Spotlight Series

Guest Name: Beth Hardy

Credentials: Owner & Doula

Beth Hardy: Me too. Thanks.

Dr. Betty DeLass: Awesome. Okay. Beth is a has been a doula for 15 years and has grown Heart Tones Birth Services into one of the best known and most trusted doula businesses in Salt Lake City. Beth and her team of 15 birth and postpartum doula specialize in serving the LGBTQ plus community and also offer scholarships and sliding scale options to clients who want to to want a doula but can’t afford one. At Heart Tones Birth Services uh they hold space for every birth everybody providing unbiased inclusive care for a full spectrum of families. Amazing. Thanks for being on here today Beth and um take the show here. Tell us what made you decide to be a doula in the first place.

Beth Hardy: Yeah, I have been obsessed with birth since I was like six years old. And I my mom was kind of a hippie and had a bunch of birth books on our shelves that were by Ina May Gaskin, who’s a well-known like farm midwife. Um, and the pictures in the book were just like people giving birth naturally at home. And I was like, “This is fantastic. I don’t even know what this is, but I want to be part of it.” And I eventually like did other work and was, you know, went to college and did other things, but always birth was in the back of my mind. And finally started taking some trainings and kind of dipping my toe in. And then I moved to Salt Lake City in 2015. And that was when I was like, okay, I’m going to just I’m going to dive in. I’m going to try it. I’m going to throw out my my hat into the ring and be a doula and see how I can make this work. And so since then I’ve I’ve been a doula and grown into this new kind of business where I’ve had the last four years which is the agency. So I’m still doing birth and postpartum work but very little. Most of it is the amazing doulas on my team that get to do the work.

Dr. Betty DeLass: Amazing. Amazing. I love that. K. What do you feel like makes you different in the doula services that you provide compared to any other doula agency that’s out there?

Beth Hardy: Yeah. So, I’m really proud that Heart Tones is extremely inclusive of not just like you said in the intro, like LGBTQ folks, but really all family structures and all birth choices. I think that there’s a lot of doulas out there that are also inclusive. So, I don’t think we’re any better, but I just think that we really make a point to work hard to dismantle our own internalized biases and our own kind of preconceived notions about what should happen in a birth or what’s the right choice for someone or what’s the right family structure or whatever it is. um so that we can really step into every single client experience like a clean slate and knowing wanting to know kind of what’s your story, what’s important to your family, what are your values, um and and meet them where they are so that every single family that works with us feels not only like really well taken care of, but very seen for who they actually are. Um and we do specialize in working with queer families for sure. We’re very very confident and knowledgeable in how to support families who are going through the the hospital system, the health care system when they may not feel comfortable in that system or have, you know, previous um experiences that have created some barriers for them and some some anxiety and worry. And so we act as a really great advocate and partner in that experience for them to make sure that the staff in the hospital are well educated, wellversed and knowledgeable in how to support this particular client, this particular family.

Dr. Betty DeLass: Love that. Love that. Okay. What do you Who would be an ideal fit for you? Obviously, you’re very inclusive with everything you do, but like give us your your general synopsis of like who are the group the people that often come to see you and who’s a good fit.

Beth Hardy: Yeah, I have found a very actually very specific people do come to find us which is really cool. I we are in Salt Lake proper. We serve Salt Lake and Park City mostly. We have a lot of clients that find us who are not native to Utah who have moved here from somewhere else who moved here because they are obsessed with the mountains. They love to ski. They love to mountain bike. They love to be outside. They have a dog. like they’re outdoorsy people or and or they work in like Silicon Slopes like tech area, you know, they’re here because of those two things and they love it here, but they also are like, “Hey, my family’s not here. I don’t know anybody like we have a community, but like now we’re having a baby and we don’t have that like builtin family structure here.” And so they’re looking for a doula to help them not only through the birth process, but also postpartum typically in those first days and months and weeks postpartum to to have someone coming in who’s providing continuous care and unbiased support as they navigate new parenthood. Um, so most of our clients are not from here. We have some of course who are, but a lot of them are are are transplants. We also have a lot of clients who find us who are having their babies a little bit later in their life. So maybe, you know, anywhere from mid30s into early 40s is really normal for us to have those kind of clients find us, too. And for some of those clients, it means they’ve gotten pregnant after several years of of trying or or infertility or IUI or IVF. And so they’re coming to us already with like a whole story behind them of like even just getting to this point is a huge marathon. And so we’re meeting them at this interesting midway point of their experience where they already have a lot of medical like stuff and like not necessarily trauma, but just like stress and experiences that we want to help to help them to like start fresh from this moment and say, “Okay, now you’re here. Now, let’s figure out how you want to have your baby and your birth experience while of course incorporating all your history into it and your experiences, but also knowing that this is a fresh experience and this doesn’t have to reflect what’s what’s happened up until this point as well.

Dr. Betty DeLass: Absolutely. Absolutely. Cool. Um, what does the process look like to work with you guys? Like how does someone come into your world and and get your services?

