be doing better. I am calling myself out and I am also calling myself IN and am actively processing (thanks to Ashani’s help) why I missed the mark and what I need to do to do better.

I invite you to read the new Parent Wellness Group DEI Mission Statement and please take the invitation at the end seriously. That invitation is: PLEASE join us in our commitment to support ALL parents by sharing resources, organizations and noticeable blindspots that can help us stay committed to our mission.

Thank you for being a part of this community and for accepting me in all my perfectly imperfect humanness. 

Sarah

PWG Founder