19 What is a Maternity Concierge and Why Do You Need One?

This episode is brought to you by Little Nest Portraits. Enter code Birth Story at checkout to enjoy $50 off of your first booking.

Have you, dear Birth Story Podcast listener, ever heard of a maternity concierge? Education on this incredible service is what your favorite doula-and-host Heidi is delivering this week through an informative and fun interview with charismatic Best Upon Request maternity concierge partners Jessamyn and Jessica. They explain exactly what this service is and why you should reach out to your HR representative and request it be added. Jessica and Jessamyn's favorite baby products are the Moby Wrap, the Baby Brezza, and the Lille Baby Wrap.

Looking for a Virtual Doula to create a custom birthing experience and guide you through your journey to parenthood in the United States? Contact Heidi at www.mydoulaheidi.com

For additional free birth education resources and to purchase Heidi’s book, Birth Story: Pregnancy Guidebook + Journal, visit www.birthstory.com.

Want to share your thoughts on the episode? Leave a review and send a message directly to Heidi on Instagram.

TRANSCRIPTION

What does a contraction feel like? How do I know if I'm in labor and what does the day of labor look like? Wait, is this normal? Hey, I'm Heidi Campbell, a certified birth doula host of this podcast, birth story and owner of my doula, Heidi. I have supported hundreds of women through their labor and deliveries.

And I believe that every one of them and you deserves a microphone and a stage. So here we are listen each week to get answers to these tough questions and more birth story, where we talk about pregnancy labor deliveries, where we tell our stories, share our feelings, and of course chat about our favorite baby products and motherhood.

And because I'm passionate about birth outcomes. You will hear from some of the top experts in labor and delivery, whether you are pregnant, trying desperately to get pregnant. I hope you will stick around and be part of this tribe. It's Heidi here and you know, I'm from Charlotte, North Carolina. And so this week I have a really cool sponsor.

Who's a local Charlotte newborn photography company called nest portrait. So birth story listeners can mention this podcast per story podcast, to receive $50 off their newborn session booking if you're in the Charlotte area. So let me tell a little bit about him. I know that you have. So much to blame for before this baby's arrival and little nest portraits is here to help you feel comfortable and confident about that very first newborn photography session.

And they want to make sure that you receive luxury experience. Like every new mom deserves. So from expert, baby whispering newborn photographers for anybody that's listening, that's done this, you know what I'm talking about to a studio space, that's gorgeous with all the comforts of home and a hundred percent happiness guarantee at every session, your precious memories of your new arrival can be trusted to this really talented team.

So they have everything that you're looking for from start to finish, they have all the props. You don't have to go shopping custom made  art for your home for like that favorite picture that you love, you name it. They can create it for you. And then they even offer the hospital. Fresh 48 sessions as a birth doula.

Those are some of my favorites to see, cause those are the moments that I get to be part of too. And those fresh 40 eights. So birth story listeners can mention this podcast per story podcast, to receive $50 off their newborn session booking. If you're in the Charlotte area. Or you use the code birth story if you schedule online.

So mamas, if you're in Charlotte, your belly is growing, cross it off the, to do list. Episode 19. Oh my goodness. This is one of those. Yeah, a really cool episodes. That is all about using platforms for purposes. And today I'm interviewing Jessamine and Jessica from best upon request and they are a maternity concierge.

And right now you're like, what is a maternity concierge? So just listen in. I want you guys to go ahead and introduce yourself, but first I just wanted to say, I had never heard of a maternity concierge before, and I got an email from my doula business, my doula, Heidi from Jessamine and it was like, Hey, you know, I'm a maternity concierge and I have a client who's in Charlotte, North Carolina, looking for a doula.

And I was like, no way, who is this person? I am not giving my information and pricing. So I picked up the phone and called Jessamine and just found out all of the amazing things this company does. So Jessamine and Jessica, if you could just introduce yourself and. You know, what your, what it is that you guys do?

Absolutely. Um, well, I'm Jessica and it's so nice to meet you over the phone. I have been with the maternity concierge program since it launched, um, in January, 2017, going strong. And I absolutely love what we do. Um, I'll let Jasmine. Introduce herself. She's modest. You launched the program basically with Beth.

