Erykah Badu is not just an unbelievably talented music artist, she's also a doula — and her latest client is none other than her recent collaborator, Teyana Taylor.
Teyana shared in a recent interview with Nick Cannon on POWER106 FM that Erykah will be delivering her baby, saying, "I'm considering home birth, and I'm actually going to be doing it with Erykah."
Erykah's presence will be a very calming one, according to Teyana, who plans to "have her just sing her verse from 'Lowkey' to me to calm my nerves." "Lowkey" is a track from her new release, The Album.
That might just be the best way ever to enter into this world. Teyana's baby will join a list of kids lucky enough to be ushered out of the womb by Erykah, who got her doula certification in 2011 and revealed she was studying to be a midwife back in 2015.
"I’m almost there, and before I know it, I’ll be able to open my own practice, if that’s what I desire," she told Pitchfork nine years ago when talking about her doula experience.
Apparently, it was totally by chance that Erykah took up doula work.
It just kind of happens. I don’t plan how many people I work with. I don’t charge anything. It’s for my own learning, and I just enjoy being the welcoming committee. I became a doula by default.
I had Seven naturally, at home, and a couple of years later I was traveling through Europe, and one of my best friends, Afya, who is the wife of stic.man from dead prez, went into labor. I just wanted to be there with her, so I rerouted my flights and came to Brooklyn. ... My main focus at that moment was to bring her some kind of peace and strength and will to push forward, because I know how hard that is. I ended up staying with her for 42 hours and I wasn’t sleepy. I naturally knew what to do, and it was then that I figured out that this was something I can do that makes me feel so fulfilled.