Danielle Jernigan
Writer.
Editor.
Amateur Anthropologist.
Publishing Consultant.
Founder of BirthWork Press.
Danielle's writing explores birthwork as a culture, Love, self-regard, and the ways self-love culture can keep us circling healing without reaching restoration.Her writing has appeared in Jess Grose Opinion Section of The New York Times Parenting Newsletter, MadameNoire, YourTango, and Nourishing Word. Her most recent essay A Sister's Salve is part of the forthcoming anthology No Contact : Writers On Estrangement edited by Jenny Bartoy.She is the host of the forthcoming podcast Birthing Author-ity and the founder of BirthWork Press. She lives in the Midwest with her youngest child.
MY WORKS IN PROGRESS
The Self-Love TrapI am writing this book for mothers and fathers who survived childhood abuse and carry a quiet, persistent ache that they might not have the capacity to love their children well. They have been told to “just love yourself” or “just forgive.” Many have tried. Still, self-doubt hangs over them, leaving them unsure how to offer love that feels safe, steady, and real.What stands in the way is not their capacity to love, but the definition of Love they inherited — one rooted in performance, compliance, and conditional acceptance. When love has been entangled with earning and appeasing, spiritual bypassing, even self-love becomes another standard to meet, another way to fail.The book invites readers to examine the beliefs they hold about Love and to disentangle it from performative culture. It proposes self-regard asa solution to build a steady internal stance — the ground from which inner authority can thrive and love can grow organically.
Birthing AuthorityIn this book I argue that every birth worker is an expert in something and this builds authority and attracts aligned clients. Further more birth work is seeing an unprecedented silencing by organizations attempting to legitimize or license an ancestral practice. This book is a call to action for birth workers to regard themselves as the key to positive birthing outcomes, establish their authority and preserve the culture through writing.Forthcoming, BirthWork Press 2027
CONTACT ME