Ashley McDonell
Clinical Herbalist · Natural Builder · Birth Keeper · Educator
Ashley McDonell is a birth keeper, clinical herbalist, natural builder, and educator whose work weaves together physiology, ancestral wisdom, and the sacred arts of womanhood. For more than 15 years, she has served families across the reproductive continuum—guiding women through conception, pregnancy, physiologic birth, postpartum, and pregnancy release with deep presence, sovereignty-centered advocacy, and unwavering devotion.
Her lineage of study includes mentorship with Whapio, Rachelle Segal, traditional midwives, birth attendants, and teachers of the Wise Woman and physiological birth traditions. Ashley's approach blends evidence-informed understanding with ancestral knowledge, nervous system literacy, and trauma-aware birthkeeping. She holds a rare capacity to translate complex physiological processes into embodied, intuitive knowing.
As the creator and lead educator of the Doula & Birth Keeper Training at Of Ash and Bone: School of Ancestral Arts, Ashley teaches from the intersection of activism, ritual, and biology. Her work centers the protection of the mother–baby dyad, the restoration of undisturbed physiologic birth, and the remembrance of birth as a profound initiatory rite. She is known for helping women reclaim their sovereignty while preparing birth workers to stand as guardians of the sacred, skilled advocates within medical systems, and compassionate stewards of community-based reproductive care.
Ashley's teaching style is both deeply rooted and radically human—equal parts technical, poetic, and fiercely aligned with the values of reciprocity, reverence, remembrance, relationship, and responsibility. In every container she leads, she brings her full self: the herbalist, the builder, the ritualist, the activist, and the woman devoted to reweaving our connection to the earth and to one another.
Her mission: to restore the dignity of birth, to return power to women, and to train a generation of birth keepers who can hold the thresholds of life with skill, integrity, and sacred regard.
