Adventure Nannies On Air

Planning for the Fourth Trimester: Doulas, NCS, and Your Dream Support Team with Kristin Revere

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Planning the perfect nursery is fun. Waking up at 2:17 a.m. unsure how to soothe, feed, and recover at the same time is real. We sit down with Kristin Revere (She/Her/Hers) , CEO and Founder of Gold Coast Doulas, LLC , and co-author of Supported: Your Guide to Birth & Baby , to map out a smarter way to prepare for the fourth trimester—before the baby arrives.


Kristin shares the pivotal moments that pulled her from political fundraising into birth work: a late preeclampsia diagnosis, an induction that almost became a cesarean, NICU days that rewrote early breastfeeding plans, and a second birth supported by evidence-based care. Those experiences shaped her agency’s mission: judgment-free support that centers safe sleep, mental health, lactation, and real-world logistics.

We get crystal clear on the differences between a postpartum doula and a newborn care specialist (NCS)—who does what, when to hire each, and how to build a hybrid plan for twins, NICU grads, or parents heading back to work. Kristin explains how training and scope vary across organizations, why some pros focus on days and household flow while others specialize in overnights and infant-led routines, and what questions help first-time parents choose the right fit. For nannies curious about postpartum work, she lays out practical entry points, certifications, liability must-haves, and the mindset shift from long-term childcare to short-term stabilization.

Access is changing fast. Employer benefits like Carrot and Progyny are bringing six to twelve weeks of funded support to more families, while some states expand doula coverage through Medicaid. We talk affordability, safe sleep, lactation referrals, pelvic floor PT, and the power of a local resource network. Kristin’s book, Supported: Your Guide to Birth & Baby, distills this ecosystem into a nonjudgmental, method-neutral roadmap that helps new parents prepare, pivot, and rest.

If this conversation helps you think differently about the first six weeks, share it with a friend, subscribe for more practical interviews, and leave a quick review so others can find the show. Your support helps more families get the care they deserve.

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SPEAKER_02:

Working with kids is the most rewarding, exhausting, and unpredictable job on the planet. And we are so here for all of it. Welcome everyone to Adventure Nannies on Air. This is the place where we get into the conversations that are really on the minds of incredible nannies and families day in and day out. I'm Shenandoah. And I'm Regan. And we're here from the team at Adventure Nannies, a nationwide agency that helps progressive, globally minded families find the talented, passionate nannies, educators, and newborn care specialists to join them on all their adventures.

SPEAKER_01:

We're tackling everything from the big stuff like how to navigate conversations about legal pay to the fun stuff like our go-to hacks for making travel with kids feel like a total grease.

SPEAKER_02:

Along the way, we'll hear stories and learn from incredible guests, both in and outside the nanny industry.

SPEAKER_01:

Whether you're a parent, a nanny, or a lost person on the internet, we're glad you're here with us. Let's get into it. Before we get started, just a quick note. The views you're going to hear today are the personal opinions of our guests and don't necessarily represent the official views of adventure nannies.

SPEAKER_02:

And a heads up for anyone with little ones nearby. We can get a little passionate, which means some salty language might pop up. You might want to grab your headphones for this one. The shiny new year new me energy might be settling down a little bit, and we're getting into the real nitty-gritty work of what planning the new year ahead really looks like.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, it's so true. I always love in the last few weeks of the year, you know, I have all these traditions. I do the wheel of life with my husband. We write down all our resolutions and goals. We do like a full 360 view on, you know, roses and thorns or peaches and pits or whichever one of those stupid analogies you like for everything that just happened. And you set all your dreams and your intentions for the new year, maybe like with a special rock under a full moon. But now we're in the part of the year where you actually have to do stuff if you want those things to happen. And it can feel like a letdown. I think the statistic I've read is that 90% of New Year's resolutions are completely abandoned by January 31st. And we're in mid-January right now. So I feel like most of them are maybe already seeing a fiery death two weeks into the year. But the actual planning and following through is where the magic can happen. And in the spirit of planning for big life moments, today's conversation is about one of the biggest and most beautiful transitions a family can go through, which is what happens when you welcome a new member to the family.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm so excited for this one. You got to talk with Kristen Revere, the founder of Gold Coast Doulas, and her story is just incredible. She's a powerhouse of knowledge with more certifications than I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_01:

