We were lucky to catch up with Kristin Revere recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kristin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

We pivoted from in-person classes to virtual classes during the pandemic, taking a risk by investing both time and resources into launching an online birth and baby course called Becoming a Mother. We held three live launches and gathered feedback from students before releasing the final version of the course. That course later became our book, “Supported: Your Guide to Birth and Baby.” Creating the course and then the book allowed us to grow beyond West Michigan and reach a much larger audience.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I became a doula after having children later in life, and that experience shaped the work I do today. My passion for women’s health grew after my own pregnancy complications, including preeclampsia and navigating a NICU stay with my daughter. I started teaching childbirth classes after my son was born, and my students wanted me to be their doula. I decided to go to Florida to get trained and fell in love with the work after taking on my first doula client.

My work began in a doula collective and evolved into my own practice. In response to growing demand from families seeking support, I co-founded Gold Coast Doulas in 2015 with my former business partner to more fully serve the West Michigan community

Gold Coast Doulas offers birth and postpartum doula care, overnight newborn support, childbirth and early parenting classes, lactation support, sleep consulting, and baby registry consultations. We also offer virtual services and partner with employers to provide postpartum support as a workplace benefit, which has been an important way to expand access to care.

We have an experienced team of 25 doulas and educators. We recently celebrated our tenth anniversary, which felt especially meaningful given how much the business has grown and evolved over the years. Education and collaboration are core to our work, and we are always adapting to meet the needs of the families we serve.

In addition to the agency, I co-host the Ask the Doulas podcast. Our podcast has over 325 episodes and is in the Top 5% of podcasts worldwide. We released our award-winning book, “Supported: Your Guide to Birth and Baby,” in 2024 through Praeclarus Press.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

I am an overachiever with more birth and baby certifications than I can list, but I am successful in this field because I possess both empathy and drive. I wake up every morning, and I feel thankful to be able to support families in this way with a team that truly cares.

We are not meant to do this alone. Pregnancy, birth, and the postnatal phase can be beautiful, overwhelming, and exhausting all at once, and having the right support makes a difference. We exist to help families feel supported and confident.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When I was a new birth doula, I used to track my clients’ interventions and felt like I failed them if the birth didn’t go the way they envisioned. I felt personally responsible as if I failed them. I later took a different birth doula training and was taught that my role is to support families with information, emotional support, and physical support, not to save them from interventions. That mindset shift made me a better doula and mentor to other doulas in my agency.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.goldcoastdoulas.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goldcoastdoulas
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goldcoastdoulas
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristin-revere-b44308/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@goldcoastdoulasllc2304
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/gold-coast-doulas-grand-rapids
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/askthedoulas
• Other:  https://www.askthedoulas.com, https://www.supportedbook.com/, https://www.thebecomingcourse.com/join/

Image Credits

Bird + Bird Studio and Oliviara MultiMedia