My journey toward motherhood has been defined by an unwavering love for the children I dream of holding, paired with a fierce, exhausting battle to simply be heard. For years, I navigated a debilitating reproductive health struggle, enduring exhausting menstrual cycles, chronic abdominal bloating, severe constipation, and heavy, uncontrolled bleeding. The blood loss left me with severe chronic anemia, requiring two large blood infusions just weeks apart to keep me standing. Yet, the emotional weight of being ignored cut even deeper. As a Black woman, I found myself trapped in a healthcare system that routinely dismissed my pain and minimized my intuition. During multiple annual exams, I knew in my heart that something was fundamentally wrong. I explicitly pleaded for a pelvic ultrasound, but time and again, my requests were denied by providers who insisted that because my routine Pap smears were normal, further imaging was completely unnecessary. What makes this dismissal particularly agonizing is my professional life. As a dedicated doula and a nanny, I have spent my career caring for children and guiding families through their most sacred moments. I intimately know the systemic struggles, the maternal health disparities, and the routine medical neglect that Black women face. Yet, even with my professional knowledge and deep trust in my own body's intuition, I was still left unprotected by the system. Because a Pap smear only screens for cervical cell abnormalities and cannot detect structural uterine issues, this profound diagnostic delay allowed extensive uterine fibroids to grow completely unnoticed. It was only when I refused to take no for an answer, standing up to aggressively advocate for my own life and my future family, that I was finally granted the ultrasound. The results brought a heartbreaking truth: the years of medical delay allowed the fibroids to progress to a stage that currently prevents me from becoming pregnant. Now, at 39 years old, I am locked in a deeply time-sensitive race against the clock. My physicians have advised that I must undergo urgent fertility preservation and egg harvesting to protect my remaining reproductive window, before undergoing the major surgical intervention required to safely remove the fibroids. I am fighting with everything I have to save my eggs, protecting that precious, beautiful chance to bring my dreams of a family to life. My story is a direct reflection of a widespread, systemic crisis in women’s healthcare, where the pain of Black women is disproportionately ignored, under-tested, and dismissed. No woman—and no reproductive birth worker—should have to wage a war against the medical system just to protect her right to become a mother. How I'll use the funds: The grant would pay for medication, egg retrieval, egg freezing, and storage. I do believe that I can try and make the storage fees. What your support covers