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

Tara, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?

I knew I had to open my own business when I realize I was making someone else more money and doing a lot of the work I could have been doing for myself.

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 a licensed massage therapist who specializes in pregnancy and postpartum, a childbirth educator, a labor and postpartum doula. During my training as a massage therapist I became an infant massage instructor, after graduating and becoming licensed we moved to GA and was offered a position at the hospital that delivered the most babies in the U.S. I taught infant massage to parents and also taught massage for pregnancy and labor to couples. Between teaching and seeing more and more pregnant clients for massage, I found my love for helping expecting families. I then became certified as a labor doula and my supervisor saw something in me and pushed me to become a certified childbirth educator. I was the only instructor that taught childbirth at the hospital that was not a nurse. I taught there for 13 years and left during the pandemic when things changed and I felt I can no longer make a difference. The pandemic changed a lot of things and after being out of work for a few months I created my own business, Tara’s Birth Services.
Tara’s Birth Services teaches childbirth education classes and private lessons, I was 100% virtual during the pandemic but now offer hybrid sessions. It also offer labor doula services and massage for pregnancy and labor. I often was asked if I can come to someone during labor and give them a massage and my answer was always,” I am not getting up in the middle of the night to drive 30-60 minutes to come massage you for one hour”, until created a service that combines massage therapy and doula together. It is called “The Massaging Doula Experience” and they actually get 4 hours of massage and comfort measures (things I do as doula). It is a win, win for everyone!! The partners get to rest or learn some things to continue the support after I leave, some women just need some help to get to their epidural, some may be facing an induction and need to rest the early part of labor, and some are just looking for natural pain relief.
It has been a great addition to the services I provide and different from other services that doulas provide.

With the feedback from clients in my office and patients at the hospital, and because I am a trained postpartum doula I’ve also created a service for postpartum as well. It is called “Postpartum Tuck-Ins”. This service meets the client at their home the evening they are discharged or the following evening to help “tuck them in”. I’ve had so many clients tell me the worse part about their postpartum experience was when they got home from the hospital and didn’t know what to do. The nurses weren’t there to help them, they couldn’t get comfortable, they couldn’t sleep, they didn’t know what to eat or was having trouble feeding and holding their babies, and they didn’t know how to navigate around their home. In all my years of working with expecting and postpartum families, I’ve learned that so many other countries have services available for postpartum families. Which led me to create this service that helps postpartum women when they leave the hospital. So much emphasis is on the baby and very little on mom. The visit is focused on mom, helping her to get comfortable, bringing her a nice nutritious/ healing meal, helping her with positions for nursing , helping with set up in her home and giving her a massage on areas of discomfort so she can sleep.
These 2 services have become my babies. I am so proud that I have been given the vision to create these services and want to teach them all over the U.S for so many other families to experience. The maternity mortality rate in the U.S is high and instead of decreasing, it has increased in the last couple of years. Something has to be done to help make a difference and I believe these services will help that.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

Yes, I would choose the same profession. I started to go to nursing school and realized that wasn’t for me. I liked having flexibility and being able to help people and after shadowing nurses I felt nurses were limited in what they were able to do.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

The desire to help expecting families and make a difference.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tarasbirthservices.com
• Instagram: @taradthompson.co
• Facebook: Tara Thompson