She really is. I got to meet her a few years ago at the first Newborn Care Solutions conference, and her agency is based in Michigan. It's a smaller agency, but like the friendship that we have formed over the last few years has been so instrumental in so many of the big changes that we've had at Adventure Nannies. I got to talk her through writing and publishing her book, supported Your Guide to Birth and Baby. And it came out just as we were starting work on the Adventure Nannies book. And she also is the first Doula agency in the US to become a certified B Corp. She also has done all of these other cool entrepreneur programs through Tori Birch and like comes from a very cool political activism and fundraising background. And I'm just so happy that she has decided to grace our industry with her presence. And she's just so passionate about it. Her personal experiences with her own childbirth and postpartum recovery really shaped her career and ignited this passion she has for supporting other families. And she gets into a lot of the real deal reasons why planning for your postpartum life is just as crucial as planning for the birth and the baby itself.

SPEAKER_02:

That feels so, so necessary. I know so many people, including myself, who focus so much on what their birth plan's gonna be, what it's gonna be like, the pregnancy, um, and even you know, down to planning, you know, the nursery and and the clothes and all of the things that are fun. And they forget about the postpartum and what it actually is like to recover from birth and are just completely lost when they get home. So this this is such an important conversation. I'm super excited for it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Kristen really breaks it all down, and we also get into something I know a lot of families are curious about because I had talked to so many of them while they're in this hypothetical postpartum planning stage about what the differences are between a postpartum doula and a newborn care specialist. Because often when I'm talking to a family who's expecting an adventure nannies, they're like, yeah, we need something. Like we need a night nanny, we need a night nurse, we need a doula, we need a newborn care specialist, we, you know, and the terminology and the differences can feel really nuanced to people who are outside of our industry because a lot of parents don't know what they are going to need. And the way that our industry works and how far in advance you have to schedule and book and find postpartum care is that if you don't know what you need until you need it, you're kind of too late to the game to even find it. And so she gives a really clear, helpful guide on how to figure out what kind of support you might need and how to build in expectations and flexibility for being able to navigate how that might change once your baby is on the outside instead of the inside.

SPEAKER_02:

That sounds so amazing. I cannot wait to hear it. Let's get into it. Here is Shenandoah's conversation with Kristen.

SPEAKER_01:

Today I have the pleasure of being joined by Kristen Revere. Kristen, welcome. Thank you so much, Shenandoah. I am excited to chat with you. There are a thousand things we could chat about. You own Gold Coast doulas, you're a childbirth educator, you're an elite certified birth doula and a postpartum doula and like 12 other things. The the first thing that I thought of when I saw your bio was like that you should you should just run adventure dance. Um, you have more certifications than I have ever seen on one person's resume before. It's out of this world. And so before we really dive in, I am so curious to just hear about what led you down this path to all of these accolades and certifications and all of this lifelong learning that you have been up to.

SPEAKER_00:

