Episode 33 - Gabrielle Griffith: Could Cannabis Be Used During Your Fertility Journey?
Gabrielle Griffith (they/he/she), is a doula and cannabis advocate. In this conversation, Gab and Josie discuss the importance of educating yourself on cannabis use, as every person's endocannabinoid system works differently. This episode also touches upon the possible uses of cannabis for the fertility journey.
[ID: A beige background and orange semi-circle. Text reads: The Intersectional Fertility Podcast Episode 33: Gabrielle Griffith @yourqueerdoula and Josie Rodriguez-Bouchier @intersectionalfertility.]
Follow Gab on Instagram & Twitter. Here is Gab's facebook page, and their website.
Resources on Cannabis and Fertility:
The Cannabis Doula (Instagram)
Cannabis and parenthood (Instagram)
Cannabis Spotify Playlist
Cannabis YouTube Videos:
The Anatomy of THC
Cannabis Positive Parenting: Moms
Motherhood and Cannabis
The Role of Cannabis for Pelvic Pain
Cannabis for Endometriosis
Cannabis 101: Your Endocannabinoid System Webinar
Gab also has some medical journals and articles that are PDFs, which cannot be linked in the show notes. If you are interested in learning more, you can reach out to them directly.
Episode Transcript:
Disclaimer: This is an automatically generated transcript edited to be more readable. It may not be 100% accurate.
[00:00:00] Josie: I am Josie Rodriguez-Bouchier, and this is the Intersectional Fertility Podcast, where ideas and identities intersect to deepen our understanding of fertility and ultimately our whole selves.
[00:00:32] Gabrielle Griffith is a polyamorous, queer, and non-binary parent. Currently settled in Tkaronto, on Treaty 13 Lands, also known as Toronto, Ontario. They work as full spectrum doula, educator, and public speaker. Who's an advocate for cannabis, sex work, and mental health. Gabrielle works through a trauma informed and anti-oppressive lens.
[00:00:56] To help new families and caregivers have a healthy and happy transition into parenthood that is sex positive and inclusive to all gender and sexual identities.
[00:01:12] Welcome to the podcast, Gab.
[00:01:14] Gab: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:01:17] Josie: Thanks so much for being here.
[00:01:18] Gab: Thanks for having me.
[00:01:19] Josie: So what are your pronouns and where are you joining us from today?
[00:01:23] Gab: My pronouns are they, he, she, kind of in that order. I live in Ontario, Canada. I'm currently in the Windsor area.
[00:01:34] Josie: Nice. So what is your story that led you to become a doula educator and speaker?
[00:01:42] Gab: Honestly, it was my own lived experience, my own birth and postpartum experience. I feel like I just fell through every crack and crevice that exists and was able to come out of it on the other side. That is the fire beneath the passion of why I chose to become a doula and what I do now, which is more focused on postpartum care and support and community. Yeah, could talk about that forever. It's a good, it's a good story.
[00:02:19] Josie: I would love to hear it.
[00:02:21] Gab: When I got pregnant, I was actually a sex worker. I was a dancer and I was 20 years old. It was very unexpected. I feel like I'm gonna share where I was in that timeframe, just to kind of show the importance of intersectionality and the types of folks that fall through these cracks.
[00:02:40] I was a sex worker, I was a substance user, I was youth 20 years old, you know? Living on my own in Toronto, just like already in a midst of survival, and ended up pregnant. And I chose to keep the baby, because while I am pro-choice, I chose to keep. Also, I was so sure that I was gonna be able to like, know what to do and navigate parenthood because I had been experiencing parenting myself and like experiencing survival and taking care and attending to in ways that you need to when you're parenting and then boom, pregnancy happens.
[00:03:20] I make it to my nine months. My kiddo actually came on my due date. August 7th, and I birthed in St. Catherine's, Ontario. For folks listening, Ontario, Canada, majority of folks live in the southern area and outside of the greater Toronto area, outside of Toronto. It's a very white area. And so where I gave birth was a very predominantly white area.
[00:03:48] Unfortunately I just experienced like all of the anti-blackness and racism during such a vulnerable experience. I had no idea what a doula was. Like I didn't know that midwifery care was free. Like I was just so naive and so all of that experience . Just inspired me to want to like share these things I was learning in the moment because it's like, why doesn't anyone know this?
