Spotlight Series

Guest Name: Meagan Heaton

Experienced in: Three Different Births Personally

All right, welcome, Megan. Thank you for joining us on the Spotlight Series for the Best in Utah Public Health. I’m really excited to jump in on these questions with you, but before we do that, I’m just going to read your bio here for the audience so they know who you are.

Okay. This is Megan Keaton. She is a wife and mother to three beautiful children.

After having her first two babies via C-section, she felt called to doula work. She has experienced three different births personally, and she feels that each one has morphed her into the person and doula she is today. She has loved helping parents learn their options for birth and want to help them have a memorable experience.

After becoming a doula in 2014, she was drawn to expanding her education options for birth after a cesarean section, and then went on to have a vaginal birth after two C-sections, a VBA2C, and co-founded an education course and podcast called The VBAC Link, which is amazing research, by the way. As your Salt Lake City doula, she will bring her passion, love, education, and commitment to you, your partner, and your baby. She is so excited about the journey that you’re on, and has chosen to work towards helping many more families, such as yourself, in their birthing days.

Thank you so much, Megan, for being on here today. I’m excited to jump in. You hinted at that in your bio, but what got you interested in doula work and got you started right from the get-go?

Yeah, so it’s kind of funny because my dream for a long time was to be a studio, a dance studio owner, and or a labor and delivery nurse.

I always loved babies and just, I don’t know, and then community, right? Just those two things. But it wasn’t until that second birth when I actually had a doula who was the nurse in the beginning, and then she left. And I remember feeling the feelings that she gave.

It was positive. It was uplifting. It was safe.

It was really safe. And then when she left, there was a transition. And the nurse was great.

Don’t get me wrong. She was fine, but it wasn’t the same. The mood shifted.

And I was like, this is amazing. This is amazing. And I did have that repeat cesarean.

And then after, I just started Googling. I couldn’t even, so sad, but I had this brand new newborn. We’re in like the dark, you know, post-operative room.

I’m nursing my baby. And all I can do is Google how to become a doula. And I Googled it and you know, when you like get pulled over or you think you’re going to get pulled over and that energy, that adrenaline like goes through your body.

So, and that’s like negative in that sense, but I had like the positive adrenaline where it just went through my body. And I was like, oh my gosh. And I’m like, seriously, like nursing my baby, like looking at my phone.

And I’m like, I have to do this. This is, this is what I want to do. I never want someone to feel the way I felt with my, with my second.

And it just got to the point where I was like, I kind of felt alone. I didn’t really know what to do. My husband was kind of not really involved in that second part because no one was talking to us.

They were talking at us. And I wished I had someone to just be like, Hey, this is what they’re saying. Here are the pros.

Here are the cons, you know, breaking it down. And so I did, I just right there in the hospital before I left with my second baby registered to become a doula and never looked back. It is just been the most amazing journey, uh, for so many years.

I started in 2014. So 10 years ago. Um, yeah, yeah.

And so, yeah. And I, the, the company’s changed a lot, which we’ll get into a little bit, but yeah, it’s just, it’s been the best job ever. I love loving people and helping them feel educated and supported.

Okay. What do you feel like makes you different? So I want to say what makes us different is our experiences, but I mean, but it’s not to say that other groups aren’t good, right? But we have these, this lump sum of experiences where both personally, and then like as a doula, we’ve supported hundreds and hundreds of births, but we understand so many areas because we’ve personally been there. We’ve been there through, uh, wanting to have a VBAC and going in for a repeat cesarean and the feelings of that, that hurt and that frustration.

And we’ve gone into, what do we do? Our water broke for hours and nothing’s happening, you know, situation failed epidurals or induced or twin births. And we’ve had so many different experiences personally, um, that I feel like it’s, it’s kind of fun because we can bring a lot of our personal experience to the table, but we also don’t let our personal experience impact other people’s experiences. Um, so it’s just kind of like that part where we can relate, but then help people grow and like understand, right.

It’s kind of funny because before I had a vaginal birth, I would have a question about that. Like, what are your experiences, your personal experiences? And I would tell them, they’re like, wait, you haven’t had a vaginal birth. And I’m like, no, like I had, you know, two C-sections at that point.

They’re like, how do you feel qualified to support a vaginal birth? Like I would get questions like that. And it really made me think like, it’s, it’s what’s in here. It’s in my heart.

It’s in my mind, like my knowledge and my heart and my experience that really brings it. And so because we’ve all had that experience and then we’ve seen it, we can just support with so much love. Right.

I love that. That’s awesome. Who would you say would be an ideal fit for you and your company? Yeah.

So I call ourselves the Plato doulas because we can mold right. Every, every person’s birth desires are going to be different. There’s, there’s similarities.

Like I want to leave her at home as long as possible, or I want to go on medicated or I don’t want to go on medicated. There’s similarities along the way, but everybody’s choices are different. And it is not up to us to say how you should birth.

Right. If that’s not, that’s not up to me. And so you tell me what your desires are and we mold around you and support you the way you need to be supported.