So I'm certainly an overachiever and I believe in lifelong education. Although I have nothing medical related in my bio. You mentioned different certifications. So I have a lot of respect for nurses and other licensed medical professionals. So my trainings do not compare to the work that they put in. But I have a background, as you know, in political fundraising, nonprofit fundraising, and advertising sales. So that has helped me tremendously in starting a business, whether it was my solo doula business or later Gold Coast doulas, but my passion for the maternal health space started with my own challenges, um having children later in life and working on a governor's race as a fundraiser and traveling all over. I really wanted to have my friends do my homework for me and help me find my dream birth and baby team. But a lot of them had children much younger in life. And so their, you know, perfect uh prenatal yoga class or obigein had already retired, didn't exist. And so I had to start from scratch and ended up switching providers and hospitals, in fact, after I felt like my wishes for an unmedicated hospital birth weren't being met. And so I found a nurse midwifery practice that a different friend had recommended to me. And there I ended up learning about a Lama's class, signed up for that. And again, being that type A overachiever, I read every birth and baby book and had my husband read The Birth Partner with me and watch Business of Being Born, did not know about doulas with my first, or I would have certainly hired one. But long story short, I was having the perfect pregnancy up until 37 weeks. And then I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsha, put on bed rest, and my dreams for being able to go into labor on my own were altered, and you know, experiencing a lot of my wishes and plans, you know, were changed. And so that caused a lot of fear. And I was induced at 39 weeks and was fortunate to avoid a lot of interventions and really only had my membrane swept and cervadil, so a cervical ripener, and was able to progress on my own from there. So I avoided pitocin and an epidural, and very narrowly avoided a cesarean birth. Um my daughter was not responding well on the monitor. She was posterior and so I was having back labor. And my husband tried to, you know, give me some of the comfort measures that a doula would, but he was not an expert on that. Um so I was able to turn my daughter with the help of the nurse, he showed Patrick how to sway my hips a bit more with the hip squeezes. And all of a sudden she turned and I was pushing within minutes. And so my midwife ran in and I was able to avoid a cesarean. She mentioned that she had called for one like just minutes before Abby was born. So I had some skin to skin and that breastfeeding, I took a breastfeeding class and really wanted to um breastfeed right away. But unfortunately, she had glucose issues and was low birth weight. So she was sent to the NICU and I was pumping and going back and forth from my room to the NICU, and she was there for nights, and I went home without my daughter. So some of the things that I dreamed would happen of rooming in and breastfeeding right away were, you know, not um the reality that I faced. And so I ended up seeking help from hospital lactation consultants and rented a friend of mine actually rented a hospital grade pump for me when I was home and had some in-home lactation support. And so after Abby was born, I became very passionate about breastfeeding activism and education and helped put on a rally and had some of my political friends speak at the rally. And then I met doulas for the first time. And so when I was pregnant with my son Seth, outside of letting Patrick know, my first call was to one of the doolas that I met and hired her right away. And my goal was to avoid preeclampsia the second time around. And so I was able to, with their referrals, get into a functional medicine doctor, saw a naturopath, made sure that I wasn't depleted in any nutrients, minerals, and so on. And then at the advice of my nurse midwife, I swam almost daily and continued with prenatal yoga. And my dowas had me focus on affirmations, meditation. I read hypnobirthing. The instructor was too far for me to travel to, but I so I took Lamas a second time. But I experienced labor on my own with my son, and he came after my due date and was a quick and easy burst. So some of the things that I wanted my doulas to do, like have a labor laid list and you know, spend all of this time with physical support, didn't happen, but their compassion and resources and support throughout pregnancy made all of the investment worthwhile. And so I then became passionate about teaching classes as a way to give back and support families. So I went to a training in Virginia with my family when my son was a few months old and promoted the classes. And I started teaching right after my training, but with my marketing experience, I promoted the classes right away and filled my first class. And of course, my students, being that it was an eight-week class, connected with me and wanted me to be their doula. And so I thought, okay, I might as well go with get this training. So I went to Florida for a doula training and thought I would take a student here or there as a hobby. But I fell in love with the work and the vulnerable way that we serve our clients in a time of transition. And women have been doing the work of nannies, of birth doulas, postpartum doulas since the beginning of time. It just wasn't a profession. And so I eventually transitioned to birth work full-time. It took me several years to be able to afford to leave my job and consulting work. But I when I started Gold Coast Doulas almost 10 years ago with my former business partner, we brought a postpartum doula training to our area. And it postpartum doulas, there were a couple of them, but they focused more on daytime household tasks and very short shifts. And I really wanted to focus on overnight support and newborn care. So we brought a training with that focus to our area and hired postpartum duelas who from that original training as we built the agency, which at launch was mainly birth duelas, educators, and lactation consultants. And so, yes, so I decided to, along with my team, take all the trainings and everything from being a certified loss duela to a baby registry consultant to getting um VBAC certified veginal birth after cesarean, and wanted to be able to listen to my community and add resources that they needed. And also we got rid of some services that weren't as in demand by our mainstream clientele. Feel like in my area, especially in West Michigan, dual has tended to be more home birth or unmedicated focused. And at Gold Coast, we support all families, no matter how they choose to birth their baby or where they choose or how they choose to feed their baby or parent. Um, as long as, of course, things are safe. So we promote safe sleep and would never attend a birth without a midwife or an OB. So yeah. So we separated ourselves a bit and our clientele are much different than say the typical doula might seek out. And so we work with a lot of physicians, a lot of corporate and professional families. And I became focused, although I still am a birth doula and love attending births and still teach childbirth classes. I became very passionate about that postnatal recovery time and the choices that families have to make and whether they go back to work full time or stay home, and how they choose to again parent and feed and the well-meaning friends and family members that may have some judgment. Um, we are there as a resource and guide, and again provide the judgment-free support. So that is my story, a little bit long-winded, but I feel like we survived the pandemic and a lot of agencies were closing. And luckily in my state, we were considered essential workers and were able to um work in hospitals through the majority of that time where states like New York, I mean, doulas weren't working for multiple years. And of course, that transition time of um not feeling comfortable with a newborn care specialist or a postpartum duula in the home was challenging. So wrote some grants and created an online course called Becoming a Mother. And that course eventually became my book, Supported Your Guide to Birth and Baby. Amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

