Spotlight Series
Guest Name: Ashley Brichter
Credentials: Founder & CEO of Birth Smarter
Ashley Brichter: yeah great question thank you for having me um I have always wanted to be a teacher I’ve always known that so I think you know the first documented footage is when I was 3 years old and I learned how to hold a book like face out like the teachers where you could like read it from the side um and so I told everybody at free when I learned how to do that with books that I was going to be a teacher and then I think as soon as I was six and a half and my youngest cousin was born and I could like babysit for them and help my aunt I was like in the world um I always showed up more for my aunts and like for the moms where I was being a mother’s helper like almost as much if not more right than hanging out with the little kids um so I was very interested in parenting and like what what that was like and then when my parents split up when I was about seven I remember pretty explicitly like thinking about them you know and that’s not something that every young person does but I was like thinking about my mom and like what she had to do now that she was alone a lot or thinking about my dad and so I’ve loved the field of parenting and early childhood development forever um I went to school for education and got my certification to teach secondary Social Studies um but I knew that I didn’t want to be in the classroom like I kept not finding the right fit I was in preschools I worked in Middle Schools I worked in high schools in Philly and I just I don’t know like it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing and so I decided to spend a little time not in the classroom and in that year um I started my first LLC and somebody asked me if I was a postpartum doula and I was like what is a postpartum doula and they were like well you go help people with their new babies and I was like well that sounds great and you charge more than being a babysitter um so I fell into it sort of accidentally I in about 18 months collected a postpartum doula a birth doula lactation counselor and then a child birth Education certification and once I realized I could teach classes and really go after the one to many model I was I was sold on staying in this field and using my love of curriculum and pedagogy and and thinking and learning but doing it on the parenting side and not on the student side
Dr. Betty DeLass: love that love that story okay next question that I have for you is what makes you different
Ashley Brichter: uh um I think that there are a lot of people obviously who want to support parents and every single one of them has just like the most amazing intentions um I think that one of the things that makes us different is that a lot of people say there’s no one right way to give birth there’s no one right way to have a baby or raise that baby but they don’t totally believe it um um and I do um honestly like it comes down to that there’s I found that I I had done all of this work before I had kids and um when I gave birth in 2014 and my birth didn’t go as planned I felt like it was my fault and I felt like the people around me felt like it was my fault you know like if I had I could have I should have done X Y or z um and I needed to know postpartum that deeply like I had done everything I could have and honestly what it what it is that we look at at Birth Smarter is we call it the Birth Smarter framework and so it’s going to be an overlap of three different um elements of what you’re using in your thinking so we’re always looking at the physiological process that’s where we get to geek out together right how is the body built how are the what is the what are like the hormonal feedback loops like as it relates to birth or breastfeeding or whatever um that’s driving how this should go optimally but that’s not enough to make a decision so then we look at the societal context and we’re bringing you know to make it really short we’re basically bringing racism sexism and capitalism into every conversation about birth and parenting um because where you’re giving birth and you know the fact that folks are giving birth in 2024 or 2025 eventually in the United States is really meaningful and to some extent our hands are tied behind our back because of the system we’re operating in um and then the third element we’re looking at is a personal circumstance so the reality that like I am different than my sister than my best friend than my colleague and when you weigh all three of those together you’re going to make different choices you’re going to have different outcomes and that that’s your story
Dr. Betty DeLass: very good very good love that okay who is an ideal fit for you and your company
Ashley Brichter: yeah so at Birth Smarter we love when we teach sort of open-minded and curious expectant parents and it could be your first baby your second baby your third baby it doesn’t matter but if you want if you feel like you know everything and you’re taking a birth class to check a box you’re probably not a good fit for Birth Smarter um if you are coming in because your sister told you to take a class like you might not be the best fit we really want people who are like huh this is interesting tell me about having babies tell me about my body what do I need to know and we’re so happy to dialogue and engage but we want people who are curious and like learning they are like coming because they want to grow through the experience of preparing for birth and and baby life
Dr. Betty DeLass: love that love that too okay my next question for you is what does the process look like to work with you in your company like is it all online is it in person like give us the gamut of like how can someone come work with you
Ashley Brichter: yeah so Birth Smarter has a really specific Niche and we offer child birth education classes for folks in their third trimester we offer those classes in Salt Lake City we offer them online like on Zoom you can come and interact with me and I’ll answer all your questions right or we offer pre-recorded video and we do that to meet people where they are like we’re trying to be the most accessible child birth education company out there and some people want to sit on their sofas and watch videos at 2 in the afternoon and some people want to sit on their sofas and watch you know engage with us and they need the accountability of like a live person in order to come take it and some people deeply want to be in person so um we we make it really easy the Birth Smarter website has all of our classes l in all of the locations you go on you pick your class you put your credit card information in or HSA card um if you want to do that route we can give a receipt you could submit to Insurance um yeah it’s pretty straightforward
