The drive: what challenges have you overcome?
For me, the biggest challenges have come around being visible. I am an introvert by nature, so the world of social media has made me grow to be comfortable with posting pictures of myself, and letting my voice be heard. I feel that I have an important message to share with women, and being comfortable to put these messages into a public space has been a steep learning curve.
Another challenge has been distilling what I want to offer to women into the four pillars of B4 Motherhood. Birth, babies, breastfeeding and biomes are the four banners under which I offer my services.
I could talk all day about the importance of each of these banners for mothers and babies, and the early parenting period known as the fourth trimester. Creating frameworks to open doors for discussion about what each individual woman needs as she passes through the door to motherhood was the inspiration for my identification as a threshold companion.
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
One of the great pros of running my own business is the capacity it gives me to meet each woman at the point she herself is at. In my business, I don’t have to meet specific antenatal schedules and tick off boxes about what information/assessments have been attended. Running my own business gives me much more freedom to practise in a very woman-centred way, meeting each woman’s specific need as she brings it up in consultations.
I love that my business creates a sacred space for women to talk about their birth experiences, and the impact it has for them individually. I feel this is an underserved part of the maternity structures in our culture, and I feel very drawn to meet this need for women.
The cons of running my own business are that I have to grow my courage muscles and be visible in order to be found by women who would seek my services.
The pathway to mainstream maternity services is very well paved, whereas finding small, alternative service providers takes an adventurer’s heart. Learning how to shine a light on the care I offer women, so they know I’m here, has taken some mind shifts in myself.
Never compromising my authenticity has been a key part of being visible. What you see is what you get with me. No filters or photo shopped professional images. Just pictures of my life from my camera roll. I believe the importance of birth journeys demands authenticity.
There’s also always the self doubt and the mind monkeys that chatter, that no doubt every person setting out in their own business deals with in one way or another.
Being OK that sometimes there will be very little response to some of my social media posts, or that what I say may not resonate with all readers is something I’m learning to not take personally. I’m getting comfortable with the lesson that being in business for yourself is a continual journey of self development.
Hopes and dreams: What next?
In my biggest dream scenario I would like to write a book about empowered birth one day, and one about supporting the infant microbiome.
I’m continuing to build my blog content to be an accessible resource for women.
I have plans to provide an online antenatal class about the infant microbiome.
I am an accredited Microbirth(™) educator and have access to great learning resources for parents, so would love to hear from any interested people.
Some market research about the preferred formats that most women/couples like to access information and services about pregnancy, birth and early parenting from is on my list of things to undertake. Perhaps a podcast, if that is something that appeals to women, could be investigated to provide.
But for now, my hopes and dreams revolve around supporting every woman I have contact with to have a beautiful birth on her own terms.
Visit the B4 Motherhood website to find out more about the wonderful services Lyn offers.
