Julie Olson and Michelle Kettleborough, doulas and childbirth educators from Denver, Colorado, are the creators of Plumtree Baby. Together, Julie and Michelle have developed a set of teaching resources that will greatly assist birth professionals who are seeking quality childbirth education materials for their students and clients. Each of the modules have been reviewed by medical professionals and lactation consultants, and Plumtree Baby has also consulted with childbirth educators, doulas and expectant mothers to ensure the information in their materials is accurate, useful and verifiable.

Birth pros are able to customize their classes by selecting one or more of the following Plumtree Baby modules:

• Prenatal Wellness – Achieving a Healthy Pregnancy
• The Birth Process – A summary of Labor and Birth
• Thoughtful Decisions – Planning & Communicating for Birth
• Finding Comfort – Ideas for Managing Your Birth
• Natural Childbirth – Finding Comfort and Support
• Following the Birth – The Postpartum & Newborn Period

The modules are 12-20 pages in length, and are three-hole punched so they can conveniently be placed in a binder. In addition, birth pros can purchase binders, a guide with helpful teaching tips, and a set of laminated Labor Practice Cards for use in class or with clients. There is also a teaching curriculum in the works, which will be of great help to instructors who want more guidance using the Plumtree Baby modules.

I had an opportunity to preview the six modules. What I like most:

• They are exceptionally professional in look and feel.
• Each module has a table of contents and clearly marked sections.
• Excellent use of illustrations and photos.
• Short segments of information along with good use of bullet points.
• Objective, unbiased information, and when appropriate, a listing of benefits, risks and alternatives.
• Fill-in-the-blank sections for parents to make notes throughout the modules.
• Educators can pick and choose which modules to use in their classes.
• The cost for these modules are affordable and can be purchased individually or in bulk.

Overall, I feel these modules are a great starting point for educators to present basic information and initiate discussion with their students on a variety of topics. The information is straightforward and not overwhelming, and it is perfect for classes where students have a variety of goals for their births. Students will appreciate the information offered in these modules, and it would be easy for instructors to round out their classes with their own supplementary materials.

Visit the Plumtree Baby website to see preview pages of each module. You can also order a complete set and preview them to see if they are right for your classes. If you find they are not a good fit, you have 14 days to return them for a full refund. Plumtree Baby has also offered Inspired Birth Pro readers a wonderful opportunity to apply a 15% discount for an entire order. Just enter the coupon code BIRTHPRO15 at checkout! This discount opportunity will expire on December 31, 2011.

Plumtree Baby may be the answer if you are looking for beautiful and well-written materials for your group or private childbirth education classes. It will be an excellent resource as they continue to grow and develop additional products.

These posts may also inspire you:

1. Resource: Natural Baby Pros – For Birth Pros and Parents
2. A Double Dip – Marketing and Easy Income Tip for Birth Pros
3. Resource: Business and Doula Skills Videos on YouTube

Image by lululemon athletica via Flickr

If you’ve been following this series and doing the work along with me, you created a vision for summer with your family and a vision for your business over the next few months. Now that you know how you want to feel and have an idea of what you want summer to look like, it’s time to create some clear goals.

Set your business and family goals for the summer

I know from experience that if I don’t set goals for the summer, no matter how great my intentions are and how big my vision is, I end up wandering around a bit aimlessly. We go to bed too late and sleep in too long. The projects the  kids and I talked about doing don’t get started, and the places we talked about visiting remain on the list. And, before we know it, we’re gearing up for another school year.Time doesn’t wait for us to get it together.

It’s the same with business. Without goals and a game plan, that website may still be in the conceptual stage, the “home office” may still look like the guest room, and those networking opportunities come and go.

If this sounds a bit familiar, then you probably understand how having having some goals can help you bring your vision to life. When you have well-defined goals:

• It’s easier to focus on what has to be done. In fact, your intent focus will attract the resources, people and situations that will inspire and move you more quickly to your goal.
• Life is easier. Once your goals are broken down, they can be scheduled into your day. You can set clearer boundaries between your work and your personal time, and those boundaries will be easier to explain to your children. Having a plan in place lets you be more present.
• Your children will benefit from more predictability, and your business will also be happy because it’s getting attention, and progress is being made.

Keeping SMARTER goals in mind, some of my summer goals include:

1. Completed detailed outlines for four teleclasses for Fall coaching group by June 30th.
2. A detailed marketing calendar and the launch of marketing efforts for Fall coaching group on website and social media outlets by July 15th. (For #1 and #2, I will ask my coaching mastermind group to hold me accountable and I will report my progress at our bi-weekly meetings.)
3. Each Friday during summer, meet with kids to plan activities and outings for the following week. (This will be scheduled in my Planner Pad, and I’m sure my kids will also hold me accountable!)