That's an incredible story. And I feel like especially since COVID, I would also label myself as an overachiever. I would agree. I would think you're similar in that way. Yeah, no one, no one who knows me would disagree there. But I have so many entrepreneurial friends who have become mothers in the last few years, both in the industry and in other industries who, you know, who, despite talking to so many families, reading so many books, taking so many courses, kind of decided to go it alone. And it took until the day they were going to the hospital, or when their baby was two weeks old or when their baby was a month old for them to say, wait, like why what kind of trophy was I trying to win? Why did I think that it would be better for me to do all of this myself? Or like, like what was I kind of thinking? Because as you experienced with your daughter, like the the moment that you realize you need it is often too late to be lining it up. So I would love to hear your perspective on on why it is so important to plan for so much of these things that feel like we'll figure it out later. Um, you know, from childcare to the division of labor and pregnancy while you are kind of in those early days and figuring out your birthing plan instead of this, like, well, like it's it's all about the birth. And then once the baby comes, then we'll figure out the rest of this crap.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. And I feel like so much time and energy is spent on planning for a baby shower and the registry process and certainly creating the perfect nursery and the baby doesn't need perfection, and oftentimes babies are rooming in anyway in a bassinet. So I have found even with friends, I'll gift them my book and they never get to it. And so, because they're so busy with what society thinks they should be focused on, versus the important thing of setting up that support system and having a plan like you would for other life occasions. You plan for a wedding or to build a home, you're hiring professionals and relying on them to help you within your budget. So why not create a budget not only for pregnancy and birth, but certainly that postnatal time and spend as much time planning for the postpartum recovery period as you do for that baby shower? Because I don't, I don't think everyone even plans as well as they should for their birth.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And I it it's so funny to seeing, you know, I I have friends who have like gone through a minor surgery and all of a sudden there's a meal train set up for a month, and there's a and there's a go fund me in this idea that that the ways that our society celebrates birth, it is more similar to a wedding than like an actual medical life event or bringing someone into the home where it is it is about the shower and it is about the registry, and it's not about how are you gonna feel the first night that you're sleeping in your home with your baby.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. And the nurses aren't there to help you if you deliver it in the hospital. And so there's so much more to it. I am finding that many of our families are now asking for services, whether it's a cleaning service or postpartum meals delivered to them that are based on their unique needs for healing and recovery, or a postpartum doula, newborn care specialist, lactation consultant, whatever it might be.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm curious, since you know, Adventure Nannies, we work primarily with families who are looking for nannies. We have worked with a few families who have specifically asked for doulas. But I my understanding of it, like which talking to you, I really am like, please teach me, Kristen, is that our prime focus has been on families who are seeking newborn care specialists since we are nationwide. And I've seen like a really disproportionate number of folks who have been working as nannies kind of flocking to NCS trainings or certifications, certainly a lot more than who are going more the doula route, which I know, you know, I think I had heard of doulas before I even knew what a nanny was because I grew up in Boulder, Colorado, and then I moved to the Pacific Northwest, and there were all of these, all these doula collectives that sort of like ran off of donations or were like just a community outreach program, um, you know, 20 or 20 or 30 years ago. I would love to hear from you kind of what you see the difference in being between doulas and newborn care specialists, because I know the I know the responsibilities lists and the kind of task lists and how they operate in the household are different, but I think that families often have only heard of one or the other. You know, a lot of times we'll run into a family who, you know, comes like looking for like the term we don't use anymore, which is baby nurse or looking for stress. But then when we talk to them, it sounds like what they actually are hoping for is more of a postpartum doula role. So do you mind explaining to me and the listeners about the difference a little bit?

