We were lucky to catch up with Jessica Greene recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jessica, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

I have always wanted to be in the birth world. When I was younger I considered becoming a midwife. Over time life happened, I got married, had kids, and as with most families found myself feeling kind of stuck in the grind. My husband and I both had to work to support our small family, and have insurance. Therefore the dreams of becoming a doula seemed silly and unattainable.
Back in 2013 I was given the opportunity to attend a doula training and it opened a door for me to dream a little, (on the side) while still working full time. In 2014 I officially became a certified doula. This worked for a few years, each year of working as a doula got a little busier.
In 2017 I took the leap and quit my day job and stepped into self-employment life. This was a scary time for us, walking away from steady income into the unknown of not only self employment, but also the unknown of doula work, which in and of itself is a luxury. We did not know if it would work out short term, let alone long term.
Over the next few years I work in the area, growing my reputation, and learning from other long standing doula’s. Today I am certified in birth, postpartum, childbirth education. I specialize in supporting birth center and hospital births, and supporting clients who have a history of trauma and and or high risk births.
I am now a proud independently owned agency owner offering a multitude of doula’s, education and specialized support based on each client and families needs.
Kooshlie Care Doula Services is going strong 10 years later.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Kooshlie Care Doula Services provides birth and postpartum support to clients in the WNC area. I personally specialize in high risk clients, clients with anxiety, and with a history of PTSD or trauma. My company supports families giving birth in WNC and Upstate SC with home, hospital and birth center births.
I provide in person childbirth classes, and host breastfeeding classes, and infant sleep classes. We have partnered with a local IBCLC for the breastfeeding classes, and with a local holistic sleep coach for infant sleep classes. Both of these ladies also provide private support.
I help boost the confidence of the families that I support, both the mother and the father. Because I have worked along side the providers in my area for the last ten years I have been able to build a relationship with each practice that allows me to dig a little deeper when helping clients select their care providers, or when clients need help understanding their care providers. Neither myself, nor any of my doulas speak for our clients, but we do help build a bridge of communication with the whole birth team.
I want my clients to feel supported, and comfortable during their birth and postpartum, as well as confident in their choices as they tackle each one.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media haas been a struggle for me. As an elder millennial/cusp gen X, it does not come easily to me. I can get lost in the doom scroll, but the marketing my business side has taken some time to learn.
I joined a business coaching network, (this is specific to doula work) called My Doula Village. On the beginning of each month we get a calendar of IG/Social Prompts. This has taken the ‘thinking’ out of what to post and boiled it down to doing the suggested thing.
Join up with a local colab group, and or a working group to hold you accountable to use the socials for marketing.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

In the business that I am, I work directly with clients during the most sacred moments of their families. I CANNOT go if I am sick. Earlier this year I was sick a lot!! There were times that it was hard, because being sick in this work means that I have to pay another doula to attend the birth, or provide the postpartum support, or to teach the class. This means a lot of lost income for my family, and feeling like I have let my clients down.
BUT, sickness happens, and because the work we do is so personal, it is important to work along side other doulas that I can trust to provide the same level and kind of care that I do when I have to send someone other than myself.
I am a firm believer that the ‘right’ person always ends up at the birth, God always has the best plan, even if in the short term I cannot be there.
The moral of the story is, always work with back up so that you can provide excellent care to your clients, even if you cannot be there.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kooshlie.com
• Instagram: @kooshlie
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kooshliecare
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Kooshlie

Image Credits

Destinee Blau, Mike Aravelo, Jessica Greene