Tzipporah La Fianza

In the very early hours of a muggy, late July morning in 1980, a writer was born. Of course it took her until she was nearly seven to master her ABCs and she was upwards of nine before she was able to even tell the difference between a lowercase b and d, but it never stopped her from making up stories in her mind. After a time of being sure she would never, ever, ever-ever-ever learn to read anything but “little kid books”, something finally clicked one day and just like that she was transformed into a night owl, reading anything she could find into the wee hours of the night. Not much has changed, as she still has trouble rising before 9am, and only after a big glass of cranberry white tea over ice. (She hates coffee.) Without the aid of the four little humans who allow her to think she is homeschooling them-and not the other way around--she wouldn't likely ever see daylight.

Of course being a night owl has always given Tzipporah a pretty good edge in her job as a birthing doula. Whilst most other folk would be yawning and climbing into bed, she can often be found in her element as the right-hand gal to a woman bringing another beautiful life into the world. She found her niche as a doula sometime around 2005 after giving birth to her second baby in which she had, for lack of a better word, an epiphany that in the right time and space, birth had the potential to be the most life changing, spiritual event in a woman's life. She felt determined that this opportunity should be offered to all women, if they so desired, and within a structure in which they felt the safest and most empowered. Since then she has gone on to not only assist many labouring woman as a birthing doula, but also to offer lactation support to many mothers. She has also co-led a Birthing Circle and her latest venture is working her way through becoming an accredited Breastfeeding Counselor.

One day, around aged 28, and while writing her 40 millionth journal entry (give or take, of course) Tzipporah realized that she was, indeed, a writer. After wrestling with the typical fear of failure and rejection which every writer must face, she has gone on to have her work published in a variety of online and print publications.

Tzipporah is currently toiling over her obligatory first novel so that she will truly feel comfortable allowing "author" to headline the assorted list of jobs on her business card.