Once upon a time, I envisioned starting my own holistic women’s center. Not just a birthing center or a doctor’s office, but a comprehensive one-stop-shop for all things womanhood.
I pictured free childcare for siblings, health services, including midwives, an extensive library for furthering education, a massage therapist, maybe even a little coffee and tea corner for relaxing with other women—a place to celebrate the beauty of being a woman.
Imagine my surprise when I learned that my vision was coming true.
I first learned about The Guiding Star project through my work at Feminists for Life. Feminists for Life is a pro-woman, pro-life organization that works to support woman-centered solutions. As their College Outreach Program Coordinator, I worked primarily to help college students transform their campuses with resources and support for pregnant and parenting students. College-aged women receive the highest number of abortions each year, largely due to a lack of resources and support available to them—a reality that I experienced for myself when I became unexpectedly pregnant with my daughter during my senior year of college.
After Feminists for Life’s President, Serrin M. Foster, spoke at a Guiding Star event, I fell in love with the center’s mission and its adorably perky blonde leader.  I was thrilled to discover like-minded women who were dedicated to advancing the cause of embracing the beauty of femininity in its truest form.
I am fascinated by the reverence of pregnancy, motherhood, and true feminism. I love the thought of embracing, truly embracing our womanhood and advocating for a world that accommodates, rather than isolates. Women have babies—incredibly, this is not a new-fangled notion; if memory serves me correct, women have been doing it for quite some time now—so why do our workplaces and societies still act like we are an inconvenience? Why are medical students still told they can’t get pregnant during residency? Why is it so hard to find time to pump at work?

The author and her husband with their unborn son. Photo by j&j brusie photography.


As a young mom of three now (two girls aged 4 and 2, and a 2 month-old baby boy), I try my best to carve a new path for myself and my family, working hard to combine the best of motherhood and career. Working during nap times, including my children in my work (my daughter frequently have to go “finish their articles!”), taking Ada with me when I speak at events–all of these things are important to me as a mother. I want my daughters to grow up knowing that just as there is no one definition for a mother, there are no limits as a woman. I don’t shy away from what it means to be a woman, what my life has been like. My girls breastfeed their baby dolls and someday, I will share with Ada my struggle in having an unplanned pregnancy, and how I came to embrace the beauty of my body, of life, of her.
Right now, though, I’m just plodding along on this sometimes messy road of motherhood, trying hard in each and every day to find my divine spark, to embrace the feminine spirit inside of me. And today, I am simply grateful to be here and with Guiding Star as they inspire women, mothers, daughters, and sisters in making a vision for true feminism come true.
Chaunie Brusie is a writer, advocate for young mothers facing unplanned pregnancies, and labor and delivery nurse. Her book, Tiny Blue Lines: A Guide for Young Moms is due through Ave Maria Press in 2014. Find her at Tiny Blue Lines, on Facebook, and Twitter.