Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
The amazing thing about my business is that (aside from birth which can happen at any time) I can work it around my family – I can schedule appointments and classes at times that are more suitable and fit in with my husband’s work and our children’s care arrangements. And in a lot of ways they feed into each other. The things I learn from my experience as a mum and with my children feed into my work and vice versa.
The drive: What challenges have you overcome?
There are a lot of birth workers and childbirth education program offers around me so I guess in some ways it’s a competitive market, but that being said, there are also a lot of pregnant and expecting parents so there is plenty of work to go around. I really believe in building a village, so I am more than happy to recommend and support other businesses that offer something similar to what I do and I hope they can do the same. The other main challenge which I think I’m still working on overcoming is building my brand and getting my name out there more.
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
The pros are that I’m my own boss, I can be flexible and work around my own family and other commitments, I get to do something I LOVE each day, I am surrounded by amazing people, I am constantly learning, and I get to bear witness to one of the most amazing things Mother Nature has done – pregnancy and birth.
The cons are that it can be tricky to balance it all, there’s no fall back, so if I can’t work, no one else can really step in. I also have to do a lot of the ‘boring’ stuff myself and there are no colleagues which I do miss a little.
Hopes and dreams: What next?
My ultimate dream for Bumps, Birth and Beyond is to bring a range of services and offers together under one ‘roof’ so to speak. I would love to work with other practitioners and businesses who are offering various aspects of pregnancy, birth and parenting support and bring it together in one place so that the parents we help have a ‘one stop shop’.
Visit the Bumps, Birth and Beyond website to check out the supportive services Fiona offers, and join her communities on Facebook and Instagram.
