“When I first found out I was pregnant, I threw myself headfirst into learning everything I could. I switched my care to a midwifery model, signed up for a prenatal yoga class, took a hypnobirthing class with my husband, read the books, listened to the podcasts, and my social media feed was ALL birth and babies. I had dreams of an unmedicated birth at a local birth center. When I talked to anyone about my plans, I was continuously met with some form of “just you wait.” This could have discouraged me, but honestly, I felt like it lit a fire under me to want it more.
Enter my son’s birth. I applied everything I learned. I believed in myself. And, I was left completely transformed. I was unbelievably proud of myself. It was truly the most amazing thing I’ve ever done. I was in awe of my body and what my mind was able to accomplish. Postpartum, on the other hand, rocked me in ways I wasn’t anticipating. A global pandemic started 5 weeks after my son was born and I was left feeling so isolated and lost. This wasn’t the picture of motherhood I had dreamed about. I felt locked in and alone. My mental health suffered. I found myself longing to enter that birth world again. It was strange to have prepared so long for this event and have it all be over. I wasn’t sure in what capacity this would be, but I wanted to be connected with expecting families. I wanted to teach people about what birth can really be like. I sent a message to my hypnobirthing instructor inquiring about it all and with her blessing, I reached out to Liz Stanford for a call.
I left the call feeling so excited and not long after, I was signed up for a training to become a hypnobirthing instructor. All of my training was online and I loved the cohort of women I trained with. We were still in this pandemic and it was my opportunity to build community with like-minded people, people like me, people that loved birth. During the training, I came up with my business name, Birth and Becoming. I built my social media. I stepped out of my comfort zone sharing this with all of my family and friends. I did live videos, made TikTok’s, and really put myself out there. With the world in the place it was, zoom felt like the best way to go. I created my online hypnobirthing class and in January of 2023 taught my very first group. I LOVED IT! I remember feeling so wired after my first class that I had a hard time falling asleep.
As we have come out of the restrictions from Covid, I have continued to prioritize my Zoom offerings. It has allowed me to support this passion of mine, while also allowing me to be present with my family. My business has seen the addition of 2 babies to my own family and supported more than 100 babies be born from all over the USA. Stepping out and putting yourself out there feels so vulnerable, but it has been so worth it. A majority of my referrals come from word of mouth and I am not only so grateful to all of my past clients, but so proud of this.
This little passion project of mine fulfils me. I get so excited for each session and I have so much gratitude for each family that has trusted me with their birth education. I am not exaggerating when I say I remember each and every one of them. Building a business is a bit like childbirth in and of itself. It has been scary, overwhelming, and I’ve definitely been hit with those transition feelings of “can I really do this?!” But, there is also nothing like that joy I feel when a new baby is born and I can say that I had a small part in their arrival to the world.”
Check out Katie’s website here or her Facebook page here
If you want to know more about training to teach hypnobirthing take a look here