Dr. Betty DeLass: awesome awesome great and then from your your lens with your company what does recovery look like for postpartum do you go into that do you do do you offer classes around that like what does that recovery process from the pregnancy to transition to postpartum look like
Ashley Brichter: yeah I mean postpartum is forever we really believe that um and uh so you know we’re definitely not about like a bounce back culture that there’s a recovery and then you’re like good to go because you’re not just recovering from the birth you’re recovering from pregnancy you’re recovering from your conception story like you know for some people that it’s a really long road to get to get to this birth um and then we also know that with the demands of parenting and what that does to your relationship and your mental health it’s ongoing so we um we have a phrase that we like to use called the pregnant opportunity and in every part of our curriculum in child birth ad and newborn care um it’s never just about the task at hand right like we’re never teaching about should I get an epidural or should I not get an epidural because the epidural matters that much it doesn’t but when we’re teaching about the epidural we’re teaching how do you make decisions medical decisions when things are complicated and how can you carry that into going to talk to your pediatrician when your baby has their first cold right so it’s like we’re always trying to find the through line between what we’re learning in birth preparation and the the lessons and like the continued opportunity to grow as an advocate as a partner as a parent as an employee you know as a boss whatever however else you identify um we do have a specific class called postpartum planning that is for people to take in their third trimester we want every single human to take that class if they’re expecting a baby you know between ideally 26 and 36 weeks the earlier the better and that postpartum planning class has nothing to do with your baby that is an entire class dedicated to what happens to your body what happens to your mental health what happens to your house what happens to your relationship right what are the common expectations and how can you preempt and sort of like frontload the transition to make it gentler so we talk a lot about fair play and domestic equity and being intentional with who’s doing what we obviously talk a lot about pelvic Health recovery and we encourage everybody to go see you know a a pelvic floor specialist um we talk a lot about couples counseling and communication skills how you can bring helpers in so we’re very very forward thinking
Dr. Betty DeLass: love that love that I think everyone should be that way right okay next question what is something that most people don’t know that you think they should know about your services
Ashley Brichter: oh about our services specifically I think a lot of people don’t know that Birth Smarter offers an alternative pricing program um so essentially this is like if you don’t have an HSA or FSA account um and if for some reason your insurance company is not going to reimburse you for child birth education essentially every product every class we have works on a sliding scale basis so there’s pay what you can pricing or pay it forward um and there’s a form to fill out online we have a a pretty clear framework that people can go read um on the alternative pricing page that breaks down when you should maybe pay 100% versus 75% versus 50% our minimums for online classes are $10 for a class so we work very hard to not turn anybody away and we would rather they come take our class for 10 bucks then watch videos on YouTube and not get the context that they need to make really important decisions
Dr. Betty DeLass: absolutely absolutely I think that’s so valuable okay um do you have anything special that you want to promote or tell about your services and things like that for whoever’s watching
Ashley Brichter: yeah I think I mean you know what we say is like Birth Smarter are classes that are super worth taking so I the only new thing we’ve got going on is a um CPR class which is a really nice add-on for everybody so instead of just or like in addition to coming to us for regular child birth Ed now if you want to learn or have a Refresh on infant and child CPR you can come do that it’s on demand it’s an hour it’s it’s really really fun it comes with a great workbook um and you can go back and play those videos over and over again until you feel like you’ve mastered it um so that’s new and then because I know you have a great professional Community also I will just say that um we are reoffering our class for professionals called Birth Smarter Pro um and our 2025 teacher training program applications open in November for anybody who might want to become a Birth Smarter child birth educator
Dr. Betty DeLass: amazing wonderful thanks for sharing that okay um what is the main thing that you want to be known for
Ashley Brichter: yeah we want to be known for offering the most non-judgmental unbiased and inclusive child birth education in the United States and all around the United States
Dr. Betty DeLass: love that hey and then where can we find you this is the last question where can we find you website wise social media things like that
Ashley Brichter: we are at Birth Smarter everywhere birthsmarter.com Birth Smarter on Instagram I am [ashley@birthsmarter.com](mailto:ashley@birthsmarter.com) or [info@birthsmarter.com](mailto:info@birthsmarter.com) we’re pretty ridiculously easy to find on the internet
Dr. Betty DeLass: perfect wonderful well thank you so much for your time today Ashley I really enjoyed this time diving deep on some of those topics and um thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us
Ashley Brichter: thanks for having me