Gold Coast Doulas, a West Michigan-based provider of pregnancy, birth and newborn services, is expanding nationally with new virtual offerings that will refine its knowledge and offerings for the area’s expecting mothers.
The shift in focus was brought on by a realization that with the COVID-19 crisis and safety
protocols, the landscape of pregnancy and birthing has vastly changed. In fact, Kristin Revere, co-owner of Gold Coast Doulas, was in an interview on a live podcast early in the pandemic when the conversation provoked a number of questions in the birth world, and for mothers and families.
There were questions that needed to be answered.
“What I said in that moment was that the experiences your friend had when she was pregnant two years ago were no longer enough in terms of getting the information you need and preparing for birth,” Revere said. “The advice she has to offer about what you’re going through is very limited. From planning a baby shower to where you give birth, it’s all different now.”
“We were overwhelmed,” Revere said, with inquiries from expectant moms and their
caregivers. “There is a lot of fear. They want to stay safe, and we understand how much people need connection during pregnancy, especially now. But when it’s safer for a pregnant woman to isolate, what do you do? We wanted to create this virtual community where women can connect with each other.”
Multimedia expansion in birth work
Gold Coast Doulas is a certified B Corporation run by Revere and co-owner Alyssa Veneklase. In addition to providing judgment-free birth planning and birth doula services, the company offers sleep and lactation consulting, and in-person day and overnight postpartum doula support and infant care.
In the effort to provide ready and efficient resources for West Michigan mothers and families, Gold Coast has developed a robust offering of information on its blog and is 115 episodes deep into the Ask the Doula podcast.
“We’ve been amping that up, and went national to bring in the best resources and experts, so that’s something that we’ve changed during this time, and it’s allowed us to expand what we can do, too, for local clients,” Revere said. “Interviewing nutritionists, fitness coaches, pelvic floor therapists, all of these amazing sources throughout the process of doing this podcast, we’ve really learned in an expansive and organic way what the needs of expecting mothers are from conception through first year.”
‘Becoming’ provides for mothers everywhere
Becoming a Mother is the new six-week online course for mothers and families developed by Gold Coast Doulas.
“‘Becoming’ is the culmination of years in the business, and a real pivot during the COVID crisis to understand the challenges of becoming a mother during this time, and to provide the resources that can best aid in the birth planning and delivery every individual mother wants,” Veneklase said.
Revere teaches the first three weeks of the course on pregnancy planning and childbirth. Veneklase teaches the following three weeks on postpartum planning, caring for a newborn and sleep. And then the conversation continues with experts in the areas of pelvic floor therapy, hypnobirthing, chiropractic and much more.
“Whether it’s the first time or the fourth time expecting for a mom, we’re helping to plan and coaching through the process with instruction relevant to this time from our team, and from professional experts around the country,” Revere said.
With previous experience supporting clients from Massachusetts, to Florida, Hawaii to Washington, Gold Coast Doulas with “Becoming” is an engaged local service and emerging national provider of information and resources on pregnancy, birth planning and infant care.
More info on Gold Coast Doulas can be found at goldcoastdoulas.com. The Becoming Course registration is open until March 25 for the Beta course. Register at: thebecomingcourse.com/join. The Beta course is priced at a reduced rate of $299. Ask the Doulas can be found on Itunes and Soundcloud and all other podcast players. A recent podcast can be found here: goldcoastdoulas.com/nutritious-meals-for-new-moms.
