Home | Heartseed Herbalism & Birth

Welcome to Heartseed

Offering full-spectrum birth services, community herbalism, & folk healing classes on Dakhóta & Anishinaabe homelands, Minneapolis, Minnesota & the metro area.

Explore

Let's Connect

I would love to get to know you. Schedule a free one hour birth or postpartum consultation, or inquire about herbal consulting, teaching, & speaking.

Start Now

Services

Supporting holistic wellbeing for the perinatal continuum & beyond.

Labor & Birth Support

Continuous phone/text/email support from the moment you sign the contract
24/7 on call availability beginning at 37 weeks
Two in-home prenatal meetings to discuss your birth preferences, comfort measures, relaxation techniques, and your postpartum plan
A back-up doula in case circumstances prevent me from attending your birth
Continuous in-person labor support from the moment you ask me to join, up to two hours postpartum
Basic assistance with chosen feeding method after birth
Two in-home postpartum visits within two weeks of the birth
Continued availability to answer questions and provide support through 6 weeks postpartum

Herbal Support

Herbal consultations & crafted medicines seek to address the whole person; the physical body as well as the mind, emotions and energy system. Individuals who are seeking guidance on natural alternatives, have a specific health concern, or need emotional support will benefit greatly.

I offer community herbalism consultations as spaces of collaboration, to improve your perinatal health holistically, and offer personalized suggestions for herbal therapies that would benefit you.

In addition to recommendations made during each consultation, afterward you will receive an email detailing herbs, nature-based practices, lifestyle adjustments, and nutritional guidance to support your health goals, along with links and sources for quality herbal products, and/or guidance for in-home herbcraft.

Postpartum Care

A postpartum doula is trained not only to care for infants, but to tend to the emotional and physical needs of the parents.

As a postpartum doula, I offer:

emotional space-holding for your birth & postpartum journey
education & support for partners, family, & siblings
meal prepping
light house care (dishes, folding laundry, tidying up)
lactation support & guidance
postpartum herbalism consultation
guidance & education on movement & stretching habits to promote healing

Becoming a parent (for the first time or not!) comes with a lot of adjustments. These shifts are compounded by lack of sleep, changing family dynamics, physical recovery for the birthing person, and the variety of curveballs birth and babies can throw our way. A postpartum doula is able to step into your home and meet whatever needs are most urgent — caring for your baby so you can rest or shower, assisting with comforting your baby or addressing feeding issues, light household tasks that help bring peace and order to your home, and providing encouragement, support, and resources when you’re feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, and ill-equipped.

About Me

My name is Sylvia. I'm full-spectrum doula specializing in birth & postpartum. I am a community herbalist with a love of culinary & folk practice. I'm passionate about deepening connections between people and plants as multifaceted healers, in personal, accessible ways.

I love supporting the body through the healing, harmonizing, & capacity-building power of good food, herbal remedies, and through weaving supportive, sustainable structures into daily living & community spaces.

Learn More

Teachers & Training

As your birth or postpartum caregiver, I walk alongside you in respect & deep listening, supporting your decision-making process, offering my faith in your power, offering resources, and sharing my many years of training & experience to support your body, vision, & unique journey.

I did my initial birth doula training with Latham Thomas of Mama Glow, and completed a second training with Rhonda Fellows & Heather Christine Struwe of the local organization Community Aware Birthworker. I have taken continuing education in Fetal Positioning with Cornerstone Doula Trainings.
I trained in pregnancy release with the local Spiral Collective, and trained in Supporting Miscarriage with Molly Dutton-Kenny & Mariamor.

I have also worked as an end-of life caregiver for people on hospice.

I have studied movement & yogic traditions, and anatomy & physiology extensively in formal academic institutions.

I am currently completing the process of certification as a Full-Spectrum Lactation Educator & Postpartum Doula with Birthing Advocacy Doula Trainings.

I follow the lineage of Reproductive Justice, defined by Sister Song as: the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.

My relationships with the plants have been lifelong. I was grew up alongside a clear creek, surrounded by nettles & jewelweed. Red clover, lilacs, roses, & raspberry were & are some of my daily teachers & friends.

I craft small batch herbal medicines, and offer consultations & resources within the wider Twin Cities community. I facilitate community herbalism classes as spaces of inquiry & delight where relationships between humans and plants can flourish, and plants can impart their own lessons which run deeper than phytochemistry or botany. Plants have so much to teach us about how to live rooted & free in a tumultuous world.

I have been studying plant medicines for a decade, and I am a certified Family Herbalist through the Commonwealth Center for Holistic Herbalism, where Katja Swift & Ryn Midura have been my guides & teachers. In addition to teaching traditional western herbalism, the Commonwealth Center teaches & emphasizes the foundational work of supporting nutrition, movement, sleep, & stress management to create holistic vitality.

I have also studied herbalism at Minneapolis Community & Technical College, with Erica Fargione. I have tended a community apothecary in South Minneapolis since 2020. I have learned within the Herbal Remembering School created & facilitated by Cheré Bergeron, where the container invited us into deep, slow, personal, mythic relationships with plant beings.

I currently study clinical herbalism at the Commonwealth Center for Holistic Herbalism.

In addition to the teachers listed above, I have learned so much from the work of herbalists & plant people; Kiva Rose Hardin, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Robin Rose Bennet, Mary Siisip Geniusz, Mara June, Ember Peters, Daena Horner, Sarah Corbett, Vivien Sansour, and Many More.

Contact

I am currently accepting birth clients with estimated due dates in October 2025 & later. Interested in discussing what doula support could look like for you and your family? Share a bit more about yourself and I’ll reach out as soon as possible.

Send Message