What are your goals for the summer? Start working on them now! In addition, create a framework for keeping yourself accountable, whether it’s your husband, a business partner, a coach, or your kids!

For Part 4 of this series, we will take a look at what’s working and not working, and you can think of new systems that can be put in place to help support you in meeting your summer goals.

These posts may also inspire you:

1. 5 Steps to Summer Sanity: Family Vision (Part 1)
2. 5 Steps to Summer Sanity: Business Vision (Part 2)
3. 5 Steps to Summer Sanity: Breaking It Down (Part 5)

Image by Bohman via Flickr

Just as you and your family explored your collective vision for the summer, it would be equally valuable to create your vision for how your business will support you during the summer months. By focusing on your family’s vision first, you’ll be giving your personal values priority. This will help you put your business goals in perspective and integrate your business into your life rather than allowing your business to take over your life. You’ll be able to more easily allow your values to guide your business building and management decisions so you can honor yourself and your family during the summertime.

Take a look at what’s in your calendar right now. It’s likely that your summer schedule is already set with clients or classes. Maybe you would like a few more clients or students for the summer and know you have some work to do. Now, envision who you need to be for your business in order for you to give it the attention it needs this summer.

To start off, consider the following questions:

• How much time will I need to prepare for my scheduled commitments (ie: prenatal visits with doula clients, childbirth classes)
• What appointments can I get on the books now to make planning other activities easier?
• How much money do I want to make this summer?
• How much time will I need for marketing tasks and administrative work like invoicing and sending out emails?
• If you’re attending any conferences, what preparation is needed for that?
• If you have an active blog or social media accounts, how much time do you need to dedicate to those activities?
• How much time is necessary to plan for fall classes or clients?
• What self-care will you give yourself to help support you after attending a birth?
• What needs to be done throughout each day or week for you to feel caught up with your business so you can feel present for your family?
• Where will your children be when you work? Can they help you? Can they keep themselves occupied if they’re at home?
• How do you picture yourself carving enough time to devote to your business?

Are your values aligned with the vision for your business? If you’re not sure, check in with how you feel when you look at your business vision.

In Part 3, you will get to create your business and family goals for the summer months, so start thinking about them!

These posts may also inspire you:

1. 5 Steps to Summer Sanity: Family Vision (Part 1)
2. 5 Steps to Summer Sanity: Goal Setting (Part 3)
3. 5 Steps to Summer Sanity: Breaking It Down (Part 5)

Image by Nicholaus Haskins via Flickr

Summer is almost upon us, and soon my kids will be out of school. They each do a few camps each year, and we reserve the remaining weeks for lots of time for fun and relaxation. We may take a day trip to a neighboring town, get our book fix at the library, cool off at the pool, or hang out lazily at home with popsicles and a movie.

Each year, my biggest challenge has to do with setting boundaries for my work so I can make my family and my self-care a priority. In the crazy moments, what helps me is to return back to remembering the overall vision for how I want to be and feel when it comes to my family and business.

Every May, I spend time with the kids creating some intentions on how we want to spend our time, and this helps us develop a good rhythm over the course of the summer months. A vision for home and business life helps everyone set expectations, develop a few systems, and a big plus – we get along without much cabin fever or many squabbles. Over the next few days I’ll be sharing five steps that could help you create a great summer rhythm. The steps include:

1. Begin with your vision for summer with your family
2. Set your vision for what you want for your business this summer
3. Create your business and family goals for the summer months
4. Determine what systems need to be put in place
5. Break down your systems and goals with actionable tasks, and deadlines for implementation

Let’s get started with Step 1:

Just about everyone functions better with clear expectations and a predictable plan. Especially kids. One way to set expectations and shift gears into a feel-good summer rhythm is to invite the entire family to define a vision for summer. Ask each person to imagine what they want summer to be like:

• What does a typical day feel like?
• How much time can the kids expect to spend with you?
• What responsibilities will everyone have to help the house run smoothly?
• What are your favorite activities?
• Are you taking a trip or attending a conference?
• Will there be lots of free time with friends, or is it important to keep busy?
• What emotions are you feeling most of the time? Happiness? Freedom? Adventure? Ease?

Jot down notes, and make sure each family member is involved and heard. Then go through your list and come up with a picture of what your home life could look like over the next few months. Don’t be afraid to set boundaries. Your daughter may want to go to the pool every day and your son may want to have at least four sleepovers each week – what’s a more realistic number?

Most importantly, really pay attention to how you want to feel this summer. Think of ways to remind you of those feelings. It could be as simple as writing your desired feelings on a post-it note and put it at your desk or on your refrigerator. Some people write the words in their calendar. Others enjoy creating a vision board that serves as a visual reminder to them of how they want to be and what they want to do. Simply paste images and words that you find in magazines or online onto a poster board, and display it where you can see it. Kids really enjoy creating vision boards too!

