We were lucky to catch up with Kristen Mason recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kristen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Birth It Forward’s Mission is to provide evidence-based support, education and advocacy to birth workers and growing families. Our goal is to help families who are falling through the cracks. We are driven to help improve maternal mortality rates by training quality birth workers and offering price points that can meet families where they are at, including no-cost services to families on WIC and sliding scale. Our Mother’s Closet gives away free clothing and baby care items, such as diapers, to anyone who needs them.

Kristen, 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 name is Kristen Mason and I’m the Executive Director of Birth It Forward. As far back as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to have a job where I helped people. I grew up with a homebirth midwife as a friend’s mom. She made sure everyone of us knew about birth and how beautiful it can be when it’s respected. I was shocked when I attended my older sister’s first birth, where she was bullied and belittled by hospital staff. It was a moment of awakening for me that pushed me to want better for all women. After giving birth to my daughter I began to student teach the Bradley Method before deciding to pursue doula work. I had a baby boy, moved to Kansas City, and met the amazing women of KC Women’s Ministry, now known as Birth It Forward.

I was immediately attracted to their mission of supporting all women during pregnancy, birth, and early postpartum regardless of income. Birth It Forward works on a “pay it forward” system. When families hire us to provide them with comprehensive birth and postpartum services, 20% of their fees go straight to supporting our nonprofit work. Our pregnancy and birth package comes with a complimentary childbirth education class that I wrote using aspects of the many childbirth techniques I’ve studied over the years. We also offer a complimentary prenatal visit with our infant feeding specialist to support you in feeding your baby in the way that works best for your family.

This same package, with all of the complimentary gifts and support, is available at no cost to those who receive WIC. For those who don’t qualify for WIC but need a little help, we offer sliding scale costs to meet them where they are at. We partner with domestic violence shelters and a teen mom shelter to bring these same services to their residents at no cost to them.

Birth It Forward also hosts a monthly Mother’s Closet pop-up in various parks and community buildings to give away clothing and baby care items to anyone who needs them. These pop-ups help those who want to see their maternity clothing or outgrown onesie put to good use while providing much needed materials to the community.

We also host a 24/7 warmline with trained volunteers to help people who are experiencing perinatal mood disorders. Many times these mood disorders are exacerbated by poverty. Our partnerships with Unite Us and IRIS allows us to make referrals to other nonprofits that meet needs our group doesn’t cover, such as food and bill assistance.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

After a few years, Birth It Forward began to grow faster than we could manage. We had so many requests for new programs, we couldn’t keep up and my team was running at an unsustainable rate. We set aside a day to narrow our focus and ask ourselves, If we only had two programs, which would they be and how could we make them as efficient and effective as possible? We wrote out a clear plan to begin reimplementing the services we were cutting as a slower rate then spent the next two years slowly rebuilding on a much stronger foundation.

Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?

We acquired the Pregnancy and Postpartum Resource Center (PPRC) in 2023 after they put out a call for new board members. I volunteered to help and it quickly became apparent how similar our organization’s missions were. We each supported growing families in ways that perfectly complimented each other. I met with my team at Birth It Forward to discuss inviting the PPRC to join us and they agreed. Over the next few months, I met with PPRC board members to help them dissolve their organization. We welcomed their board members and volunteers into our sisterhood and revamped all of their programs. It has been incredibly rewarding to continue the work and legacy of the PPRC under the Birth It Forward umbrella.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.birthitforward.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Birthitforward/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Birthitforward/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/birthitforward/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP4iex3l794_UJalG5eBTeQ

Image Credits
All photos provided were taken by Birth It Forward