Today we’d like to introduce you to Beth Hardy.
Hi Beth, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up in a small town in Colorado, and have been fascinated by birth for as long as I can remember. Since I was about six years old, I knew that I wanted to somehow be part of the birth world. This led me to pursue doula training whenever and wherever I could, and I began attending births in 2011. I moved to Utah in 2015, where I launched Heart Tones Birth Services.
I have had two birth experiences of my own that took quite a few twists and turns. While I’d hoped to have two home births, both my births ended up including hospital transfers, epidurals, Pitocin, one c-section, and one VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). Having two births that didn’t go “as planned” gave me so much more understanding and empathy about the birth experiences of my clients.
In the past two years, Heart Tones Birth has grown from a solo practice into a thriving agency with 4 doulas to serve clients all over Salt Lake. In addition to our regular doula services, we’re thrilled to be able to offer several scholarships a year for clients who would benefit from a doula at their birth but can’t afford one. We have also expanded into not only birth doula services but postpartum services, birth photography + videography, prenatal massage, and childbirth education, as well.
I can’t wait to see what 2022 brings and how much we’ll continue to grow!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Two of the biggest struggles of doula work are the on-call lifestyle and the unpredictable hours. Birth doulas are on call for our clients starting when they are 38 weeks pregnant, up until they have their baby (which could be as late as 42 weeks, so possibly a whole month). Being on call means that we are ready to drop whatever we’re doing and be with our clients whenever they need us, day or night. Most births begin sometime in the middle of the night so we’re very used to being up at all hours to support our clients.
Once we meet our clients at their preferred location (either at home if they want to labor there for a while, or at the hospital or birth center) we remain with them through their entire labor and up to a few hours after. Most first-time parents labor for 24+ hours, so we can be with clients for quite a long time.
Running a doula agency has the huge benefit of having its own built-in backup system. So if one of our doulas is sick, has a family emergency, or is supporting another client in labor, we have several other doulas who can back them up so our clients are never without a skilled doula ready to support them.
As you know, we’re big fans of Heart Tones Birth Services. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Heart Tones Birth Services is a doula agency serving Salt Lake City. Our passion is helping expecting parents find their strength, power, and voice so they can rock their birth. We love working with all families, but we particularly specialize in supporting LGBTQ+ birthing people. We are a queer-woman-owned business, and we see the need for knowledgeable, supportive, understanding, and compassionate doulas in the birth space, especially for clients who have been historically marginalized within our health care system.
As doulas, we are hired by birthing families directly and we don’t work for anyone hospital or birth center. Because of that, 100% of our commitment and focus is on helping our clients have an empowered birth experience, no matter what their birth looks like. We meet with our clients several times in the months leading up to their birth to help them prepare, practice labor coping techniques, process their fears, and understand all their options during labor and birth.
Some people may assume that doulas are only for people who want to have a certain “type” of birth, perhaps unmedicated or out-of-hospital. However, we support all types of births and most of our clients choose to birth in a hospital and use epidural pain relief. We aren’t there to sway our clients into choosing a particular path for their birth; we’re there to make sure they know what all their choices are and can make those choices from a place of empowerment and confidence.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk-taking?
I think that launching Heart Tones Birth Services was, in itself, a risk. Heart Tones is a queer-woman-owned business that relies greatly on word of mouth for referrals, and our clientele isn’t exactly steady. Some months we’ll be supporting 4+ birthing folks, and other months we’ll just have one or two.
I feel that Heart Tones is on a precipice of growth and we’re about to launch into a bigger, better, and busier version of ourselves. With that growth comes quite a bit of fear, a LOT of unknowns, and also some excitement. Our goal for 2022 is to take what we’re doing and ramp it up, getting more well-known to birth people in Salt Lake City, and is the go-to agency for fabulous doula support.
Contact Info:
- Email: hearttonesbirth@gmail.com
- Website: www.hearttonesbirth.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hearttonesbirth/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeartTonesBirth/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3WTbdfY_iga-a2brg8PoFw
Image Credits
Salt City Birth + Newborn Photography, Day One Films, Brooke Johnson Photo