By creating your vision, you are starting summer with the end in mind, and this will help guide your actions to create a fun summer with your family.

Stay tuned for next time, when I’ll talk about Step 2: Setting your vision for what you want for your business this summer.

These posts may also inspire you:

1. 5 Steps to Summer Sanity: Business Vision (Part 2)
2. 5 Steps to Summer Sanity: Goal Setting (Part 3)
3. Five Steps Summer Sanity: Your Systems (Part 4)

It’s a good idea for doula clients to be aware of their doctor’s and hospital’s policies regarding access to and acceptance of labor support. One way to address this is to include specific wording on the doula contract that raises awareness and voices the expectation that the client needs to understand how supportive their caregivers will be of their doula.

One forum member, Vanessa Manz of The Birthing Garden, explains, “I have a section for Doula and Client responsibilities and it covers all the dos and do nots along with requiring the client to be familiar with any restrictions on my services at their place of birth. I think it makes the family take a deeper look at whether they truly want to give birth in a place that wants to restrict what services are available to them during their birth. “

Vanessa also shared some verbiage that is on her doula contract:

CLIENT will tour the birth facility so that CLIENT is familiar with policies and facility layout.

It is CLIENT’S responsibility to ensure that DOULA is allowed to attend CLIENT at all times at the birth facility.

It is CLIENT’S responsibility to understand birthplace HIPPA policies regarding privacy rights. DOULA will not be held responsible if she is unable to contact CLIENT via telephone call or other inquiry while she is at birthplace.

If your ability to support your client has been affected by restrictions or requirements of their hospital or caregiver, what did you learn from the experience and what do you now request of your doula clients?

These posts may also inspire you:

1. How to Organize Birth Doula Client Files
2. How To Be Taken Seriously In Your Doula Business – 5 Tips
3. Tell Your Past, Present and Future Clients About The Birth Survey

In order to move forward, it’s important to create structure in your LIFE. This will help you immensely in giving you the mental and emotional space necessary to invest in your business.

If you’re not sure what I mean, perhaps these questions will help you:

• Do you have a time management system that helps guide your day?
• Do you feel peaceful in your home environment? Is it a place that’s comfortable for you (tidy, organized, filled with objects and people you love)?
• Do you have a positive relationship with money (is it coming in, is it sticking around, do you know where it is and where it’s going)?
• Are you nurturing your sacred relationships?

You may notice that these questions don’t necessarily relate directly to your business. In reality, it’s all very deeply related. What happens in your personal relationships with time, home, money and loved ones can affect your ability to focus on your business.

If you feel overwhelmed and frustrated about a certain area of your life, think about a system or process you can implement that will help you feel calm and confident about that. For example, I have recently been frustrated with my use of time. I have a solid system for keeping track of my appointments, and I’m good about creating to do lists. For the past few months, my personal tasks and responsibilities been taking precedence over my business building tasks, so I feel unbalanced in both areas. Basically, I have not been as effective with prioritizing what needs to be done in my business, making a plan and focusing on it.

Recently when I met with a friend, I saw her using a Planner Pad and asked to look at it. I’ve tried so many kinds of paper-based planners and haven’t loved them. I think the Planner Pad could work for me. I just received it yesterday and will begin using it next week, and I am very excited. Ultimately, my intention is to have a more streamlined way of combining my personal and business to-do lists with my calendar so I can focus appropriately and be more productive when I devote time to my business.

Your business is just one facet of life. Sometimes I see my business as one of my children. It demands my time and requires a certain amount of emotional and mental presence in order to develop and grow. By identifying and creating peace in areas outside of my business, it opens up stagnant energy (frustration and overwhelm) that I can dedicate to my practice.

Here are a couple of coaching questions to help guide you:

• What is an area in your life that, if you implement a new process or system, will free up time and energy to positively focus on your business?
• What one change can you make today to create a new system or modify an existing one?

I’d love to hear what you plan to do!

These posts may also inspire you:

1. The Inner Work of Building Your Birth Business – The Spiritual Aspect – Part 2
2. How Balanced are the Various Areas of Your Life?
3. 5 Ways to Maximize Your Time Working At Home

Image via Wikipedia

The way in which a client’s birth unfolds starts long before the birth itself. There is no coincidence that you and your client crossed paths,  no coincidence that you chose one another to experience that birth in the way that you did.

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” Buddhist Proverb

I often consider my clients and their babies my teachers. Yes, I have skills that will benefit them, but there is so much to learn, not only about birth and our skills as childbirth professionals. I learn so much about human nature and how our minds and emotions affect birth.