Beth Hardy: Yeah, so most people find us through our website and through like Google and and social media and things like that. Once you come to our website, you’ll see that there’s a contact form on there. And that’s the best and easiest way to kind of get into our system. And right when you submit a contact form, you get an email back from me to schedule a consult. And so every single person who wants to work with us gets to meet with me first for like a 20 to 30 minute zoom. And that’s really a great chance for me to get to know them really well, them to get to know who we are, talk about logistics and pricing and all that kind of stuff. And then I get to matchmake them with a doula on the team who I think would be a wonderful fit for them both personalitywise as well as skill-wise. If they want something very specific with a doula, I match them with that particular person and then they have a consult with that doula as well. So they meet that person, decide if it’s a great fit, if they click, if they connect well and if so then I send them the next steps which is contract and invoice and all that good stuff. And from the minute they hire a doula, they have that person now in their back pocket as their their go-to resource, their go-to besty, you know, birth.

Dr. Betty DeLass: So, you got to put in birth bestie in there. You got to throw in birth birthy.

Beth Hardy: Yeah. Um, and they also have me. Like, the fact that we’re an agency is really nice because our clients not only have their their primary doula who they’ve been matched with, but they have me in the background cheering them on from the sidelines, sending them emails, checking in, and we have this team aspect. And so all the doulas were really communicative as a team and help each other with like new ideas and suggestions and hey did you know that this could happen in a hospital? Hey here’s a suggestion for this certain thing so that all the doulas in the team are really like on the cutting edge of what they know and their skill set. Um so our clients really benefit from that as well.

Dr. Betty DeLass: Love that. Love that. Okay. What’s something that most people know or don’t know that you think that they should know either about doula services, your agency, you like anything, any nugget there?

Beth Hardy: I think almost everyone who comes into contact with us that doesn’t know much about doulas or has a general kind of vague idea assumes that we only support home birth or birth center birth and unmedicated birth only. And that’s almost everyone I talk to is like, “Oh, so like unmedicate, what if I want an epidural? Is that not part of the deal?” And what I want to dismantle is that myth and say probably at least 75% of our clients choose to get epidurals. 90% of our clients are birthing in a hospital. That’s us in particular. I think there are other doulas and other other agencies who kind of cater more towards home birth and birth center birth. And we love that kind of birth, too. But our clients are birthing at a hospital and they want a doula because they want an advocate and they want someone there who they trust and they know in this kind of big system that they’re getting into. And so that’s definitely something that people assume that is totally incorrect when it comes to us.

Dr. Betty DeLass: Yeah, I would agree with that. It’s like wild the things that like people assume with those things. So, thank you for clarifying that. Yeah. Is there anything special that you want to promote to the audience here? Let’s listen.

Beth Hardy: Um, I don’t have anything specific coming up. I mean, I guess one thing is you can find us. I don’t know when you’re going to air this, but at the Climb Out of the Darkness, which is a free postpartum mood support event that’s happening in June. I think it’s the 28th, but I should probably know that date. Um, don’t know exactly, but if you look it up, you can find it. Um, that’s our next kind of thing we’re going to be at with a booth. But other than that, I think just enjoy your summer. Hydrate, eat lots of watermelon, and I can’t wait to have your baby in the fall.

Dr. Betty DeLass: Love that. Love that. Yeah, PSI Utah is a great event to be too. I I think it’s around that same date. I don’t have it memorized either, but we’ll be there as well. So, yeah. Okay. Um, what’s the main thing? This is my my favorite question. What’s the main thing that you want to be known for or your business to be known for?

Beth Hardy: I think personally, I want to be known as a business owner who really cares about my my people that work for me. I want to be known as someone who can like balance business and also just personal connection with people. I think of myself as a connector. Like I love to connect people that I know in my life and say, “Okay, here you guys go. You have now you have a connection. Enjoy.” Like go flourish or whatever. And it’s just something that I just feel so strongly about doing and giving people the resources they need and then stepping back. So I don’t have to be involved in every little thing, but like allowing people to see that there are options and then letting them fly with that option. So that’s important to me. And I think as a company, I just want to be seen as like a doula agency that’s really like real, down to earth, like real people who are, you know, understanding of of our clients experiences.

Dr. Betty DeLass: Amazing. Amazing. Okay, tell us all the places we can find you. Social media, website, location, online. Where where can we find you? and how can we get in touch with you?

Beth Hardy: Yeah, so you can find us at hearttonesbirth.com and on Instagram @hearttonesbirth. Those are the two best places to find us where we’re most active. Um, we also have a Facebook page, but I would say Instagram is the easiest and best place to find us on on social media. We don’t have a brickandmortar location. We work with our clients in their homes and then in their birth locations. So, but we’re based in Salt Lake City. Um, we serve clients all the way up from like Kaysville up north all the way down to Utah County and Park City. So, no matter where you are in kind of the greater Salt Lake area, we probably can work with you. Um, yeah. And then my email is beth@hearttonesbirth.com if you want to email me.

Dr. Betty DeLass: Amazing. Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing all this wonderful stuff with us today. Thank you for all that you’re doing in the Utah community. And as as always, it’s a pleasure hanging out with you and um I’m glad I get to share you with all of our people.

Beth Hardy: Thank you so much, Betty. It was great talking to you.

Dr. Betty DeLass: You, too.