What else?

I like to be busy! Enneagram 7 wing 6 here! Alongside my doula work, I am a medical professional. I spent 2 years studying medicine, the body, physiology and pharmacology at the CMR Institute. I achieved my MBA and I have 16 years of experience in healthcare pharmaceuticals and medical device consulting, training, and leadership. During this part of my career, I led teams consistently to top 10% national results and built long-term client relationships. I trained doctors and HCP’s on dissecting clinical trials and their statistical significance and relevancy. Then, I became a mom myself!  After my own very short 6 week maternity leave at my Fortune 100 pharmaceutical company, I came back to work on a mission to change the experience I had to be better for the moms and birthers who would birth after me.  I designed, inspired, and successfully led a project to greatly improve parental leave policies and support- in fact more than doubling the leave time for all parents, guardians, and birthers.  

In 2017, I came home from my 4th trip to Africa after working in an orphanage in Uganda. My family had a new laptop waiting for me with a sticky note that said, “Write your book.” In 2018, I officially left the corporate world and founded Birth Story Media™ to provide multiple birth education resources to expecting parents and their loved ones. In 2024, I opened Birth Story Boutique’s first location in Charlotte, NC.

The platform I was inspired to design is education through storytelling.

In addition to all of these serial career passions, I am a mom to two spirited, adventurous kids, Max and Jagger (my little CP warrior!). Whenever I have a break in doula clients, you can find my family and me vacationing in Montana and Florida.

I am a relentless activist for equality for all humans regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, and mental and physical abilities.

DISCLOSURES:

I BELIEVE THAT BLACK LIVES MATTER, INDIGENOUS LIVES MATTER, TRANS LIVES MATTER, PRONOUNS MATTER, AND THAT THE BODY IS DEEPLY POLITICAL. I ACKNOWLEDGE MY PRIVILEGES AS A WHITE, CIS-HETERO, ABLE BODIED WOMAN AND REMAIN COMMITTED TO LISTENING, REFLECTING AND EMBODYING THE WORK OF ANTIRACISM. I BELIEVE YOUR BODY DOES NOT NEED TO CHANGE IN SHAPE OR SIZE TO BECOME VALUABLE. I BELIEVE THAT YOGA, BREATHWORK, AND MOVEMENT HAVE THE CAPACITY TO HEAL AND CAN BE VITAL TO WELLNESS.

FIERCE ALLY FOR THE LGBTQIA+ COMMUNITY

WHILE NOVANT AND ATRIUM ARE LETTING IN DOULAS, DOULAS ARE CONSIDERED VISITORS AT ATRIUM. IF YOU ARE WITH ATRIUM PLEASE UNDERSTAND THEIR VISITOR POLICY BEFORE HIRING A DOULA, HERE IS THEIR POLICY.

NOVANT DOES NOT CONSIDER VENDOR CREDENTIALED DOULAS VISITORS. SO, AT NOVANT A VENDOR DOULA DOES NOT TAKE UP A VISITOR SPACE AND ARE WELCOME IN TRIAGE, THE PACU, AND THE OPERATING ROOM FOR CESAREANS.

AT ATRIUM, WE TAKE A VISITOR SPACE. IF YOU ARE WITH ATRIUM AND THEY CHANGE THEIR VISITOR POLICY BACK DOWN TO 1 VISITOR, YOU MAY HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN YOUR PARTNER AND YOUR DOULA TO ATTEND YOUR BIRTH.

FOR THIS REASON, WE ALWAYS SUGGEST WORKING WITH NOVANT HEALTH, THE BIRTH CENTER, OR HAVING A HOMEBIRTH. 

I AM A CERTIFIED NOVANT VENDOR, BUT I IN NO WAY WORK FOR OR AM AFFILIATED WITH NOVANT. SOME OF THE DOULAS IN BIRTH STORY BOUTIQUE ARE VENDOR CREDENTIALED AND SOME CHOOSE NOT TO BE.