[00:04:14] Where we live in Ontario, midwifery care is free. Then my postpartum experience, I think just like the lack of knowledge, the lack of support, having complicated and estranged relationships with my family. And not receiving the tender love and care that you need during that time period, just like amplified and spiraled me into a deep postpartum depression.
[00:04:40] So I never even was able to properly attend to or know that I needed to attend to it until about two years in and experiencing a miscarriage in the midst of that, and this is a very long introduction. I feel like we're here to talk about other things, but.
[00:04:59] Josie: No, this is important.
[00:04:59] Gab: Essentially, that is the journey that brought me here. It's a story that I can't even share without becoming emotional because it is so raw and it is so real and I'm actually very grateful to have been able to find the tools and the resources to make it to the other side and be able to share that with other people so that they can do that, themselves as well, and empower themselves to do the same thing.
[00:05:33] Josie: Absolutely, yeah. Wow. Thank you so much for sharing your story. My heart breaks to know that you went through that and that you had to go through that and that so many other, especially Black people who are birthing go through that. It's so important, and just how incredible that you were able, like you said, to find the tools that you needed and that that has really fueled your passion for helping others to not go through that experience. That's huge.
[00:06:08] Gab: Yeah. And let, I'll let you ask the other questions. I'm a talker. I'm a talker. I can talk for forever. But yeah, now I after having been on the, the front lines of like supporting folks one-to-one. I find myself like wanting to shift more to education because even myself as, as a doula, the education that I have, speaking in a Canadian context, again, unfortunately, is very white and whitewashed and there isn't much access to education that focuses on BIPOC and queer experiences here.
[00:06:49] And again, there's just another gap. So it's like people want to become doulas and learn how to support people. But then you look for access to the information and the education and it's just not there. And so really like transitioning my career to focus more on education and specifically like how do we support folks of my community, the queer, trans first generation immigrant, poverty, sex workers, cannabis consumers, and do something different for a change.
[00:07:24] Josie: Totally, totally. Ugh. Thank you for that important work. It is so, so needed. I was gonna ask, you know why specifically you're focusing on pleasure and cannabis and reproductive care for all humans. So I don't know if you have more to say about that.
[00:07:41] Gab: Yeah, like I was kind of speaking to before, like that is me and that's the community that I aim to serve and learning how to embrace and prioritize my own pleasure were actually key pieces to helping me get out of that like depth of postpartum experience. And just like reminding myself that it's okay to put myself first cuz you get stuck in that head space of giving, giving, giving, giving, giving.
[00:08:14] And you have to actually give to yourself and make sure that you are in a space of receiving. Otherwise you're destined for burnout. And Cannabis as well because cannabis is a tool or medicine and plants that I have used consciously and unconsciously for a very long time, long before I ever should have. Been consuming.
[00:08:42] I started smoking when I was 12, I'm 27 now. So it's been a good time period, and my relationship with it has shifted so much of course, over the time period. Similar to the doula journey and the postpartum experience. I'm again, in this head space in my life where it's like I wanna actually like hold space and have conversations about like, how do we engage with this plant?
[00:09:11] Because like anything else in the world, we can use things in good ways and we can use things for bad ways. We can use things to connect, and we can use things to avoid. And sometimes that's why you wanna use it. Cause you just wanna zone out and munch out and watch some tv. But just being conscious of your intentions around it and how your body is connecting with it and being impacted by it.
[00:09:37] Especially in the context of pregnancy and postpartum. Like as someone that had smoked my whole life, I'm 20 years old. I'm like, I'm not, I'm not gonna smoke? Like, what are you talking about? It was such a teeter tottery experience. It's like, do I do it? Am I gonna hurt my baby? I don't know.
[00:09:53] I can't tell anybody. It was illegal back then. Now here in in Canada, it's legalized, but even still, you're not gonna tell your doctor. And so you just like roll with the dice. I really just like rolled with the dice. And I would use it when I was experiencing nausea, when I was having a hard time eating when I couldn't sleep, and I was just being more specific as to how I would use it.
[00:10:16] As opposed to just like, cuz I want it to, for my pleasure. And now I've had the opportunities to get more engaged in the research world and I've been a part of a team where we facilitate an arts based research project where we able to ask moms and parents like, what's their experience been like?