SPEAKER_00:

Rappy too, Shenandoah. I would say the major difference, and I am an NCS as well, so I can speak to the difference in my training, is the NCS profession, or formerly known as night nurse or night nanny, is focused more on infant care and understanding newborn conditions, understanding a lot of focus on sleep shaping. I wouldn't say sleep training or consulting, that is much different. But the focus is not as much on the entire family and does not include some of the tasks that a postpartum doula would do in the home. And with postpartum doulas, it depends on the scope and the training that a doula goes through. So some of the doula trainings are focused only on mothering the mother and that recovery time. And they are usually only in the home during the day and focused on sibling care, household tasks, light meal preparation, um, some feeding support, but they are not trained to care for baby. Now there are other postpartum duula trainings like ProDuola or Kappa that get into some of the infant care aspect and usually have at least a full day of that training, but it is not as focused as a newborn care training would be. And I know through Newborn Care Solutions, the training I went through was much more lengthy on anything a newborn might encounter as far as conditions or health or how to support NICU babies or multiples. And doula trainings are focused very much on feeding, understanding paranidal mood disorders, understanding how to support recovery and help the family focus so they can thrive. But when I'm hiring postpartum doulas, I'm looking for a doula that has infant care as part of their training because of my focus. We work through the first year, we do a lot of overnight support and extended support. And some families don't even bring us on until one of them is going back to work. And some certainly want us there for the first night. And so my focus is much different than the doula who will fold laundry and focus more on tasks. We want to get our families to feel confident in their role, whether it's baby one or five, and be able to move on beyond us, whether it's transitioning to a nanny. And some of our families, we have nannies working with the family while we are in the household. And so I love when my postpartum duelas are also newborn care specialists or have a background as nannies. So that experience with families and being comfortable working in the home is very valuable. Um, it's much different than someone who worked in a child care center, although they are getting infant and um experience with children of different ages. So yeah, I feel like there are a lot of differences, but many similarities in the role, as long as their training matches up.

SPEAKER_01:

That completely makes sense. If you were a first-time, you know, soon to be first-time parents, what are some of the questions? You know, my my unfortunately the only one that's coming to mind, like my equivalent, is like a Cosmo quiz. If I'm a first-time parent and my due date is in four months, and I'm thinking, do I hire a postpartum doula? Do I hire a newborn care specialist, or how do I find someone that's both? Like, what are the one or two questions that you ask families to kind of help them determine what their hypothetical needs are in that space?

SPEAKER_00:

I like to find out what their goals are. And if their goal is more of the household help and daytime, then a postpartum duela is going to be perfect for them. Or if they're looking at newborn focused care only, then they need a newborn care specialist or a postpartum duela who is confident with newborn care as part of their training and is comfortable with overnights. So I have some of the contracted duelas on my team work only days, some prefer only nighttime work, and others work a mix. So I like to find out what. Their ideal schedule is, what they're looking for in experience and personality. And with some families, say it's a family with twins that wants day and overnight care, and want also may have a nanny or other help in their home. And some of them may have multiple doulas. I have a big team with 25 total contractors, and not all of them are doolas, but with doulas, like some of the families have had 10 doolas between day and overnight in their home. And are they comfortable with that? And I have seen with some of these fertility benefits like carrot and progeny and Maven that families have six weeks depending with carrot now. Some families have up to 12 weeks of support. So they need a big team to be able to accommodate that request, especially if they're calling me after baby's been born or very close to their due date, where it's more difficult to match them up with just one or two postpartum doulas or again, an NCS.

SPEAKER_01:

What advice do you have for folks who have been nannies for a long time and are excited about moving into the postpartum world? Because I know that a lot of folks are cross-trained as doulas and NCS. To me, from what I've kind of seen through my work at Adventure Nannies and talking to a lot of candidates, is that, you know, and I, you know, I'm like a pretty, a pretty like textbook judgmental person. I love personality tests. And I feel like within 15 seconds of talking to someone, I can kind of put them in like you're a postpartum doula or you're an NCS camp. Yes. Same way I would say, like, you're an introvert, you're an extrovert, you're a, you know, like you're an Enneagram three, you're an Enneagram nine. But what advice do you have for folks who kind of want to make that career transition but are not sure which path makes more sense for them?