So I, it’s not like anyone’s not an, an, an ideal candidate for us. It’s really whoever, because there’s no wrong way to birth. We truly believe that.

And we just want you to feel loved, supported, heard, and in the end, again, have that memorable experience.

That’s awesome. Awesome.

Hey, talk to us about how it, how someone can come to work with you. What’s the process look like?

Yeah, that is such a good question. Um, and a big question and like a main question that people ask.

So upon hire, so we do an interview process and then upon hire, if you wanted to go with us, you felt, you felt like we were a good fit, we would start what we call a lifeline. So it’s a group text between us doulas and you and your partner. And we want this lifeline to be a place where you have questions, concerns, maybe you’ve got some updates to share, or maybe you’re like, guys, I’m having pelvic floor issues, or I’m having, I need a massage or a chiropractor or what I’m realizing that my provider is not as supportive as I thought, do you have recommendations? So we, and I, maybe this goes into like how we’re different too.

We truly believe that we need to know who we’re referring before we refer them. We can’t just take Google reviews personally, even though Google reviews are amazing. And that’s where people usually should go and start, but I want to have seen them, met them, know their journey, know their mission.

And so these people are truly people that we trust to recommend. So it’s that space where you have that lifeline or, hey, this is happening. Should I reach out to my provider? Like, should I be worried about this? So we have that space.

And then we book prenatals through there. And of course, when the baby decides to have a birthday party, we’re texting through there. And so everyone’s in the know.

So it’s like you, you get one doula at your birth, but really you have multiple doulas that are involved and cheering you on and sending you energy. And yeah, so we have that group text and then we do two prenatals, which is pretty standard within the doula community. You know, one visits kind of a getting to know you better, how you learn, how you cope, what are you wanting us to be like in your space? What are your real big, big preferences? Like what’s important to you? How can we help you have the best experience? And then another one is a lot of education and it’s a lot of heavy education in a little short period of time, but you’re not expected to remember it all because you’ve hired a doula and they can help you along the way, but really diving into the education and that education.

There, it’s kind of the same, but all the same times that there’s tweaks, because we might have someone who’s having a scheduled C-section and they don’t need to know the interventions that are coming in for an induction, right? Because they’re scheduling a C-section. Or if we know someone’s going to be induced, we’re going to heavily introduce you to what that looks like. So we really want you to feel prepared.

And then after that, we’re on call and whoever’s fastest and most fresh and available to get to you is who attends your birth. And typically we kind of have that like set person assuming that they are fast and fresh. But the reason why I did that is because for years I would miss spelling bees.

I missed family weddings, family vacations. And that was hard on me. That was really hard on me.

And then I also went to birth like for 52 hours long. Now that’s not a normal birth, but this was a really long birth. And I pulled that by myself and I wasn’t a good doula.

I can’t, I can’t say I was a good doula at that point. I was exhausted. So we want to make sure that you have that team that can come in on those rare occasions where someone’s not available because they still want to have family life balance, but they still want to, you know, so it’s, it works really, really well.

And then, yeah. And then we have a postpartum visit after the birth. Amazing.

Amazing. What a cool model that you have there. That’s awesome.

Okay. Talk to us about that recovery process then from like pregnancy to postpartum, what does the postpartum visit look like for you? How much support do you give after they’ve given birth? Like walk us through that too. And what does recovery mean? Yeah.

So again, everyone’s different. Some people might have the easiest, best recovery ever. Nursing is going really well and they’ve got a crazy amount of family coming in and they’re like, we don’t even need extra visits.

And so we’re checking in on them, but they, they just might want us to send, we send DoorDash gift cards for those people that are like, we have so much help and everything’s going smooth so they can have dinner. But then we have the visits where we go in and we love to do these visits. So we try to go in one to two weeks later, one to two weeks.

One, ideally two if it’s needed is really when hormones are shifting, milk’s coming in, adjustments, all those things. So we want to come in and help you breast feed if you’re wanting to breastfeed or, you know, help do some light cleaning. Like you should be spending time with your baby.

And so should your partner, your partner should not be over there folding the laundry or doing the dishes. Like if we can help during that visit, we want to do that. So we’ve done lighthouse cleaning, like dishes and, and things like that.

There was one year that it was like, I think it’s fall. Do peaches come in fall? When are peach season? When’s peach season? I don’t even, yeah. Spring, fall.

I don’t even know. But whenever it was, they were falling, the peaches. And she had had a cesarean and was like not in a space to pick up peaches.

And so we processed her birth while I picked up peaches, like super random, but that’s, I wanted to do something like that. Or sometimes it’s really processing, diving in deep or coming up with a going back to work plan, or it’s just, it’s different for everybody. But we go in, it’s usually an hour that set visit.

And then we have additional postpartum visits where our postpartum doulas go in and they do a whole lot more than just that one hour basic visit. They can help with sleep training, food, cooking, meal, prepping, holding babies. So you can sleep because sleep is so important, you guys.