[00:10:40] What helped you decide to choose to consume or not to consume. There's just no information, so everyone's just rolling with the dice. And again, I just feel like we need to do something differently there. If we're gonna legalize these things, we need to make sure people have the access to the information.
[00:11:02] And it's reproductive care work for all humans, because again, that is me and that is my community. And everyone needs reproductive care. Like I feel like people hear reproductive care, they think women womb, whatever. And that's just like the smallest part of the full spectrum of reproductive care.
[00:11:24] Men, women, children, non-binary folks, like we all need reproductive care. Anyone with a reproductive system, basically. Is gonna need access to adequate reproductive care. It just doesn't make sense at this stage in the game to hyper focus on one area of it. And again, let's just do something different, I feel like I need to like put that on a t-shirt, like "let's do something different."
[00:11:52] Even thinking about what's going on in the world right now, I think that's why I'm so emotional today. It's just so heavy.
[00:11:58] Josie: Yeah, thanks for saying that. I've been feeling really emotional too. There's just so much heaviness going on right now. Yeah. Yeah, I know.
[00:12:08] I know that you aren't a medical practitioner and aren't able to give advice about cannabis using during fertility, or trying to conceive, or pregnancy, but as a doula, how do you navigate the topic of cannabis with your clients?
[00:12:22] Gab: I always like operate as an open book, like no judgment, no shame. I'm transparent about the fact that I did consume. And I really as a doula, right. I'm there to support you. So like what do you need? Type of thing. Do you need affirmation around using it? And of course I always try to share what I know. Connect them with the bits of information and pieces that are out there and really focus on like the body.
[00:12:54] Right? So in the body. This is a bit sciencey, but I'm not a scientist. So hear me out. There's this very, very important system in our body called the endocannabinoid System, that we all have, and it basically has receptors that send signals to our brain that then trigger our hormones to make things happen.
[00:13:17] So it's like a really important piece, the endocannabinoid system, and it's like a fingerprint. So every single person's is unique to their own. And so that's a really important thing to know when you're consuming substances, because how it impacts you is going to be different than how it impacts somebody else, right?
[00:13:35] I think that's probably why it's hard to do research on these things because you really gotta get a large collection of data to really know how is this really impacting people? But with that said, there are a lot of receptors in the endocannabinoid system in the reproductive area. And it makes sense that there's an impact on that area when you consume it.
[00:14:02] When you consume it, it can alleviate pain and cramps because it's connecting with those receptors. But the key piece is that everyone's is different. So while it may be beneficial for one I've also been trying to just, again, learn as much as I can.
[00:14:20] There's actually a good podcast about it, talking about how they have seen negative impacts on consuming cannabis in your fertility. Because the receptors are receiving too much information or something? And so, again, it may not impact you at all. It may actually benefit you, but it may also have a negative impact on you.
[00:14:42] So as a doula, what I really just like to focus on is you, and what works for you, and what do you wanna do? Here's the information. Here's what we know. There's no Affirm statement anywhere that says this is harmful. Right. Here's what we do know, and I'm here to support whatever choice you want to do, right? That's kind of it on that in terms of how I like to approach and support.
[00:15:13] Josie: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I love that. Just meeting people where they're at. And presenting the resources and the knowledge and yeah, supporting them with what they wanna do with that, that knowledge. I love that.
[00:15:27] Gab: And just like bouncing questions off. Like if you notice that you're having a hard time with fertility, like is cannabis something that you can pause for a time to see if that's impacting you or not? And for some people, like it's a, it's a genuine medicine that they need. So like, is there something you need to find to replace it? Or what is it like, again, what's your intention of using, using the plant?
[00:15:50] Is it for pleasure? Is it medicinal? Like is it something you could pause on while you're in this time period? And then you can go back to. Because the actual plant itself, when you light it, it releases its own cannabinoids. Not the same ones that our bodies produce, but they're able to connect to those receptors and latch onto those receptors, which is why it has impacts on us, right?
[00:16:17] It goes to the receptors in your, in this area of your stomach, so it's gonna trigger hunger. It's gonna go to the receptors in your reproductive area, so now you don't have cramps anymore. It's gonna go to the receptors in the other areas of your body. That's how it impacts things like epilepsy and supports cancer and all of those, those bigger medical things.
