The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
Every time someone has shared their “SoundBirth” experience with me, whether that was a woman in labour, the birth worker or partner supporting her, I have been reminded of how unique this offering really is. Sometimes when you are so close to home with your business, it is difficult to see that what you are doing really is helping people! These stories have therefore always kept me going, even when I felt that my business wasn’t moving forward.
A few years after I launched SoundBirth, I also realised that I didn’t have to just focus on birth. So I branched out into facilitating sound journeys at yoga centres and special events, and later training others to do the same. I could also see how much people were falling in love with sound and wanting to learn more about how they could use it in their everyday lives to help manage everyday stress. I have therefore facilitated many workshops and written online courses to give people more ideas on how they could integrate simple sound tools such as humming to bring more calm and connection into their personal and professional lives.
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
I have always homeschooled my 4 daughters and been passionate about natural learning, and there was no way that I was going to give that up in order to run my new business. I had to find a way! So I happily paid babysitters, au pairs and cleaners so I could do BOTH. I also learnt that the way to “juggle” is to hold an intention for what you’d like to get done that day or week even and then let it go, trusting that there will be time amongst the kids to get the job done.
I also learnt that when it comes to homeschooling and parenting, the more I let go and surrendered to what the kids were interested in at the time…even if it was playing with Barbies for days and days… or Minecraft for weeks on end, the better it worked than trying to control everyone and everything.
Looking back now, I can see that what I did was snatch up any moment I could to work on my business. I was proactive about finding babysitters and going out on the weekends to a cafe to work on my laptop in peace while my husband looked after the kids. I knew in my body that I had to make time for my other “baby”, “SoundBirth” because it nurtured and made me feel on purpose and excited about life in return.
The drive: What challenges have you overcome?
I think the biggest challenge has been trying to find ways to educate people about the benefits of using sound at birth. Because I was brought up with home birthing (my sister was born at home) and natural everything, I naively believed that more people would be interested in what I was offering. But what I found instead was that most people didn’t even know how important it was to have a natural birth or know about the benefits of toning and sound healing.
The other challenge has been navigating people’s negative self-talk about their voice. SoundBirth‘s tagline used to be “Sing Your Baby to You” and people would often say to me, “I can’t sing” or “I wouldn’t want to scare my baby” or” I’m not musical” and then think that SoundBirth wasn’t for them. But really it is exactly what they needed because if a woman doesn’t feel confident using their voice then those issues tend to arise during labour when they are feeling most vulnerable, preventing them from vocalising then missing out on all of the benefits gained when using their voice.
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
Having my own business has meant I can do what I love using the skills I have and share them with people who are interested in learning from me during the times that suit me! I love the freedom of this. I love doing what I love. I love sharing with those who want to listen and experience sound. I feel my work is an authentic expression of me and I can’t imagine wanting to do anything else with my time and energy.
The cons are that I never really know how much money I will make each week… it’s all on me… I have to find the customers, do the training, pay the bills, do the book work, come up with new ideas… IT’S ALL ON ME! The responsibility is pretty huge. BUT the drive to share what I love to those who are interested in my SoundBirth work always wins!
Hopes and dreams: What next?
My next steps are to be offering online courses that are short, affordable and educational so that more and more people can learn how to integrate sound into their lives to help manage stress and to feel connected!
My dream is that SoundBirth is used at home births, birthing centres and hospitals throughout Australia and New Zealand and around the world, so that more women gain the benefits of having a bowl at their birth, more partners feel connected to the birth process by playing the bowl and more babies are born gently into the world.
Visit the SoundBirth website to find out more, and join their communities on Facebook and Instagram.
