We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dana Drissel a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dana, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you share a story about the kindest thing someone has done for you and why it mattered so much or was so meaningful to you?

In 2021, my husband and I welcomed two beautiful twin babies. When Baby A (Senna) came out, she was born crying and healthy. When Baby B (Alessi) was born, we immediately knew that something was wrong. Alessi needed immediate resuscitation and unfortunately, did not survive with all medical efforts from our birthing team. We had in what seemed like seconds, lost the life we thought we were going to have. We lost milestones, birthdays, holidays. We lost a daughter. Our daughters lost a sibling. And Senna lost her twin. We didn’t think that it was possible to continue to survive when a large piece of us had died.

The most remarkable part of our story was a beautiful couple that came alongside myself and my husband. One day, this couple asked if she could visit my husband and I to drop off “some things” and to pray for us. Their definition of “some things” was a huge basket full of money, gift cards, food, blankets, toys for our other children, books about gifts, and most importantly, letters from other couples who had experienced losing a child just like us. The thoughtful gift helped to lift our spirits, aided us in not needing to worry about cooking for a while, and returned some joy back into our lives.

We still have the basket. And the blankets. And the letters. And every once in a while, I read the letters from other parents that lost their children, and I grieve with them while also silently thanking them for making us not feel like we are alone.

Dana, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My journey to my business started out with a rocky beginning but the tough parts are where my faith and endurance was tested the most. When I was 18, I had my first daughter and found myself a single mother. I was determined to still finish my degree and create a life where I was able to mostly stay home with her. I knew how fast the time went, and I didn’t want to miss any part of it. While taking college classes, I started looking for a job where my daughter could come with me. I found early on that hardly any of jobs like that exist. But with prayer, and patience, I finally found a nanny position that paid well, was close by, could work around my college classes, AND allowed me to bring my daughter with me.

This job lasted for six years. And in the midst of these six years, I decided to become a surrogate. In 2018, I delivered surrogate twins. My experience as a surrogate through IVF, infertility medications, endless doctor’s appointments, advocating for the birth that I wanted, really fueled interest into the idea for my business: birth work. After delivery, I pumped breastmilk for the NICU for 2.5 years and learned anything and everything about breastmilk and lactation. The combination of my interest plus naturally expanding what I was already doing, drove me to get certified as a birth and postpartum doula.

As a doula, my main goal is to make parents feel validated in their pregnancy and throughout the postpartum period. I am there to hold space and to listen to concerns. I provide mental, physical, and emotional support from the time of conception until weeks, months, and years postpartum. Birth doulas provide support during pregnancy and non-medical support at the birth. Postpartum doulas provide support in the postpartum period by helping with breastfeeding, newborn care, meal prep, light housework, etc.

After a few years of working with agencies and mentors, I made the bold decision to open my own business as an agency owner. As an agency owner, I now have the responsibility of not only managing my own clients but also managing other doulas who work on my team. I handpicked wonderful women who I trust, and who are experienced in the field to work aside me. And while yes, technically it is my own business, I could never do it without my doulas. What sets our team apart is that most of us are going through motherhood with you, not just next to you. Most of my doulas are mothers with young children, so we fully understand the trenches of postpartum and how to help parents through them. And the best part that sets us aside? We truly love what we do. We don’t feel like we work a day in our lives because the connections we build with our clients surpass what a typical business relationship looks like. Many of our clients become like family to us, and we truly feel blessed to be welcomed into parent’s homes at such a vulnerable time.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

Besides having a legitimate training, the most important thing to succeed in this field is to have a heart for it. You must truly love pregnancy, birth, and postpartum to succeed in this field. If you don’t feel called to the field, it’s easy to get burnout or to treat the position like ‘just another job’. But I would argue that there’s nothing more important than watching and supporting families that just became parents. There’s likely no other job that provides a higher badge of honor.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

When I first started doula work, I hit the ground running right away. I worked many clients at a time, working long hours, and sometimes not having a night off for MONTHS. I did this so I could 1)immerse myself into the field and get as much experience as possible and 2)create a network of referrals for myself. In my mind, the more clients that I connected with, the busier I was, and hopefully, these clients would then refer me to their friends and family.

When clients are happy with your services, they happily refer you to everyone that they know. Clients that were pleased with their services are essentially what built up my reputation and expanded my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.babiesonthemainline.com
• Instagram: @babiesonthemainline