OUR STORY

Hi, I’m Lizzy – wife to my incredible husband Nate and mama to two beautiful boys, Crew and Sawyer. Nate and I have spent the last few years focused on growing our family which has been both exceptionally beautiful and also held its challenges. With our first son’s birth, Crew, we were faced with a traumatic beginning that left us both drowning while simultaneously grieving what a scary experience we had. I was swallowed up in the enormity of postpartum anxiety and the notion that “thankfully everyone’s safe and healthy now,” completely missed the mark. And while it’s true that we got dealt a more challenging hand, our situation was made worse by a medical system that failed us. Not once, not twice, but repeatedly.

We then entered into the world of infertility and faced heartbreak and grief that we didn’t know existed and my anxiety was at an all-time high. And although we were so fortunate to ultimately end up pregnant again, we then faced another challenging season navigating pregnancy and the fear we now held around birth and postpartum. Fortunately, we were able to connect ourselves to a better support system filled with providers who had sadly seen our situation too many times, but were thankfully well prepared to help us navigate this season in an empowered way. One of these providers is our beloved doula, who truly made a world of difference and helped us begin to heal and rewrite our story as a family.

A doula is a highly trained, non-medical professional who can provide education, physical, and emotional support during pregnancy, birth and postpartum. Their goal is to help a family advocate for what they want and empower them throughout their experience while also providing comfort so they ultimately have a positive experience. Not only did our doula help us achieve our goals during birth, but she walked our journey with us and is one of the biggest reasons we have felt such an improvement in our experience this time as well as in our overall well-being. At every step of the way, she helped us understand our choices, educated us so we could make informed decisions and provided love and support throughout our experience that was in tune with all of my needs as a mom who had a lot to overcome to bring another baby earth side. And thankfully, our postpartum experience the second time has been enormously different. Instead of feeling like I’ve been drowning in postpartum anxiety, I’ve entered into this next chapter with more confidence, joy and light - a hugely positive outcome that continues to benefit our entire family.

Nate and I have spent a lot of time processing the beautiful experience we’ve had with our second son, Sawyer, and now that we have experienced what a huge impact it has made to have the right support, one thing has become extremely evident to us – who you birth with and where you birth, make an enormous difference on the health and well-being of your entire family long after you actually deliver a baby. Unfortunately, doulas aren’t typically covered by insurance and it was a privilege that we were able to hire ours. But to us, a doula is a non-negotiable and something we wish every family could access. Which is why we’re asking for support with “The Gift a Doula Project.” An idea that has been on my heart to help pay the gift of a doula forward to a family like ours who needed support they never got or to help a new family access higher quality care while navigating pregnancy and beyond for the first time.

It truly does take a village to bring life into the world and our families and broader communities all benefit from supporting one another, pouring into one another and lifting each other up. We are endlessly grateful for the love and support our family has received over the last few years as we’ve navigated a challenging season and we appreciate you taking the time to listen to our hearts and consider supporting this life changing opportunity.