Can’t stop, won’t stop - Doula life in the eye of a crisis.
If I read the words “pivot your business” one more time, God help me.
I didn’t choose to be a doula, I became one by accident. I happened to have my babies quite a while before anyone in my social circle did. I was just Momming around for many years, occasionally being able to attend social events without my children and being so thrilled to have a “night out”, even if it meant hand-expressing my milk in a restaurant bathroom stall if I chose to stay past dessert. Half happy that nobody inquired about my birth story or baby poop consistencies and sleep schedules, and half sad that they didn’t.
Fast forward a few years, and my messenger feed was peppered with pregnancy related questions and offers to meet up for lunch to “pick my brain” about birthing options. I was always happy to listen and to share the knowledge that I had, and to dig deeper to get the knowledge that I didn’t- hence the decision to register into a formal doula training. I wanted to commune with other birth nerds and to validate what I felt brewing inside of me; that I was in fact a birth worker.
Birth work is a calling, and when you decide to make it your job, it becomes a business.
It seems like every business has been called to “pivot” right now. It suddenly became so urgent to adapt our offerings and “support packages” to remain relevant in this new crisis climate. I see it happening all around me and I questioned and brainstormed how I could do the same. After many conversations, zoom calls and seminars, I still couldn’t find the solution for my business, the one that fit in with my values and that felt “fair” to me and my clients. Having continued to support my clients throughout this affair, I see now why I couldn’t find it. It doesn’t exist.
There is no package that I can put together to prepare you for the ever-changing policies of your chosen place of birth, there is no discount that can seem fair for me passing 30 or more hours glued to my phone, sleeping in stints on the sofa to help you navigate your birth. Your needs haven’t changed, if anything, your need for guidance and support has only augmented, and my service to you has not changed either.
My commitment to my clients is to continue to give them unbiased and compassionate educational, emotional and moral support in the time where they need it the most. I don’t need to “pivot” to stay “relevant”. I will continue to do everything in my power so that they can show up to their birth prepared to stand in their truth and to own their birth story in the way that it was meant to happen.