Origin Stories: Eileen Rosete on Building a Team of Healing Practitioners

At Origin, we strongly believe that "you're the expert". Every body is unique (literally), and so are your stories.

We're excited to share the Origin Story of Eileen Rosete, the incredible founder of Our Sacred Women and mother of two. She worked with our team throughout her pregnancies and postpartum

The following is Eileen's story, in her own words.

Eileen's Origin Story: First pregnancy, and first experience with physical therapy

I was pregnant four times in four years.

After giving birth to my first child in 2015, I experienced two pregnancy losses that left me completely unmoored, heartbroken, and sinking in sorrow. By the time I was pregnant in 2018, I was pretty exhausted from the physical, hormonal, and emotional ups and downs I had gone through already and knew I needed support to get me through. I knew too from my first pregnancy that gestating a human being was no small feat—despite pregnancy and birth both being horribly undervalued in our society—and made it a point to build a strong team of healing practitioners.

I began seeing a prenatal chiropractor, a massage therapist, and an acupuncturist on a weekly basis starting in my second trimester. But despite all of my practitioners being amazing and genuinely helpful, I realized I needed something else to complement their work and really target the root causes of my chronic neck, shoulder, back, and jaw pain. Enter Origin.

I had never seen a physical therapist before, but as I read through Origin’s website I had a good feeling they were exactly what I was looking for and they didn’t disappoint. I escaped the craziness of being pregnant while caring for a preschooler by going to Origin twice a week for over 6 months.

As I told the staff on several occasions, it was better than sex.

I looked forward to the light cardio and strength building exercises that reinforced the healthier body mechanics Origin was helping me to establish, and which would prevent any further episodes of the debilitating back pain I had been experiencing. I longed for the relief I knew I would feel after my physical therapists, Dr. Caitlin Abusamra and Dr. Sarah Clampett, worked their magic. And I absolutely craved the 10 minutes of rest at the end of each session where I would be wrapped in warm compresses, snuggled under the comfort of a blanket and eye pillow. It was not uncommon for me to groan as the warmth of the compresses seeped into my tired bones. And oftentimes I would fall asleep and wake up from my power nap feeling completely renewed. As I told the staff on several occasions, it was better than sex.

One to rival the utter ecstasy of those warm compresses was Dr. Sarah’s TMJ treatments to relieve the painful tension in my jaw. Thinking about it now makes me wish I could drive over tomorrow for a session (if only Covid-19 wasn’t a thing!). Also, worth mentioning is how deeply comforting and empowering it was to walk into Origin and see a room full of women helping women. I had to take my preschooler along for some appointments and loved that she could see it for herself and experience the warmth and empowerment that was ever-present.

I went on to birth my fourth time in February 2019. I had an unmedicated, home water birth that took about 4 hours (half the time I labored with my first daughter). It was painful as hell and as empowering as I had hoped. I know I was able to surrender into the devastating pain of labor and trust my body because I had done my best to prepare for that moment, including seeing my various healing practitioners and soaking up their love and encouragement all those months leading up to the birth.

Women’s bodies may be made for pregnancy and birth, but it certainly doesn’t mean we’re meant to do it alone.

Women’s bodies may be made for pregnancy and birth, but it certainly doesn’t mean we’re meant to do it alone. My hope is that more and more women realize there are resources out there to help them get through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum with less discomfort, and that our society will make the necessary shifts to offer better systemic support for mothers. In this way, may we see truly life-changing practices like prenatal and postpartum physical therapy become widely known and utilized by the time our daughters walk this path.