Wahine Rising Spotlight: Hua Moon Women’s Health
Photographed by: Courtney Mooney http://lunasolo.com
Women’s health, for women by women!
I am so incredibly grateful to personally use Hua Moon for all of my women’s healthcare needs. Annual exams, paps, lab work and any crazy concern or question I may have, they’re always there for me ♥️
I am also excited to shine some light on two of my dearest friends in life, and the Wellness impact they are making on our Kaua’i community. Each year, the Wahine Made Festival hosts a silent auction during their event to help support a local wahine owned business. This year they’ve chosen the founders of Hua Moon Women’s Health, Sharon Offley and Colleen Bass, as the honoree recipients of the silent auction award!
Sharon and Colleen both set the bar high in life and in their much needed women’s health services. Compassion, sensitivity, professional attention to every detail, amazing follow up… this is what I experience every time I walk through their doors. When you truly love the work you do, it just shines through in everything you do.
What inspired you to start Hua Moon Women’s Health?
“We wanted to offer compassionate, inclusive, personalized health care. We wanted our patients to feel seen and heard and cared for in a way that is hard to deliver in today’s medical ’system’. We wanted to create an experience and environment that feels welcoming and warm, and to make a genuine connection with our patients. We wanted to meet our patients where they are at. In the beginning, Hua Moon mainly provided prenatal care and birth, but has evolved into so much more. Whether someone comes in for birth control, a prenatal appointment, anxiety, menopausal challenges, or a million other reasons, we want to make the experience as positive as it can be.”
How does it feel to have the support of the Wahine Made Festival behind you?
“I can't even express how it feels! It feels surreal. There are many deserving people and organizations, and it’s a profound honor to be selected. It feels like a ‘full-circle’ moment. We have a personal connection to Erin, who we knew as a mother, artist, performer, then an entrepreneur with Eha Culture, and now in this amazing community role uplifting women with the Wahine Made event. During this time Hua Moon has also evolved and ‘grown up’. We began to realize we have a small, but important ‘voice’ outside the exam room at our office, and that we wanted to use that voice. Today, we work hard to be a visible and vocal presence on the issues that matter to us and the Wahine in our community. We speak and act authentically on medical and social issues that matter to us. This looks like: partnering with the YWCA on reproductive rights issues, participating in PRIDE events and being an LGBTQ ally, sponsoring a healthcare equity award for a KCC nursing student, visiting schools for sexual education, posting on eating disorders and addiction, obtaining an ultrasound machine and training, hosting events to benefit community members in need, welcoming KCC nursing students to clinical rotations with us, working towards social and racial justice, etc etc…10 years ago, we saw ourselves as just home birth midwives.”
What does ‘Wahine Rising’ mean to you?
“When I think of Wahine Rising, I think of sisterhood and the collective, transformational power of that support throughout our lives. I have celebrated, laughed, lived and loved many of the best days of my life with my ’sisters’. They have helped me grow. A strong sisterhood will be there for each other throughout all the ages, stages, and phases of life. Sometimes that means we ‘resist’ together with wahine we’ve never met before! We challenge each other to question a point of view, encourage each other to find the courage we need. We have the honor of showing up for each other during times of loss and grief. Once when I was having a really difficult time Colleen, my partner at Hua Moon (and dear friend) told she would just hold the hope for me until I could find it again. Now THAT is Wahine Rising. Wahine Rising is sisters being there for each other in good times and bad.”
