Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tayo Mbande. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Tayo, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.

My mom and I trained as doulas in 2018 and that year we knew that we wanted to start our doula practice. We had a clear vision on our mission and what we hoped to accomplish as a family centered doula company. We were clear on the ways that we wanted to influence parenthood and Black families in their pregnancies and postpartum. We had no idea about the types of skills and strategies and systems we would need to build a thriving business. We had no clue the kind of tools we would need to support a village of birth workers with changing needs and a changing field. We were committed to the vision nonetheless. We struggled through finding the right software, protocols, programs, and practices that would support our doulas and simultaneously support our clients at the same time. We quickly recognized that we needed the guidance of those who had navigated these spaces or similar ones before us and worked to establish and maintain relationships with as many black birthmark elders as possible. If we could do anything differently, it would be to spend more time developing a comprehensive strategy for the type of company we wanted to have and the impact we wanted to make. I’d advise anyone seeking to make a social impact with their business to be serious about creating an infrastructure that will outlast the changing challenges of any field.

Tayo, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I consider myself to be a maternal health innovator. I’m a mother of 4 who has navigated pregnancy and postpartum throughout the entire lifespan of my business. I have been supporting families through pregnancy, birth and parenthood for almost 10 years and have worked in all fields across the maternal health spectrum. As a birth worker, I’m proud to be an SMC Full Circle Doula Birth Companion, Certified Blactivist Educator and Co-Owner of Chicago Birthworks Collective alongside my mother Toni. My work spans across the city of Chicago as a member of numerous councils, taskforces and committees. I work tirelessly to not only reimagine but put to action better ways of caring for pregnant people and parents across our city state and country. I’m involved whenever and wherever in the work that embraces the humanity of birthing people and uplifts their reproductive rights and liberation. I think what sets me apart is that I’m deeply invested in my family life and center my children husband and immediate family as her source of grounding, inspiration and guidance. This allows me to always prioritize people over profit. I’m an educator and community builder at heart and I deeply desire for Maternal Wellness to be a mainstream priority for all people, especially for Black people.

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

Absolutely yes! I know that many doulas are encouraged to become midwives or to navigate through this part of birthworks towards becoming a provider who can play a “larger” or more influential role in health outcomes, but I and so fulfilling in the space I’m in as a birthworker and maternal health innovator. I love being a doula and love the ways I’m growing to understand the role of doulas and the impact we can have as we challenge ourselves to learn new things, new ways of thinking and being. I am reminded daily that the work I do is not only perfect for me, it’s the place where I believe I can and will be the most helpful to those around me.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When we first started our business we had a serious focus on impact and we did not have much focus on our business strategy. We learned around year 2 that we needed to have a profitable model in order for our business to thrive and continue to make an impact in our community. We had to make serious changes in the pricing structure and compensation model that we used to support our community. It was difficult to imagine placing any additional burden on our families, but it was also clear that we needed to generate profit in order to continue supporting the families and our doulas. We made serious changes in our pricing structure that helped us to understand the true value in our services and products. And we also set some intentional, competitive and market based compensation structures for our staff. This pivot was one the felt a bit unnerving bu ultimately was one of the best decisions we made.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.chicagobirthworks.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chicagobirthworksco/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@chicagobirthworkscollectiv465