After I attend a birth, it’s important for me to process through it. Sometimes I ask my husband to listen, sometimes I call a fellow doula or mentor, and every time, I put pen to paper. My whole being runs the gamut of emotions – from joy, to anger, sadness and frustration. The goal is to get to… peace. Sometimes I get there quickly, and sometimes it takes years.

Developing a support system as a childbirth professional is vital – it prevents burnout, assuages grief or disbelief in the crazy birth culture and system and exists, encourages exploration into new perspectives, helps heal our own birth experiences, promotes growth as a professional, and it helps us, if necessary, to forgive ourselves and others.

Inspire us with your comments:

1. How do you process births you attend?
2. What tools do you utilize to support your own healing process?
3. What can you do to strengthen your support system?

These posts may also inspire you:

1. Life After Training – Part 1: Build Your Support System
2. Addressing Hospital Restrictions on Birth Doula Contracts
3. The Heart of a Business Lies in our Heart

If you have created additional income streams into your business, please share your experience in the comments section.

These posts may also inspire you:

1. Increasing Your Earning Potential, Part 1 of 3: Diversification, by Leanne Palmerston
2. Increasing Your Earning Potential, Part 3 of 3: Product Suggestions, by Leanne Palmerston
3. Increasing Your Earning Potential, Part 2 of 3: Two Types Of Products, by Leanne Palmerston

New subscribers to my newsletters receive a message from me asking them what they need help with most right now for their birth business. Sometimes there is already a blog post on Inspired Birth Pro that I can send with my reply, or it sparks an idea for a new blog post. Although I don’t always get to personally answer questions that come in, they are valuable to me because it gives me insight into what it is childbirth professionals need help with when it comes to their businesses.

Here is a a question I received about a month ago from Val Peterson of Birthday with Val:

I love being a doula!! I would have to say that the most challenging area for me with this work is the financial consistency aspect.

I have come into a much stronger comfort level when it comes to stating my fee, but I could sure use some guidance in being more organized, or a better word , systematic with financial side of things.

I used to have individuals sign my contract, and pay a retainer fee. The remainder would be due around 37 weeks of pregnancy. Now that I take more clients on, I have offered two options… either they pay half when they sign my contract, and the remainder is due at 37 weeks, or if they can afford to pay the entire fee up front, I have been offering 20% off the total fee.

Even with this system of mine, the finance part is tricky for me. Some couples say they want to use me, and then it can be real quick that they send me the payment, or sometimes dragged out….

I replied to Val and asked for some clarification on what she’s doing now, and her response was:

I typically have problems collecting the payment. I do so much work with my clients, and have not come up with a consistent method of being paid. I have great couples who typically always pay me before their births…

I need some guidance for after the first meeting, and they decide to use me as their doula, getting paid!!

Asking to be paid without feeling like you’re a collection agency can understandably make small business owners feel uncomfortable. Here was my response to Val:

What has always worked for me is that before their final prenatal visit, I’ll email them a reminder about the meeting and say something like, “Also enclosed is your final invoice. If you would like to pay via PayPal or with a credit card through Google Checkout, please let me know and I’ll send you a payment request.” At the prenatal visit I’ll also hand them a paper copy of the invoice. It’s always worked well.

Accepting credit cards can help to facilitate quicker payment. The downside of course would be the approx 4-5% credit card fees, but that is just a cost of business.

People generally expect that they will receive a bill or invoice when they receive services, so having an invoicing system is an easy way to address the issue of getting paid.

What works for you? Add a comment to share your experience!

These posts may also inspire you:

1. Getting Your Books Straight
2. New Beginnings at Inspired Birth Pro
3. 7 Pricing Strategies for Birth Doulas

I have tried a lot of time management systems – the ol’ trusty Day Timer, one big list, prioritizing tasks in a list, scheduling tasks in blocks of time, doing what I feel like doing (probably the least productive of them all), a simple spiral notebook, fancy programs connected to Outlook, various iPhone apps, designating specific days to work on money-making projects, and having other days just for administrative tasks. Some strategies worked for a while, others not so much. Currently I’ve been enjoying working in blocks of time, but it hasn’t been in a very organized fasion.

Well, here’s what I’m going to try this week. And I think it could work, since I know that I get a lot done when I can focus on one topic/project/client for a long stretch of time, like 3-6 hours. It’s simple. And I like simple.

Have a look at this method of organizing your time based on the 3/6/9 Time Management Strategy, and let me know what you think!

These posts may also inspire you:

1. Tuesday Time Management Tip: Print-Your-Own Planners
2. What’s Working and Not Working For You?
3. Time Management Strategies for Work-Life Balance, Part I