Spotlight Series
Guest Name: Dani Reed
Credentials: Doula & Aspiring Midwife – Mind Over Maternity
Dani Reed: awesome so I had never heard of a doula before I always knew I wanted to be a midwife I love Women’s Health I love pregnancy then the miracle that it is I love you know the incredible things that that bodies are capable of doing and I I always knew I wanted to be a midwife um but a friend of mine kind of tipped me off to the idea she said you know you’re not going to be done with school in time to be my Midwife how you be my Doula and I was like who the heck is a doula so I looked it up and and I found out I found a training nearby and I took it and I just fell in love with Doula work I just love the opportunity to serve women and to support them and to provide education for them so that they can make informed choices and this has kind of been a stepping stone for me toward my Midwifery journey and it has really opened my mind my eyes to the different options that are out there that are very viable for a lot of birthing families
Dr. Betty DeLass: amazing amazing okay big question here what makes you different
Dani Reed: h i I feel like I have a very academic approach um when I have a client I always take the approach that there’s something new to be learned at every birth and so I’m always learning I’m always researching always studying and I I actually really like the more medically complex births because it gives me more things to learn and more ways to serve my clients I feel like clients who have complex medical needs can come to me for support and I know you know the different things that that entails in their care and different options they’re going to have um and just how their care is going to look different as they give birth and I can find different ways to support them and I love doing that
Dr. Betty DeLass: I love that love that okay great who is an ideal fit for you
Dani Reed: an ideal fit for me is probably anybody who wants to be empowered about their body someone who wants to know who asks a lot of questions who wants to learn um and who is just really interested in diving in and understanding all their options about birth and how their body works and all that um sometimes when I have clients who are not as interested in in understanding those things it’s a little harder for me to support them because I want to inform and I want to have those conversations and everything but most of my clients have been that way and I love it so much
Dr. Betty DeLass: that’s amazing amazing okay what does the process look like to work with you
Dani Reed: so what I’m hired um nowadays I don’t take as many birth clients but when I am hired usually um people hear about me through word of mouth or online on Facebook or Instagram and so they’ll reach out to me and they’ll say hey I’m interested in your support and we’ll look at the calendar and see what I’ve got available and if I’m available then we have a consultation usually in person um where we’ll sit down and I’ll ask them about their goals about their preferences about what’s important to them what support looks like to them for this birth um and I get a really good feel for for who they are and hopefully they get a good feel for who I am and we mutually decide if we’re a good fit for each other um I want them to feel comfortable with me but I also want to feel comfortable supporting them um and then once we both decided it’s a good fit I ask for a deposit they sign a contract and then from there I provide support whenever they need it um they always are welcome to email or text me um call me and then I usually go on call about 37 weeks unless they’re showing any signs of pre-term labor and um I put them on I I bypass them I do not disturb for them so they can call me anytime night or day and I’m there for them and I can come help them labor in their home I can go with them to the birth center or the hospital and I stay with her continuously until they have their baby and a little bit after that too I help them breastfeed I help them get cleaned up they to the toilet and help them get all tucked into bed once everybody’s all tucked in and clean and ready to sleep that’s when I go home
Dr. Betty DeLass: amazing amazing amazing okay I love asking um this next question to all of our interviewees but what does recovery look like in the sense of like that transition from pregnancy to postpartum what what is from from your lens what’s recovery
Dani Reed: that’s a great question I feel like recovery is Wellness I think sometimes we expect our bodies to be exactly the same as they were before birth and the truth of the matter is birth changes Us in so many amazing ways um so to me it’s finding a different definition of Wellness but you still it’s a mind and a body and a spirit that feels intact and I feel like when you get to that point postpartum where you feel good in your mind like you feel like you have good healthy thoughts and your body’s functioning at a high level you know and your spirit feels peaceful and calm I feel like that’s that’s the goal that’s you know what what recovery looks like to me
Dr. Betty DeLass: amazing amazing what a great answer I’m like wow um okay next question is what’s something that most people don’t know that you think they should know either about the services you provide or birth in general or it could be anything of like what’s something that like people should just know that they don’t really know about
Dani Reed: one thing that comes to mind is that that and this is my my Doula motto you always always always have options and I I wish that people knew that more often and there’s a saying in the Birth Community if you don’t know your options you have none and I find that so true that that if you don’t ask the questions and if you don’t um start those conversations especially during labor um those options are not always readily provided to you um and so asking questions you know even things like is there another way that we could do this or can we do this later or you know what’s an alternative that might have the same effect you know asking those questions really opens up a dialogue to say oh well actually you know we do have other ways to do this or no actually you don’t really have to do this it’s just our you know protocols what we normally do you know but but the more you ask questions and the more that you have those conversations the more options open up to you and and I find that when you’re more involved in your care like that um you have a more positive experience
Dr. Betty DeLass: love that love that okay next question is there anything that you would like to promote to the audience whoever is listening to this of like anything regarding your services or anything like that
Dani Reed: um I guess I just want to say that that doulas are for everyone I think there the social idea that doulas are for like home births or for unmedicated births specifically and while they’re extremely valuable in that setting I find that most of my clients are in hospitals um and a lot of them are receiving epidural some of them are having C-sections you know and they’re are always ways to support a person and there are always benefits to having a support of a doula and so if you are looking for a doula or considering a doua but you think oh maybe I don’t really need one or or I can’t afford one or like I don’t really know what the benefits are like go ask one like just set up a console an interview and just say like what can you provide for me how can you support me you know what does that look like um and often you might be surprised to find like all of the amazing things that adulla can do for you
Dr. Betty DeLass: definitely awesome awesome okay last qu major question here and probably my favorite I know a lot of these are my favorite but this one for sure is my favorite is what is the main thing that you want to be known for
Dani Reed: I want to be known for Bridging the Gap and by the Gap I mean I feel like there’s there are two models of care and two kind of main camps of thinking in the birth world and on the one end of the spectrum you have a highly medicalized highly um interventionalist birth and on the other hand you have the like more hands-off unmedicated type of modality and and to me there is value in both sides there’s so much value and so much truth that can be found in both ends of the spectrum but to me the ideal is to find the best from both worlds and bring them together to create a whole I think there’s a lot of things that can complement each other in both sides and I think when you bring them together you offer these modern medicine resources and you offer the wisdom and experience from Millennia when you pull those things together I feel like it creates truly holistic comprehensive care and so I would love someday to be known as that Midwife that provider that can provide the Best of Both Worlds that can show respect and appreciation and and can utilize all of the good things that the both ends of the spectrum have to offer
Dr. Betty DeLass: yay beautiful beautiful couldn’t have said it better myself amazing okay where can we find you Dani where are you online where is your we do you have a website do you have an email like how do people get in touch with you or or learn more about you
Dani Reed: yes so my business is called Mind Over Maternity and you can find me on mindovermaternity.com I’m also on Facebook by that same name and on Instagram under Mind Over Maternity Doula or birth doula I can’t remember don’t use Instagram a whole lot to be honest but um but yeah and my email is also [mindovermaternity@gmail.com](mailto:mindovermaternity@gmail.com)
Dr. Betty DeLass: amazing well thank you so much Dani for coming on it just a pleasure um having you here and we’ll look forward to seeing you as a midwife soon
Dani Reed: yes thanks for having me