[00:16:40] Don't come to me for the medical advice. Come to me for the sharing of the information and the affirmations of using. But yeah, the more you know, then you can decide how you. what steps you want to take.
[00:16:56] Josie: Totally, yeah. I appreciate that. And this is such a common topic and question that comes up from folks that I'm working with who are trying to conceive and yeah, I never quite know how to address it with them. So this is really helpful.
[00:17:11] And I'm also thinking, I'm wondering what your thoughts are on the forms of cannabis. Because from a Chinese medicine perspective, I'm thinking sometimes the actual smoking of it can just add heat to the lungs, which can kind of throw some things off, it can kind of contribute to burning what we call yin in Chinese medicine, so it can aggravate like a yin deficiency, which can have some kind of different impacts on fertility.
[00:17:40] So I talk about that with people, but I wonder what your thoughts are on like, different forms of cannabis.
[00:17:47] Gab: Yeah, like different forms and different methods of consumption, right? You're making such a great point. Like the way that you consume it is going to impact your body differently.
[00:18:00] You can make a tincture of it and that's gonna be different than like smoking it. And again, it's just like, what are you trying to get out of the plant? If you want immediate impact, smoking it is gonna give you the fastest thing. If you're using it medicinally, you can just make it into a tincture.
[00:18:18] And funny enough, something that I've learned recently is the cannabis plant and hemp as well, was a very common herbal medicine that used to be used in ancient traditions all over the world actually. But they would use it more in a tincture or in a tea, or they would vaporize it.
[00:18:41] They wouldn't actually add fire because when you add fire, it actually changes the chemical makeup of the plant, of the herb. And so I just find that so fascinating and like, I think this is why like the research is so important because my personal question is like, is there a safe way to consume? Or what is the safest way to consume cannabis while you're navigating these reproductive cycles?
[00:19:09] Like maybe it is something you should be only drinking in a tea. Because it's gonna give you those benefits that you're looking for. And that's a safer way to consume it. But again, we don't actually know. That's where you're just kind of left in that space of you're rolling the dice and you're gonna do the best that you can to listen to your body and communicate with your healthcare practitioners and, and connect with other healers and body workers to support you through that space.
[00:19:43] To just make sure like is your body in flow? Cause I think as long as your body's in flow, you can keep doing what you're doing. But if things are off, then you gotta figure out what your options are.
[00:19:57] Josie: Right, totally. And then I'm also thinking about like the difference between like CBD and then there's some other, you know, I don't know what to call them, molecular strains of the cannabis plant that they're finding that help with certain things.
[00:20:12] Gab: Yeah, so those are actually the cannabinoids. So there's THC and CBD that people, like we most commonly hear, but there's a bunch of others, right? So depending on the type of plant, so whether it's an indica or a sativa, it's gonna have a different molecular foundation, or whatever.
[00:20:38] And so when you're, again, engaging with the plant, you wanna know, what am I trying to get out of it? THC is the one that's gonna like give you the high. Mental stimulation, your body's gonna feel tingly. You're gonna get those munchies maybe. And CBD is the more medicinal one. Because it's just internal.
[00:21:03] You're not gonna get any mental high, you won't feel high from it at all, but you will have the impacts of it. And so maybe that's it. Like only smoking CBD or only consuming CBD during this, during this period. But there's no proof, like we don't know. We just know the different ways that THC impacts the body generally.
[00:21:28] Not just someone trying to navigate fertility, or experiencing pregnancy, or postpartum and the flux of hormones during that time period. It's just all quite general.
[00:21:41] Josie: Right. Right. And I'm wondering too, we, when we were chatting before this conversation you had mentioned there's not no research. Is that what you were referring to earlier with the work that you're doing?
[00:21:53] Gab: Not, not our research specifically, but I feel like when you reached out to me, I was like, oh, there's like no research and it's so annoying. There's just like very limited research. So there is like a study that was done I think in the eighties or nineties out in Jamaica with women that for generations have consumed cannabis.
[00:22:18] It was a very small study though. And that's one area of one specific community. So there's only so much you can use with that and there have been other studies as well that look at the impacts of cannabis, but folks would also consume tobacco. So again, it's like, is it the tobacco? Is it the- we don't know, but you can kinda decipher like, okay, smoking definitely has an impact.
