Who we are + our history
We're doulas, educators, and creatives in the birth work field who share the same values and were looking for a sustainable and reliable model for back up support and building community. Our founding members include Dr. Abby Jorgensen (PhD kind), Jamie Lake, Kristen Schell and Liam Lynn covering the Southwest Michigan and nothern Indiana area.
As inclusive doulas, we strive to create a safe, supportive and empowering environment for everyone, working to ensure that everyone feels heard, respected and valued.
Purpose + Function
Our primary purpose is to have reliable back up doula support that is sustainable for ourselves, our families and the clients we serve. We want to be able to take vacations and be able to take mental health, or sick days while providing our clients continuous support.
Did you know that on average doulas burn out by the second year of doing this work? It's easy to get burned out from the 24/7 on call work. So we decided to form a collective that we can use to support each other, back each other up in needed, collaborate, and so on.
Together, we have a lot of knowledge, training, experience and skills in all things pregnancy, birth and postpartum. Having supported hundreds of families as a collective, we love this "heart" work that doula support requires. We also recognize a need to make this work more sustainable.
We seek to elevate our profession by setting a new standard of self care for doulas, charging sustainable rates, and having high expectations for client care. In this collective model, we're able to provide one another emotional support, reliable back up doula support, and learn from one another.
An added benefit of this collective is that we still have independent businesses but maintain the collective model rather than an agency one.
Our Values
Pro-science
We're up-to-date on vaccinations to protect ourselves and the families we serve. We connect our families to the latest evidence based information and resources.
Inclusive
Like a wildflower, we know that every family is unique: partnered, solo, foster, LGBTQIA+, surrogacy, and adoption. We believe that all birth is birth - vaginal, cesearan, homebirth, birth center, or hospital births.
We are here to support all of this.
Professional
We are doulas that were trained and/or certified by professional Doula organizations. We keep up with the latest research and attend ongoing education opportunities to learn new ways to better support our clients.
History
The idea started during the pandemic in 2022, where some hospitals required vaccinated doulas, and they weren't easy to find in certain areas. So we decided to form a collective to make it easier for families to find like-minded doulas with similar values and reimagine new ways to support each other in doula work.