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Tell me about your vision.

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My vision is to have a really large workforce of DULAs

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who are Medicaid providers in the state of Nevada.

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You said very, really large workforce of DULAs

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in the state of Nevada.

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Correct.

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Can you tell me more about that?

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Yeah, DULAs are a non-medical provider

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that work with women who are pregnant

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through the birth process, labor and delivery, and postpartum.

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They're in higher demand now, and almost two years ago,

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it was announced that Medicaid would cover.

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We did legislation here in the state of Nevada

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to raise the working wage to a decent amount of money.

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I charge $1,500 normally for a self-pay client,

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and in the beginning, Nevada Medicaid was paying $350.

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So it was not a working wage, but we've raised that up

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to the $1,300 to $1,500 range, which

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was an amazing accomplishment.

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And we now need to build a bigger workforce of DULAs

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who want to work with the previously unserved

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populations.

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DULAs predominantly are known for home births and self-pay,

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which is an upper middle class demographic.

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With Medicaid's coverage, that opens up

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50% of the pregnant population, which is amazing,

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and also a population of women who most likely it

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would have been much more challenging for them to be

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able to afford to hire a DULA.

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And it's 100% covered by their Medicaid plan.

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And in order to serve the amount of pregnant women who actively

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have Medicaid during pregnancy, we

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would need a bigger DULA workforce.

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It changed my business from almost 100% home birth

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self-pay to about 80% our Medicaid clients.

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Now, and in the hospital predominantly.

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So it's really changed what DULAs can do,

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and where DULAs work, and who they work with.

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Thank you for sharing that.

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Where would you say that this vision of having a business

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with service in DULA industry came from?

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Definitely my first daughter's birth over 32 years ago.

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I had a hospital delivery.

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I was military dependent at the time.

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And I had an overwhelmingly positive experience.

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It was very challenging, but it was overwhelmingly positive.

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And some of that was just luck.

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It was just luck.

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I had no support.

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My husband at the time was not able to be

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with me for the delivery.

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I had my mom and my 18-year-old sister there.

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And I just, by sheer luck, things went well.

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It was not knowledge of my own or the proper support.

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That led me to realize several things.

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One, you can have a very positive experience,

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even in the hospital, which was not my first choice.

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I had wanted to do a birth center birth or a home birth.

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And so I was transferred to the hospital

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due to some risks in my pregnancy.

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And also, it's possible to have a super successful, happy,

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positive birth in a setting that you didn't necessarily

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choose or want, and support helps a lot.

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And so I wanted other women to not

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feel so alone in whatever their situation or choices were.

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And that's how I got into birth work 32 years ago.

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32 years ago.

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Yeah.

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It's been a minute.

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So what happened after that when you got into this space?

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What did you do?

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I spent 12 years as a birth assistant.

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I worked predominantly with a midwifery agency.

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I was a lactation consultant.

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I ran Lillege League meetings.

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So I was supporting women a lot postpartum

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and with the breastfeeding relationship, and also

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prenatally in the clinic setting with midwives and at home

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births.

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And I loved it.

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After 12 years, unfortunately, I had

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to take a step back from that, from birth work, which

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was one of the most challenging periods of time,

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couple years in my adult life.

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I was divorced.

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I had moved to a new location.

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And I needed a job that was steady income and more steady

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hours, which is another reason that my vision is so important.

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Now I'm older.

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My kids are mostly adults.

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But doulas coming into the workforce

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have younger children.

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And getting that steady income so that they can actually

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be a doula as a job that contributes to the family's

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finances, I wouldn't have had to give it up

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if things had been like they are now back when I stopped.

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And then a few years ago, I was really

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blessed to be able to go back to birth work, something

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I didn't think I would ever be able to do.

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I feel very grateful we made changes in our family dynamic.

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I'm remarried now.

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And to make that happen, and I just

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think if the process could be more streamlined,

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a little faster, a little easier, a little more

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supported for the doulas, then it's

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something that they could do even

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with a small young family.

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Thank you for sharing that.

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So how did you get started on, I'm

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guessing, your business with the doula specifically?

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I think I'm tenacious and resourceful.

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And that tenacity and ability to reach out with the community,

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when I was involved in birth work that first 12 years,

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I was very well connected with the midwifery atmosphere.

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I lived in Alaska at the time.

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And so it was kind of an extension of what

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I was already doing.

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I knew them well and kind of just

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segued right into birth work.

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When I restarted this time in a new state,

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I'm in the state of Nevada, and having things changed quite

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a bit from when I had done it before,

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a lot of my corporate work for about 10 years

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when I went back to work in the corporate world

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and gave up birth work, a lot of those skills

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were super helpful for me moving forward.

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I think first, I have an entrepreneurial spirit.

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I want to do my own thing.

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And that's really helpful because I

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don't treat this like a hobby.

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I treat it like a business.

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And then I took any of the skills

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I had built as a stay-at-home mom, in my past work

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with doula work, and also in what I wanted now

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and how my life had changed.

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I did a lot of community outreach.

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I knew the areas that I wanted to work with.

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I feel like determining what's your niche,

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creating a USP, really working on community outreach

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and really diving into where are these people, who are they,

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where are they, and how can you connect with them.

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And so I just literally, to get started,

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I jumped in deep end all the way with tenacity

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and really just using all the skills

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that I had from my life up to that point.

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Thank you for sharing that.

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And how long have you been in the space now?

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Three years this time around, over 15 years in total.

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That's awesome.

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That's amazing.

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That goes to my next question for you, Jennifer.

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What is your goal for being on the show?

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Encouragement, I think.

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There doesn't have to be anything super rock star

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special about who you are and what your skills are.

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There are people out there that want to connect with you.

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Your story is valid and important.

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Who you are, what you have to offer, all of those things

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are important.

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If I could just encourage, especially

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women with younger families, to do what they want to do,

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to live their life in passion.

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And to figure out a way that they can make that work,

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even with a young family.

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That was something that was challenging for me

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to balance in the first round of birth work

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when I did it for 12 years.

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I think I had great support in my family

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and outside of myself, in my community at the time.

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And then now I knew that that was something

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that I really needed to build and develop.

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And I just want to encourage women out there

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who are really excited about starting a business similar

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to this, that there are ways that they can do it

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and be supported.

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Thank you for being here today.

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I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.

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I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions

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as these episodes continue to move forward.

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This is going to get more and more fun.

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We'll have more and more engagement as well.

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We'll invite people to participate in the show.

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And thank you for giving us your time and attention.

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Have an excellent time building out your vision

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and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.