Sleep is so important. You can do anything, get sleep after you have a baby. It’s really good for healing, mental, milk supply, all of that.

So yeah, so really it’s different for everyone, but we really want to check in. We don’t want to bug you because we also know that you’re probably being overwhelmed by congratulations. Oh my gosh, I want to come see your baby.

But we really want you to know that we’re in your corner. Yeah. And so if you need anything, we’re there.

Awesome. Awesome. Okay.

One of my favorite questions to ask is what is something that most people don’t know that you think that they should know about your services and what you do or anything birth related?

Ooh, see, this is such a good question. I’m like, what do people, I mean, I really just think doulas in general, like are misunderstood. A lot of people, I mean, still it’s 2024 and people still are like, you deliver babies.

And I’m like, no, no, I don’t do that. I don’t do that. Um, so I don’t know.

I’m trying to think something that people might not know is that we like all of us have so many different certifications and we’re continuing that because we, we find it so important. Birth is changing literally daily. Like something is happening all the time and changing.

And so we’re constantly diving in to new certifications or new trainings. So they might not know that because we’re not like blasting it out there, but that is something that we find very, very important that we do is really finding those new trainings and knowing, knowing what is new in the birth world. Yeah.

I’m a kind of junkie myself along with my team too. We always be learning. There’s always something more to learn.

There’s always something. Yeah.

We never know everything.

We never know. And then of course the common, like we don’t replace your partner. We’re there with your partner.

I think a lot of people definitely don’t know that still about doulas.

No, that’s great. That’s all great stuff.

Okay. Is there anything special that you want to promote to our audience or anything, whoever’s watching this, whether it’s VBAC stuff or do the things or anything up and coming your stage right here?

I know. Yes.

I mean, so the VBAC link, I have a discount code for our parents and doulas birth workers. We have a whole like directory on your website,

On our website for that. Yes.

Yeah. So we, we find that it’s so much like we, one, we know that we’re not the right fit for everyone and that’s okay. And two that we know that it’s impossible for us to help every single person out there.

So we want to, we want to make sure that everybody finds the right VBAC doula. But so they can type in birth 20 and I can get you the link, but it’s at the VBAC link.com and you go under courses, birth 20, it’s 20% off for the parents and for any birth workers who want to join us in our family. And then, yeah, like I don’t really have, we don’t really have any like specials going on with the, with tiny blessings, but we just want you to know that we’re able to like work with you.

If like financially we’re able to work with you. Um, so that’s a big question that a lot of people think to ask, like, how can you work with me? Do you do payment plans and stuff like that? Yeah. Awesome.

Well, thank you so much. Okay. My favorite last question to ask is what is the main thing that you want to be known for?

The main thing that I want to be known for, I think tiny blessings.

I just want people to, to know that like, we’re there for you. And this is our passion. This is truly our passion.

And I really want people to walk away, even if it’s not the exact birth that they wanted, right? Like I want them to walk away from tiny blessings, feeling loved and heard and supported and that they made the right choices for their birth because they had someone in their corner to help them know what their options were. We’re not going to make choices for anyone, but we’re going to let people know what their options are. And so overall, I want to be known for experience, like that they are going to have that experience and they’re going to have that confidence going into their birth because they’re going to feel educated and ready.

Amazing. Okay. Where can we find you? Websites, all the things, social media, all of it.

Yeah. So tinyblessingsduoservices.com. It’s real long. It’s annoying, but that’s just who we are.

tinyblessingsduoservices.com. And then we’re at tinyblessingsduoservices on social media platforms. We’re on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and we’re just kind of getting back into it. There was a while where I was posting all the time and now we’re just getting back into it.

So we’d love and we have a lot of tips on there too that are shared. So you can go in tips for partners, tips for labor, learning how to use peanut balls and labor, all of those things. So really good educational topics on social media.

And then the VBAC link too. Tell us all about that. Yes.

And then the VBAC link, the vbaclink.com. Now VBAC is V-B-A-C. So vaginal birth after cesarean. So the vbaclink.com. And then anywhere you look on podcast platforms, social media, the VBAC link.

And then we actually have a private community that I think is so powerful, not even just for VBAC moms. So I really want to point out to the community here that even if you haven’t had a cesarean, this community is such a great one for you and the podcast, because you’re going to learn all the reasons why cesareans are happening, how to avoid them. Like it’s so powerful.

You guys, these stories of these women all over the world, they’re just incredible. They give me chills. They make me cry.

They give me all the emotions, but they’re educating the community themselves alone too, on top of what we’re doing. So the VBAC link community on Facebook, you can go in there. You do have to answer some questions, but yeah, you get in there.

And then also for mamas who have had cesareans and, or maybe wanted to go for a VBAC, but it ended in a cesarean, we have a private group for that community as well called the CBAC. So cesarean birth after cesarean link community. I love that.

That’s amazing. Yeah. Awesome, Megan.

Thank you so much for coming on the spotlight series. It’s great to chat with you and learn all about your services. And thank you for all that you do in our community here.

Thank you so much. I sure love you.