[00:22:48] On your experience. Like smoke in the lungs, inhalation, not recommended. But do we know about cannabis specifically from that? Not really. And there are other research studies that I was alluding to as well, where they're looking at the impacts of cannabis on fertility. I'm happy to follow up with these links and resources and stuff after.
[00:23:14] That's where they're also noticing some trends, but again, not anything that's affirmative. Just trends that there are impacts on the reproductive system when you're consuming cannabis. And a lot of these studies also look specifically at like CBD as opposed to THC. So again, we don't know how that's gonna impact, but we can kind of like make some assumptions, I guess, and roll with the dice.
[00:23:44] Josie: Right. Oh, cool. Yeah, I'd love to link to some of those studies if you have 'em. I'll put 'em in the show notes for folks to check out. That'd be awesome. And then I'm also wondering if you remember the name of the podcast that you mentioned earlier that had the, about the fertility?
[00:24:02] Gab: My brain definitely doesn't, but it's favored in my Spotify. So I can share that as well.
[00:24:09] Josie: Okay, cool. I'll link to that episode as well. Let's see, and then I'm wondering too, I wanna kind of talk about like what are some of the barriers and stigma that folks experience when using cannabis or when wanting to access cannabis on their fertility journey or anytime.
[00:24:26] Gab: I mean, the war on drugs, right? It's a drug. I think people, even though it's, in many spaces it's been legalized medically. You can get a medicinal card and like get cannabis medically. There's still this whole stigma around it and unfortunately, depending on your healthcare provider, like if they're not open or supportive, there's an immediate barrier to your care.
[00:25:00] And when you're queer, and trans, or Black, it's just harder and harder. And riskier, and riskier, right? Because we know, again, there's no "research" "facts," but we know that black and indigenous folks are higher surveilled in children's aid spaces, and so, being open about consuming a "drug," quote unquote.
[00:25:34] Is like the biggest barrier of all. Like I'm here talking about it on a podcast and my doctor doesn't know. I don't want the questions or the judgment suddenly around like my mental health, or my parenting or, you know, like, oh, "maybe it's just the weed."
[00:25:57] Josie: Right, yeah. So then how can there be care around it when you can't even talk about it to your healthcare practitioner?
[00:26:03] Gab: And that's not to say that all healthcare practitioners are gonna be like that, but there's enough where you're uncertain like, can I be honest about this? You know?
[00:26:13] Josie: Totally, yeah. I feel like there's almost like a agreed upon like unwritten rule where you just don't. They'll ask the question, they'll ask that, most people just say, no,
[00:26:28] Gab: Nope. Never. Maybe like a long time ago.
[00:26:33] Josie: Ugh. Yeah. Which, I mean, one of the things I was gonna ask you is like, why is it so important that we get actual research done on the impacts of cannabis? And especially in a person's fertility, this is one of the reasons.
[00:26:48] Gab: This is a huge reason because I feel like, especially like where I live, like it's legalized, you can definitely do research on it now. There's no excuse now at this point. People should know how it's impacting them.
[00:27:06] And a lot of folks have shared, when they do ask their doctor about it, like, oh hey, like I heard that, you know, cannabis can be helpful for nausea, what do you think about that? And if the doctors are just comfortable with, oh, there's no affirmative research, so we just recommend not to, like, how is that an answer? It's not.
[00:27:33] I just feel like because it's such a complex plant, there should be specific and detailed research on what happens when you drink it in a tea, and what happens when you only use it topically. If you're just having body aches and pains, you can soak that in some coconut oil and rub it, make a tinture with it and rub it in to help the body pain.
[00:27:58] Is that something that can actually be beneficial in labor, like topically? Like we don't know! I just feel like it has so much possibilities that we don't know. And yeah, I think learning that it's something that has been used to support reproductive and specifically uterus support for years and years and years.
[00:28:24] Like, what are you talking about? Like even like a couple hundred years ago, like before that whole war on drugs situation really popped off and like, it was, it's been medicinal, you know what I mean? And it's just so secretive and that's because of the stigma, like, because it's, it's still so viewed as a drug as opposed to a plant.