SPEAKER_00:

Ooh, such a good question. I would say is your passion, do you love holding babies and the baby snuggles in that time? Then likely you would be more of a newborn care specialist or obviously a nanny to have the extended. I know most NCS tend to work three months at a time. They might travel to other cities and states, or you know, even accompany their clients on their own travels with a newborn or infant. And so that is a bit different than a postpartum duela and their roles and being comfortable with the entire family and some of the balancing that a postpartum doula would do. And do they feel confident with recovery support and understanding perinatal mood disorders and giving proper referrals? And doula's one of our roles, whether it's a birth doula or a postpartum doula, is understanding all of the options in the community to give as referrals. So everything from a nutritionist to a pelvic floor physical therapy, uh, therapist to a nanny agency like Adventure Nannies to be able to refer our clients on. And so are you comfortable getting connected in the community in that way and under or working for an agency like Gold Coast Doulas, who already has a trusted list of resources and referrals? Or are you wanting to snuggle a baby and then move on to the next client after three months with our postpartum doulas? We might only work with a family for a few days, or through that first year of a contract. It varies. So yeah, you may have 20 different clients you're working with in a year, for example.

SPEAKER_01:

What are you seeing changing in the doula industry right now? Because I know like carrot is relatively new, like doula's are becoming something that a lot of families have new found access to that didn't a few years ago. So how is that impacting things on your end?

SPEAKER_00:

Definitely getting a lot more interest in the field and exposure, whether it's positive or negative. I do still find that articles that are out there about postpartum doulas are that it's seen as something that only celebrities or the elite class can afford, and that you shouldn't be asking for help. Like the comments on the few articles on the role of a postpartum duela have been very negative. Like that the mom, you know, isn't wanting to mother her baby and hiring help, and that it is uh something that is a selfish investment versus something that should be normalized and again has existed over time in many cultures where women are supporting women in that postnatal recovery time with food and newborn care and emotional support and wisdom and guidance. And so I find that you know, also there are more benefits and even I had an uncle gift postpartum support recently to his niece, and so that is so lovely, but it has expanded the interest in the field, and people who may not have sought out this work are looking at opportunities in the space. But carrot is probably the bigger um, along with progeny, that companies are offering with carrot six weeks. Some companies have 12 weeks of benefits. A lot of them are in the tech space and remote workers, so they might be in Grand Rapids, my area, but employed by a company in Seattle, for example. And so I have really been pushing, educating, and understanding your options on and fully taking advantage of not only the birth dualist support covered in those benefits, but also the day andor overnight postpartum support. So are people getting in it for the wrong reason? I'm not sure because of the lack of marketing that, you know, you don't need to market yourself to take Medicaid, for example, for birth, because if you're enrolled and can provide that service in the states where Medicaid covers birth doulas and postpartum visits, then people who are afraid of running a business or marketing might enter the field. And now with these fertility benefits like carrot, more and more, say nannies or child care providers are interested in the postpartum doula space. So I'm happy that more people are getting in the field because I always need more doulas, especially in some of the rural areas that we cover, like northern Michigan, where it's hard to find people who are willing to go through a training and get liability insurance, get their own business, um LLC set up to be able to work for me. So I am thankful for the awareness in people wanting to get into the field because of some of these benefits like Medicaid coverage that we don't offer, but the carrot fertility benefits and others like progeny have given more access to families and more options to make the income sustainable for doulas.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I mean, it's so exciting. I know you and I have talked about one of the kind of baseline issues that seems to just, you know, kind of rot the core of our industry or be a fundamental flaw in the greater childcare space, is that childcare in our country is so unaffordable. And there needs to be a way to make it more affordable to more families without negating the worth and the training and the heart that goes into becoming a childcare provider, whether it's at a center or being a nanny or being a postpartum duelet or becoming a newborn care specialist. Right. That I'm I'm so curious and kind of waiting with bated breath, but largely excited to see how programs like Carrot and Progeny and Medicaid, you know, that they're dipping their toes into the world of perhaps women do deserve help. And perhaps childbirth is more difficult than we are currently subsidizing it. You know, and perhaps this can become a little bit more of, you know, if not, if not a basic human right, at least something that can be subsidized through employers who are trying to do the right thing. Um I keep seeing the statistic that three million women have left the workforce since 2020. And it's it's largely due to a lack of childcare. Or I've talked to so many parents who are like, yeah, you know, I could I lost my job during COVID, I could go back to work, but you know, what I was getting paid is equal to or maybe even less than what I would have to pay a nanny.

