We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kimberly Sebeck. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kimberly below.
Hi Kimberly, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.
As I trained as a doula and childbirth educator nearly 23 years ago, social media was not the go to method for finding clients or establishing a presence in the community. I clearly remember going to an office supply store and selecting thick stationery that had a rose on it and going back to my husband’s office and typing out letters of introduction and mailing these through the postal service to every pregnancy provider listed in the phone book. Yes, really! I also made a weekly schedule of going to health food stores and local stores that sold baby furniture, items, or clothing and leaving flyers and information. If a store had a bulletin board, I left a card. There was a small handful of other doulas and we teamed up to place an ad in the local newspaper about our presence. As more big box stores held baby fairs or events, I would rent a table and become a vendor. I did this also for local farmer’s markets or events. Every few months I would hold a free event titled “Meet The Doula” or something similar so people in the community could come and ask questions and learn what services were available. Networking was a must. Another doula and I would arrange to bring breakfast in to various pregnancy providers offices for breakfast and sometimes they didn’t take the time to even come meet us but slowly the referrals began to trickle in.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am Knoxville Doula. I have been a birth and postpartum doula and childbirth educator since August 2000. Since childhood I have been intrigued and fascinated by pregnancy, birth, and babies. When I became pregnant with my own daughter I realized how much support is necessary through the childbearing year and upon learning about doulas as a career choice decided it was the right path for me. When my daughter was a few years old I took my initial training in Atlanta continued with my certifications and career.
I offer both birth doula and overnight postpartum doula/night nanny services. My focus is helping families enjoy their pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experience. In addition to my original trainings I became a hypnodoula to help clients have a calmer more peaceful birth if they choose that method of childbirth education. I am compassionate, non-judgmental, reliable, and value evidence based information. My strongest hope is that my clients feel empowered as they grow into parenthood and I enjoy helping them learn about and navigate their options.
My experience has simply continued to grow through the years. While I could never claim to have seen every scenario I have seen many and supported many families through different situations. I have attended hundreds and hundreds of births and served hundreds of postpartum families. I love working with families of multiples! I love helping new parents and their babies get more sleep!
I help my clients problem solve by giving them a safe place to ask questions or share their worries and concerns and by providing accurate information. I also do actual problem solving by helping to educate prenatally, helping to facilitate the birth process, offering suggestions for postpartum, and assisting in the postpartum period. My experience and genuine interest in every single client makes me an excellent doula.
I am most proud of my commitment to my clients. Birth workers have a high rate of burnout and turnover due to the on call schedule and sometimes it can be hard to miss a holiday or important event. It can also be hard to stay awake for days on end supporting someone! But knowing that fulfilling that commitment made a difference in someone’s life during one of the most important days in their life is exceptionally satisfying.
Ultimately I want my clients to know that I am here to support them and their choices. Want an unmedicated birth? Great, I will do everything in my power to help you achieve that. Want an epidural? Wonderful, let’s get you an epidural. Facing a surgical birth? Let’s make it a wonderful birth! All births deserve to be celebrated. And then, postpartum. Usually the focus is on getting baby here and not enough emphasis on what happens and what to do once baby is here. New families need support after the pregnancy, resources, and information.
If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?
I would choose being a doula over and over again. Being a birth worker has made me have to dig deep and find resilience, it has made me have to learn to think on my feet, work with different personalities, use my intuition, be a curious person, hold space for people, witness moments of sheer happiness and devastating grief and push my own body in ways I hadn’t expected all while supporting someone else. I have learned an immeasurable amount of things from people, my community, my clients, healthcare providers, trainings. I have made my closest friends from connections in the birth community. I support myself financially doing something I love. I have the privilege of watching babies be born and grow into childhood and beyond! While there have been times I feel that I have expended myself handily what I have received from my career as a doula is far greater.
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
Support. Have a network of support. Have that one confidential birth worker you can call to process a hard day. Have a positive circle you can bounce ideas off of. Have a community of support that is empassioned like yourself. Have support outside of birth work with good friends so you have time to relax and play.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.knoxvilledoula.com
- Instagram: knoxvilledoula
- Facebook: facebook.com/knoxvilledoulas