[00:28:53] Right? It's a plant, that's what it is. And like many plants, it has an impact on the body. And I feel like when we start viewing it as a plant and as the herbal medicine that it is, then that will shift the stigma. Like people aren't asking to use it for a drug. They're looking for support.
[00:29:19] They're looking for medicine, they're looking for an option. There's all these things that are pointing towards this plant, but there's no fact. And so that makes people feel, I feel like even that is, is a barrier in itself, like the lack of information is a barrier because maybe that is something that, that people could use that, that could support many different areas of the reproductive experience that could support the pain in labor.
[00:29:53] And just that gap of knowledge and that fear and that risk of being caught using it.It's just not worth the gamble for a lot of people.
[00:30:04] Josie: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And I'm just thinking too, because it's a plant, I think is probably one of the reasons why there hasn't been research done on it because it's not profitable. Because you can't patent a plant. Ugh, big pharma.
[00:30:23] Gab: God, I hate it.
[00:30:25] Josie: I know, same. So I would love to switch gears a little bit and talk about how folks can become knowledgeable and make their own choices around cannabis use on their fertility journey specifically. What would your advice be to folks who wanna learn more about cannabis and make their own choice about whether or not to use it, and especially as a QT BIPOC or a QTBIPGM person?
[00:30:52] Gab: I feel like general advice is like just be really clear on like what you wanna be using it for. I think it was perhaps even in that podcast, someone had said like, is this something you're willing to sacrifice for a short time for like everything you wanted? And they're speaking specific in the context of fertility.
[00:31:16] Like can you just like chill, or is it something that you need cuz you're using it medicinally. And then if you've kind of come to that, that distinction, then find the research and resources that are available to you. I'll link as many as I can in these show notes. Get connected to community who also consume the plant, use the plant.
[00:31:48] And I think that getting connected with community one, like helps like break that shame and stigma with yourself and just like makes you feel a little less isolated in the experience. Also it helps fill in those gaps of the research and the information that is out there because like we've talked about it, that none of them cover the whole thing.
[00:32:16] You can take right bits and pieces from that, you can take bits and pieces from community and you can hopefully find and connect with a healthcare provider, or doula, or other support folks that are affirming and continue to support you in the processing of this situation. And it's like, again, it's a tool, right?
[00:32:42] So it's like you're having really bad pain or not, like use it, right? It's not something like that. You have to like have a dead set plan on like, I'm gonna or I'm not. Right? You can go with the flow. If it's not working for you, it's not working for you. If it's working for you, then it's working for you.
[00:33:04] And be open to. exploring different ways to use the plant as well. Like if you've only ever been a smoker like me, maybe try drinking an in a tea, like, you'll be surprised that your body will still have an impact. Or maybe explore with like cooking it, right? Like you can just have some cannabis olive oil and like, cook some eggs or like make a butter and put it on your toast.
[00:33:30] Like, there's still so many different ways to use the plant and you can have fun with it too. And I think to advise in terms of connecting with healthcare providers is to ask curious questions before you like share. Just to see where their head is at, you know? Like go oh, what do you think? Right. And if they're like, Ugh, then you know.
[00:33:56] Maybe you wanna change care providers. Maybe they're perfect in everything else and that doesn't matter for you. Cuz you have supports in other places, but just like tread lightly in those waters until you feel comfortable sharing that and you know that. Okay they have a positive and affirming outlook on it, and they're supportive of it and such and so forth. Because there are care providers out there that are.
[00:34:23] Josie: Yeah, totally. Yeah. That's great advice to ask questions of them first. And I love too, just like what you said about, you know, just kind of getting curious about the root of the usage of it. And just, you know, asking questions of yourself there. I think that's really helpful.
[00:34:42] So what are some, are there any other resources you can think of that you haven't already mentioned for folks to educate themselves about cannabis?
[00:34:50] Gab: Yes. Yes. I feel like I'll have to just share them because short term memory. But there are like a handful of pretty good podcasts that have like doctors and scientists on it. Taking some time to like learn about the endocannabinoid system and just like the body parts of it, will help get a more full picture of how cannabis impacts the body.
[00:35:19] Because it directly can engage with the endocannabinoid system. And I feel like that's where there's like an, a common misconception because people are like, oh, like we make cannabinoids in our body. It's the same thing, da, da, da. And like it's not. We have an endocannabinoid system that makes our own cannabinoids and cannabis has its own cannabinoids and they interact with each other.
