Donna Stricker
Jenkins, MN USA
218.831.2712
My life began in a remote prairie farming town, 15 miles from North Dakota and 60 miles from Manitoba; far from any of the 10,000 Minnesota lakes. Both parents were raised on small local self-sufficient family farms where they and their many siblings were born.
During my young years I learned that my mother had suffered horribly from birth practices that ended her childbearing with a hysterectomy at the untimely age of 31. She was devastated by it but spoke to no one... except to me. Post-Hysterectomy Syndrome hurt us all though, and set my mind on controlling my births.
A young bride living in St Paul, MN in the early 70s, I had received a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in Art Education with a Psychology Minor, but chose to spend the early years with our first child rather than to accept my first teaching job, and became a stay at home mom. Routine hospital protocols impeded my comfort during our Certified Nurse Midwife experience, so with the next pregnancy I found a well-trained lay-midwife who gave me confidence in my body and the birth process at home, preparing me for our four additional births. By then I had trained and was counseling breastfeeding mothers as a LeLeche League Leader, which I continued when we moved to a small hobby farm in the Central Lakes area of Minnesota.
My husband and I had learned the Art of Natural Family Planning by then, and were acquainted with the hormones and cycles of my body, and raised our family while raising huge gardens, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, dogs, cats and horses. Our children attended homeschool for several years. We had an idyllic life on the farm. Our neighbors, a scrupulously clean German family sold us raw milk from their cows and we preserved food from our gardens each summer.
Our omnivorous diet emphasizes leafy greens, sulfur-rich and colorful fruits and vegetables with high nutrient density. A lifelong vegetable gardener, I became a University of Minnesota Master Gardener Volunteer in 2012 with strong interest in greens production, preparation and preservation. I attend a Food Summit each year, which focuses on affordable high-quality food supply to people of all socioeconomic groups.
The year our son graduated from High School, my teacher-husband and I went into business with him in equipment rental. To protect myself when lifting heavier objects I did circuit training, but found myself with a pelvic organ prolapse anyway. Like others, I found Christine Kent while on a quest for a way to manage my cysotocele without surgery. I had stopped aerobic exercise fearing my condition would worsen, and was experiencing weight gain. Concern about a heart arrhythmia, further heightened my need to exercise, but I was stuck and scared.
Thankfully I found the website: Saving the Whole Woman and what I learned made sense to me. I read the book, started doing the exercises and it was working. I needed to know more about this woman and her work, and knew I would teach what I learned even before the 2013 class started, but thought I should reign in my enthusiasm and be sure of the commitment. I am now educated in the science, experienced in the work and available to help evaluate, educate and encourage those who desire to begin their journey. We are products of the Whole Woman work, a holistic way to better health and well being, and I am happy to be a Whole Woman Practitioner of the 2014 Class.