REFERRALS: IF YOU ARE SEEKING A LOW INTERVENTION BIRTH WE SUGGEST WORKING WITH THE FOLLOWING:

1. MIDWIVES AND OBGYNS AT PROVIDENCE OBGYN (THEY DELIVER AT NOVANT PRESBYTERIAN MAIN
2. MIDWIVES AT CARMEL OBGYN (THEY DELIVER AT NOVANT MATTHEWS)

CESAREAN RATES FOR FIRST TIME BIRTHING PERSONS WITH A SINGLETON BABY IN A HEAD DOWN POSITION BY HOSPITAL:

NOVANT MAIN 21.4%
NOVANT MATTHEWS 21.5%
NOVANT HUNTERSVILLE 18.1%
ATRIUM MAIN 27%
ATRIUM UNIVERSITY 26.3%
ATRIUM PINEVILLE 23.9%
LAKE NORMAN REGIONAL 28.2%

DATA FROM RATINGS.LEAPFROGGROUP.ORG

NOW IMAGINE WHAT THE STATS ARE IF YOU THROW IN BREECH, HIGH RISK, AND MULTIPLES. 

MY TEAM AND I  ATTEND BIRTHS IN CHARLOTTE, NC & SURROUNDING AREAS WITH SOME NOVANT AND ATRIUM LOCATIONS AS WELL AS HOMEBIRTHS AND NATURAL BEGINNINGS. 

MY CESAREAN RATE REMAINS 7% & MY PROGRAM IS HOW EVERY BIRTH STORY BOUTIQUE DOULA IS TRAINED.

Click to the right to learn all about my big “Why” behind my vision for this company!

Dr. Thorp is the Medical Director and founder of the Horizons Perinatal Substance Abuse Program. He is also a Professor of Maternal and Child Health in the School of Public Health. He is a fellow at both the Sheps Center for Health Services Research and the Carolina Population Center. He directs the generalist obstetrics and gynecology group of UNC.

Dr. Thorp has more than 36 years of superb clinical, research and academic service for which he has received numerous honors. He is well regarded nationally in the obstetrical community, and locally, where he has been asked to serve as a consultant to various regional hospitals. His efforts with students have garnered him several teaching and student research awards, and his strong role in the University and the School of Medicine has meant his involvement in committees focusing on faculty issues such as promotion and tenure as well as academic issues such as curriculum development.

Professor Thorp helped start the Global Women’s Health Division and launch the first obstetrics and gynecology residency in Sub Saharan Africa. In 1994 the Horizons perinatal Substance Abuse Program, considered world class, and one of the few programs treating both women and children was started and in 2017 Horizons opened a new four-million-dollar outpatient center and day care in Carrboro. He pioneered medication-assisted treatment for opiate use disorders in pregnancy. He is also the medical director and co-founder of the Reply practice, which uses fertility awareness education as its primary approach to women’s health.

Dr. Thorp is widely published in the obstetric and medical literature and is considered an expert on obstetrical practice in general, with particular research interests in substance abuse issues surrounding women’s health, the epidemiology of preterm birth, and pelvic floor disorders. His research discoveries include that routine episiotomies predispose to rectal injury, progestins can prevent preterm birth, magnesium has neuroprotective effects for babies born prematurely, and late preterm babies can benefit from corticosteroids. Methodologically, he is also considered to have considerable expertise in the development and management of clinical trials and has demonstrated his capability across a large number of study designs and trials of varying magnitude. Google Scholar credits him with 28,164 citations and an h-index of 85 (10/01/2019). Dr. Thorp is North American Editor of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and recently was made a fellow by the Royal College.

His outside interest includes poetry and literature from the American south. His favorite school of poets is the British metaphysical poets, including John Donne and Gerald Hopkins. He writes poetry and some of his poems have merited publication. Favorite authors are Walker Percy and Flannery O’Connor. Theological interests include the impact of post-modernity on Christian orthodoxy and the moral status of individuals with disabilities. He was a consultant to Pope John Paul II on conscience in medical education. He has been married for 40 years to Joe Carol and has four children and four grandchildren, the oldest of whom shares his name.