[00:35:45] It's not the same thing. And understanding how they interact in your own body, I think is really important. Again, cause the endocannabinoid system is like a fingerprint, it's unique to you. There are again, like a few resources that speak, like look at like body feeding or like cannabis and human milk interaction and like how that transfers and stuff like that.
[00:36:15] And, again, the more you know, the better you can like have a solid plate to decipher on what you wanna do. Yeah, I feel like I've mentioned the other ones, like the Facebook groups. There's a few like canna-parent Facebook groups.
[00:36:32] Josie: Okay, yeah. Cool. Awesome. Yeah, I'll get as many of those links as I can from you afterwards and include 'em in the show notes. Yeah, and I love thinking about researching more about the endo canna- I don't know if I can even say that word.
[00:36:47] Gab: It's a doozy, yeah. You could say ECS system.
[00:36:50] Josie: ECS system, that's what I'll say. That seems like it would be helpful.
[00:36:56] Gab: There's a good YouTube video. I will share, I'll share all the things, I'll share all the things. I feel like I spend a lot of time trying to find different resources and stuff and ones that are like, Grounded in fact and stuff. Right. And I think also too, like I recommend also just like learning about the history of the plant.
[00:37:19] Like this plant has existed for thousands and thousands of years. Like it's been around, done been around, it got passed around in the Atlantic slave trade. They had slaves farm it, crop it, cut it, sell it medicinally here in North America. It used to be legal to sell medicinally. They would offer it to folks experiencing uterine cramps and menopause and all of these things.
[00:37:53] And the same company that sold it back then still exist today. And so, just having that knowledge that like it does have medicinal properties, like I can confidently say that it's a fact. The only thing we don't know is how it impacts the body, and I think that's so hard because it impacts everyone differently, right?
[00:38:13] So your body, your choice, right? Learn what you need to know about your body. Learn what you need to know about the plant. And then do what you have to do.
[00:38:20] Josie: Yeah, totally. Ugh, I've learned so much. This has been hugely helpful. So I wanna ask you, this is a question I ask all of my guests. In Chinese medicine, our fertility is referred to as our essence.
[00:38:35] So the more we're able to get in touch with who we really are, or our essence, the more access we have to our fertile potential and our creative power. Do you have any practices or rituals in place that allow you to connect with your essence or your Whole Self?
[00:38:50] Gab: What a good question to finish off on. I wish I could say I actually practice them like regularly, but one thing that, I guess I would consider this like a personal practice that helps me like reconnect to my essence or my whole self is, actually just being in outside in a nature. Hopefully as green or close to the ocean as possible and just walk and just be in that moment and take in the earth for a second because I get so disconnected from it.
[00:39:31] And even more so in this like completely digital world. I get so caught in the air that I have to like fully ground and like separate myself from, from these devices and everything. So that's my practice.
[00:39:47] Josie: I love that. Yeah. I can envision that transition from digital world to getting back in touch with the Earth. That's beautiful. I love that. Well Gab, how can people find you and support you and learn more about what you're doing?
[00:40:04] Gab: Yeah, folks can follow me on Instagram @yourqueerdoula. All of my information is there in the bio. I'm Gabrielle Griffith on Facebook and also my website, www.gabriellegriffith.com.
[00:40:23] You can see my offerings, doula services, and the like all on there. I'm also like a total open book, so, you can just send me a DM if you're looking for questions or resources or anything about this stuff, and we'll be having workshops and other things coming in the future to speak to all of the above, around conscious cannabis consumption through the reproductive spectrum. So be sure to follow me on Instagram to find out when that launches.
[00:40:59] Josie: Oh, fantastic. And I'll include all those links in the show notes as well for people. All right, well thanks again so much, Gab, for being here today. I feel like this was such an important conversation and I know I learned so much, so I know my listeners I'm sure did as well, thank you.
[00:41:15] Gab: Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
[00:41:21] Josie: Thanks for listening to the Intersectional Fertility Podcast. To get customized fertility recommendations based on your Whole Self Fertility Method element, join my mailing list at intersectionalfertility.com and get immediate access to my two minute quiz.
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All content offered through The Intersectional Fertility Podcast is created for informational purposes only, it is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.