SPEAKER_00:

And so or a child care center or whatever it might be care wise. So it is such a struggle, and I don't know what the solution is. I'm thankful for more and more benefits and you know, child care tax credits, and so employers helping relieve some of that stress, whether it's adoption benefits, surrogacy, fertility, and then it's I love the fact that Carrot not only supports the fertility journey, but caring for the mother during labor and after is so important. It's not our healthcare system, it is so taxed. And one thing that gives me reassurance in our industries is that we can't be replaced by AI. The human connection is so important, and our role is not something that a robot could ever do. And so I feel like it's all about access and prioritizing, whether it's savings for a nanny, like you would have a fund for college or a big vacation, and looking at ways to pay for a postpartum doula, like you know, health savings account flex spending, certainly some of these fertility benefits. And maybe down the road, general insurance, since Medicaid is that starting point, will cover birth doulas and postpartum doulas.

SPEAKER_01:

I hope we get to keep Medicaid.

SPEAKER_00:

It's it's yes, I know it's it's on the line, so we'll see what happens.

SPEAKER_01:

I would love to, I have read your book, but I would love for everyone else to just hear a little bit more. Um, you came out with a book last year called Sur Supported, Your Guide to Birth and Baby. And I would love to hear, I know you mentioned it, but who is the book for? What does it explain? Why did you write it? Tell me everything.

SPEAKER_00:

Everything. So that as you mentioned, the book came out last Mother's Day, and I went to school for journalism. So I always wanted to author a book. I didn't ever imagine that my first book would be birth and baby focused. But my uh it was, you know, needed. And having created the Becoming a Mother course during the pandemic, we had a lot of feedback from students and clients about what they needed and were able to turn that content from the course and all of the live launches into the book that I feel the market is missing because a lot of the birth and baby focused books, whether it's sleep or feeding or childbirth education, are slanted in a particular way or method. And I wanted to have something that wasn't fear-based and very affirming with positive stories from clients and also um professional insight from doulas and bringing in a pediatrician and a lactation consultant and a mental health therapist for those areas that are out of our scope of non-medical support, and wanting to be able to give something that's easy to digest for clients and have multiple ways that they can consume it. So we recorded support is your guide to birth and baby in a local studio, a musician studio. In fact, he does audiobooks on the side. And so, yeah, so that was a way we know that our clients are busy, that people who like to listen to podcasts like your own can have the audio version. And then we have an e-version and a hardcover and paperback. So hopefully um people think about the book as a gift for those baby showers that they're attending or for a family member to take the time to not only plan for their pregnancy and birth journey, but certainly half that book is devoted to the postnatal time. And we do talk about selecting a nanny and the importance of that step as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Kristen, we're almost at the end of our time together. So I just have two more questions for you. Okay. The second one is way easier. The third question, which I like to ask every one of our guests, is if you could go back in time to say five years old and pick out your own nanny, anyone, living or dead, who would your ideal nanny be?

SPEAKER_00:

Of course. He was the best. I as a kid, I watched that movie so many times, along with the sound of music, of course. But I wanted the adventures and the umbrella and like all a nanny who was fun and would sing and was positive and just a light in the world. So yeah, I'd have to say if I could have a Mary Poppins type of nanny, that would be amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

The sound of music was was my movie growing up. I would fake having a stomachache, so I could go lay on the couch and watch that. They're both so excellent. They're so wonderful. Okay, wonderful answer. The second question is where can people find out more about you? Buy your amazing book, get in touch with you if they would like to.

SPEAKER_00:

So I have a website called goldcoastdoulas.com that has pretty much all of our online courses and classes, as well as the book supported your guide to birth and babies. Supported also has its own website, supportedbook.com, and you can find it on any online bookseller and including bookshop.org, that I love to support as a fellow B Corp, and they give back to local bookstores. And we are in Select Bookstores and growing that, and also in Select Libraries.

SPEAKER_01:

Fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us today, Kristen. It's always such a joy to get to chat with you.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks for having me on, Shannon Doy. I loved our conversation. Likewise.

SPEAKER_02:

And that's a wrap. Thank you so much for spending a little bit of your day with us.

SPEAKER_01:

We'd love to stay connected. You can find all of our past episodes and summit sessions on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcast fixed.

SPEAKER_02:

For the inside scoop on the latest job opportunities and community stories, you can always find us at adventuranias.com or come say hi on Instagram, Facebook, or Blue Sky.

SPEAKER_01:

If you loved this episode, we'd be over the moon if you leave us a review. It's a huge help in getting the word out to other folks.

SPEAKER_02:

And if you hated this episode, well, we're sorry. It can't have been that bad if you made it this far, right? We'll catch you next time. Bye.

Head Shot

Reagan Fulton

Host
Head Shot

Shenandoah Davis

Host
Contributor

Kristin Revere

Guest

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