Dear leader,

Stop waiting for support to show up when you should be building it now.

You see a woman who's capable, someone who's built a career on being self-sufficient. You see someone who's always figured things out, someone who doesn't want to burden others by asking for help.

What you don't see? The woman wondering who'll be there when labor starts. The woman paralyzed by her choice of provider due to insurance limitations. The woman who knows she needs support but has no idea how to build a team for something she's never done before.

In my last two entries, we explored how to understand your transformation and master discernment. You've learned what's happening in your body and how to filter information strategically. Now comes the critical question: Who has the expertise to help you execute your vision?

This is where building your support team becomes essential, because support doesn't magically appear. It's strategically assembled.

When “Jasmine” came to me during her first pregnancy, she was navigating complications most first-time mothers never face. Severe pelvic pain. Diabetes. Anxiety about the unknowns. And no clear support system to help her make sense of it all.

Her OB visits gave her medical information, but she needed someone to help her understand what it meant for HER—and what to actually do about it.

We started building her support infrastructure. I sent her specific exercises and videos to prepare her body for labor, working in conjunction with her pelvic floor therapist. We identified a lactation consultant from her pediatrician's office for postpartum support. We talked through her concerns about labor and what an induction would look like, not just the clinical facts, but what she could expect emotionally and mentally.

When her pregnancy became high-risk and she ended up with an emergency C-section, she wasn't alone. She understood her options. I was there advocating for her needs with the anesthesiologist and care team. She had someone walking her through each step, not just medically, but emotionally.

What Jasmine didn't realize was that throughout our work together, she'd been building her support team strategically—identifying the specific types of help she needed and assembling people with complementary expertise.

Three months postpartum, we still meet virtually. Her support needs evolved into more focus on newborn care like infant massage, lactation concerns, and breastfeeding complications—but because she'd built relationships before she desperately needed them, she wasn't scrambling when challenges arose.

Strategic support isn't found—it's built.

This lesson became crystal clear when I became Regional Medical Affairs Director for a pharmaceutical product spanning fifty-five countries across Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. I reported to global headquarters but had no direct authority over most of the people I needed to work with.

Medical leads in each country wanted autonomy. Some saw me as an obstacle rather than a partner. The time zones alone made it impossible to be available to everyone. I couldn't do it alone. But I also couldn't build a team of fifty-five. I needed to identify key people who could lead WITH me, people who understood that collaboration would serve everyone better than working in silos.

Over several months, I identified my core team. Not the easiest people to work with. Not the ones who agreed with everything. But the people who were values-aligned, brought expertise I needed, and had demonstrated they could handle complexity. When challenges arose, I had people I could trust to problem-solve with me. When I needed country-specific insight, I had experts who actually wanted to collaborate.

That experience taught me exactly what makes support teams effective, lessons I can now see in every successful team I've built, including during my third pregnancy.

After navigating two very different previous experiences, I realized I built an intentional support team. My HypnoBirthing instructor who was also a doula. My partner who was fully onboard. My OB/GYN in a trusted partnership that honored my values. When I unexpectedly gave birth at home, this team adapted with me. They didn't panic. They navigated the complexity because I'd built a team that could handle any outcome, not just the perfect scenario.

Here's what I learned about building effective teams:

• Use your values to vet people. You've already done the work to map your values. Now use them to evaluate whether providers respect your autonomy or impose their preferences. Do they listen, or do they dismiss your questions?

• Identify expertise gaps you can't fill alone. You've learned what you need to understand and how to discern what matters. Now identify who has knowledge you don't—providers, therapists, consultants, coaches—whose expertise complements yours.

• Evaluate their track record with complexity. You've released perfectionism and learned to lead with presence. Now assess whether they can handle unpredictability. Do they adapt when plans change, or rigidly stick to protocols regardless of your situation?

Take time this week to identify the types of support you need. Medical? Emotional? Practical? Professional? Then start vetting people based on values alignment, complementary expertise, and proven adaptability, not just convenience or credentials.

You've now completed the advance your understanding stage of The S.M.A.R.T. Journey to Parenting™. You've understood your transformation, mastered discernment, and built your strategic support team. You've created the knowledge foundation that turns uncertainty into confidence.

In my next entry, we'll begin exploring how to rise with strength—because knowledge without action remains potential. It's time to move from understanding to embodying, from learning to living, from preparing to executing your vision with aligned strength.

Remember, you built your career by assembling the right people around you. Don't navigate your biggest life transition hoping support will magically appear.

From my desk to yours,
Dr. Michelle El Khoury

P.S. Ready to build the presence that helps you make confident decisions? Get my free 5 Days to Greater Presence email series at https://programs.yogamazia.com/greater-presence