Mi nombre es…
Alexia Franco Pettersen, and I am una hija, una sobrina, a wife, a mother, a chef, and the founder of Hola Postpartum. With over 14 years of teaching experience and more than 6 years educating and mentoring postpartum doulas, I’ve had the privilege of leading trainings for Everyday Miracles and major hospital systems in the Twin Cities like North Memorial, HCMC, and Park Nicollet.
My mission with Hola Postpartum is to equip doulas in whole-family, evidence-based postpartum care, rooted in ancestral knowledge, lived experience, and powerful healing traditions. As a BIPOC woman, I am especially committed to uplifting other BIPOC doulas, encouraging you to bring your own culture forward in your care.
As a fellow birthworker, first trained as chef and now a prenatal and postpartum nutrition expert, certified birth + postpartum doula, and lactation counselor, I’ve combined all of my roles to create a training that goes far beyond the basics. My passion is to equip the next generation of doulas—like you—to support families through every layer of postpartum recovery with skill, confidence, and heart.
Why ‘Hola Postpartum’?
In January 2012, I sat on the couch with my three-week-old baby in my arms, feeling the deep ache of missing my family and the traditions I had grown up with. The American idea of “bouncing back” and pretending as if I hadn’t just grown and birthed a baby didn’t sit right with me. I knew postpartum recovery could, and should, be so much more nourishing, intentional, and supportive.
So I began bringing my culture back into my healing.
Guided by my parents and mis tías, I returned to the foods and traditions that had supported generations of postpartum mothers before me. Slow-cooked caldos with bones, vegetables, and dried chiles restored my body. Barley horchata and agua de jamaica supported my milk supply. Sopas, albóndigas, salsas, stuffed peppers, and of course tacos nourished both me and my baby while honoring the wisdom of my motherland.
That experience changed the way I understood postpartum care.
It also revealed something I couldn’t ignore: families deserve deeper support after birth, and doulas deserve training that honors both cultural traditions and evidence-based care.
Hola Postpartum was born from that realization.
This training was created to help doulas support families in a way that is nourishing, grounded, and deeply respectful of the postpartum body. Inside this program, you’ll learn how to integrate healing foods, cultural wisdom, and practical postpartum support so families can truly recover, not rush, not “bounce back,” but be cared for during one of the most transformative seasons of their lives.
If you feel called to support families in a way that is holistic, culturally rooted, and deeply human, you are in the right place.
