Hey mamas, welcome back to the Birthing Bestie Blog, where we talk about topics pertaining to pregnancy, birth, partnerships, motherhood, and just real life. Here on the blog, we don’t shy away from talking about the hardships of motherhood. Instead, we encourage you, validate you, and welcome you with open arms.

I know what you’re thinking: Shouldn’t my lovely partner, Matt, be here for another Partner Perspective? And while you’re right, had to boot him off The Blog this week. And I’ll tell you why:

The timing was just too perfect because somehow we’re at the end of September and October kicks off a little bit of a revamp and relaunch for The Empowered Pregnancy Membership, my childbirth education support, and community that I offer to anyone, near and far. 

Prefer to watch?

Here’s the video for you, Mama!

A membership tailored to families who are planning to deliver their baby in the hospital setting. If you know me well, or if you follow me on social media, you know that I have talked about this membership quite a bit. It is currently the second baby I have birthed, having put in a lot of hard work and pride in this membership.

I talk about it because I’m very proud of it, but also because I know how beneficial and supportive this information is for families like you. 

Having been a doula for almost seven years now, I have supported all kinds of births. I’ve supported medicated births, unmedicated births, births at birthing centers and at home. And primarily, honestly, I’m in the hospital setting. So, with seven years of supporting families in the hospital setting, I’ve learned a thing or two about what you can expect and how to prepare families for delivering at the hospital.

That’s exactly what gave me the motivation for creating this membership. The Empowered Pregnancy Membership is very different than other childbirth education offers. While we do talk about holistic aspects of pregnancy and the birthing process and then postpartum recovery, we also really walk you through your entire pregnancy, literally from peeing on a stick to being home with your baby, and what that looks like within a hospital.

Sometimes a common misconception is that because you’re having a baby in the hospital, you can show up at the hospital and the doctors, nurses, and care team will show you the ropes as you go through your prenatal care and delivery. And while that absolutely is one way to go about having a birth experience, I also recognize that women and families are really wanting to be a little more involved in their birth. 

I say all the time: You don’t know what you don’t know, so this Membership is really designed to show you and tell you what standard of care looks like when you opt into the “one size fits all” approach to maternity care, AND we go over what it looks like to customize your experience to your own individual family and wishes.

We explore what things to reflect about, good questions to ask your care provider, ways to help you think about and understand how you want to feel and be cared for at your birth, throughout your prenatal care, and your postpartum period. 

To me as a doula, as a childbirth educator, and to me as a person, the most important thing is that however your birth unfolds is that you feel that you have had the education, the support, and the time to make decisions that are right for you, your family, and your specific scenario. 

That’s really my motivation behind creating this membership.

Now, let’s dig into what you can expect in The Membership. The membership is built on three main pillars. Pillar number one is The Dashboard, pillar number two is the ‘My Empowered Pregnancy Guide’, and pillar number three is The Facebook Community.

1. The Dashboard:

Again, this is where we’re going to be talking about everything “from peeing on a stick to holding your baby.” We cover just about everything that I, as a birth professional of seven years and a mom of two years, can think of that is important for you to know. We go through it all.

The lessons in The Dashboard are recorded teachings, so you can listen to them on the go! Whether you are a podcast girlie where you like to pop in your headphones and go on walks, you can listen to them in the car, or if you are cleaning the house or nesting, you can have it on in the background.

It’s a really great way to absorb this information, and it makes it really easy to share the teachings with your partner, too! The dashboard is a really powerful place to essentially take childbirth education with you on the go wherever and whenever. 

2. My Empowered Pregnancy Guide: 

Something I never expected to have or do, and something that I am most proud of in my business thus far, and that is a full-on book. As I was building this membership and creating the supporting teaching materials, it really just blossomed and transformed into a wonderful educational journal. 

This guide is basically your right-hand (wo)man for this Membership. The things we cover in The Dashboard is essentially page by page teachings from The Guide. This Guide is your literal roadmap for every step of the way in your pregnancy.

So let’s sau that you’re already six or so months into your pregnancy and you’re thinking, “Well, I peed on the stick months ago, so this isn’t going to work for me, or this isn’t going to benefit me.” I’m here to tell you, it absolutely does. 

Even though you may be past some of the topics as far as standard of care and tests/procedures in some parts of The Guide, we also talk about more than just what to expect at the hospital and through your prenatal care. 

For example, in the first trimester (chapter 1) of The Guide, we talk about reflecting on your first appointment and how your care provider made you feel, which you can (and should) reflect on after any/every appointment. We talk about different birth places, different care providers, birth stats in the United States… topics that contain pertinent information throughout your entire pregnancy and things that are important to you long beyond the first trimester. 

“Your book is so great because it has all of the info you need, but laid out in a way that’s so simple and not overwhelming. And that is the first time I can say that about a pregnancy book. It’s amazing.” 

This really beautiful message of feedback about the guide is from not only a mama who was embarking on her second pregnancy, but also a woman who has trained as a doula… so she’s done her fair share of reading birth and pregnancy books!

3. The Facebook Community 

You know, Facebook has been around for a while, so I’m sure that you are used to how Facebook groups work, but really the point of this group is to be a safe place for you to do a couple of things:

1. To be in community with other moms, other families, other women who are going through the same things you are. Even if you’re at different points in your pregnancy, you’re still essentially going through the same things.Building that community and having a community in pregnancy and in motherhood in general is so important.
2. The opportunity to have an extension of your learning. Starting in October, we will have several experts and trusted partners of The Membership join the Facebook Commuity as guest speakers that can learn from. 

I am so excited to be able to not only welcome these women to the community for you to be able to further your education and build your birth team, but I’m so excited for you to be able to just hear from different people and learn something new.

There’s so much to be learned in the membership, and community really is such a big part of motherhood. So I’m really excited to be able to foster that in a couple of different ways through the Facebook Community. 

So now you’ve heard the gist of what The Membership entails. I know it’s a lot, and it’s intentionally a lot because I want you to be totally prepared, excited, confident, and empowered going into your birth.

You absolutely can have the birth of your dreams, and it might look different than you initially expected, and will certainly look different than someone else’s dream birth, but the first step in getting the birth that you want is learning about what birth actually looks like, what prenatal care actually looks like, and more importantly, what it looks like in the hospital with OBs and nurses and, other medical staff.

While enrollment for The Empowered Pregnancy Membership is always open, you won’t want to miss what’s kicking off in October with these partners coming in to really teach you all and spend time with you all within the community.

So I hope you’ll join us. And remember, everything that we talk about is going to be beneficial to you and your pregnancy, no matter when you join us. 

And of course, if you have any questions about The Membership or any of my support, please feel free to reach out to me. You can slide into my DMs at ebbirthing on Instagram, or you can email me at ebbirthing@gmail.com.  

I’m here for you every step of the way, no matter how your journey unfolds. I’m here to support you and empower you. So if I can help you in any way, please let me know. 

And P.S. You can expect to see Matt back for Partner Perspectives next month.

All right, Mama sending you love until next time.