So, but yeah, I came on with Jessica last summer in June and it was actually the start of my third trimester as well. So it was kind of a beautiful dovetail of entering motherhood myself. And then. Talking to all of the great moms in our program. Um, and then I came back from maternity leave. Yeah. That's it am just dying to like kick this off and dig in on.

Okay. There are people listening right now that are just like me a month ago that are like, what is a maternity concierge? So can you just kind of, let's start with like, what is mutter? What is a maternity concierge? What do you do? Well, so basically, I mean, you think of any type of concierge, our services are all over the board.

Um, but when you say specifically to a maternity concierge, we are there to be not only a benefit, but to help moms who are employed by, um, you know, we, we work for fifth, third bank. Um, we service them, but, um, maternity concierge could service anybody. Um, but it's to not only help. New and expecting parents prepare for having their baby, but, um, specifically the program we're in now, we service a mom from the time we find out they're expecting all the way through maternity leave.

So even while they're home up until their child turns a year old, And, um, so help them get prepared to have the baby help them after they returned to work and transitioning back, help them, you know, as an emotional support to be their advocate and just, you know, a shoulder to lean on, if you will. Um, I would tell moms and we have our initial consultations to think of us as your.

Personal baby planners slash assistant, because also we focus on maternity related things, you know, and baby and family related things. It does not have to fall in that category. Um, we're extremely broad if somebody needs health services, um, maybe, you know, the carpets. Cleaned the house deep cleaned before a baby comes.

We can research that as well, much totally personalized service. So we start with a consultation, um, where we give kind of an overview of our program and get to know a little bit about her and you know what her history, if she has other kids. You know, and kind of what she will be needing from the program.

And then we do an interview, which is a much deeper dive I'm on lots of the things. Yeah. Not only resources, but kind of research and information can help with. Um, and then it becomes personalized. So women, you know, Basically ask us for lots of different things, but some of the biggest things we help with are childcare research of course, is a big one, you know, ordering breast pumps for them through their insurance and making sure that they have a appropriate place at work to pump, you know, and the list kind of goes on and on from there.

Yeah, I'm just listening to you guys talk and I'm thinking like I have goosebumps, I'm thinking many tears. I wouldn't have shed and how much more attention I would have had for both of my job, my husband and my children. If I hadn't. Been worried about things like being on hold for an hour and a half with the insurance company, trying to get a free breast pump in the end.

It wasn't even a strong enough breast pump. And then I had to start the process all over again and to rent, you know, a hospital grade pump. Right. So this is, I'm just listening to you guys talk and I'm just getting, cause I'm a mom, I've got two kids. I'm just getting so excited. And I'm going to give you a little bit of background for everyone listening on my own own story.

So I was working for one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world when I delivered my first child and I was an outside sales rep. And I literally, you know, had the baby and there wasn't any support, like not a single person from corporate, like gate, you know, sent a present or, you know, a card, you know, congratulations on having a baby.

It was just like, you know, when are you going to get back to work? And I was really concerned with, how am I going to. Pump breast milk for my child and an outside sales job when I'm like in a car and my manager, you know, rides in the car with me and, you know, just all of these things. And we got six weeks of, um, you know, paid leave, but I really felt like it could have been more.

So for two years I went on a really like this. Rampage, I would say, um, and I got probably 40 or 50 parents throughout the organization, both internally at headquarters and outside in the field too. We did focus groups and we just assessed all of the needs of new parents and, um, wrote a proposal, send it up to headquarters.

You know, presented it, it took maybe two years and voila. All of a sudden we got longer maternity leave. Um, there was paternity leave, adoptive leave. Um, they were sending gifts. I mean, they really listened to what, um, women and men needed that were new parents coming back to work. And so. I just want to tell this story, because I feel like there are going to be some companies listening to this where your employees don't really need to be like begging you to do this thing.

These companies could have higher best upon request maternity concierge or partner with you guys, right. To solve some of these problems for their employees. Is that correct? Absolutely. Yes. You know, any company can hire us as kind of a tailored program to, to come in and serve us how needed. But that's exactly what you're saying is, you know, our focus is employee retention too, especially where we are now is.

Primarily for women just because, you know, at the bank over 60% of their employees are female and many were leaving work because of having babies, which is not unusual. And that's in a lot of, a lot of companies. And so to really remedy that, they were just kind of looking at the numbers and what can we do to help.

Families feel supported and having their babies. And yeah, actually they've shown that women we've so far serviced over 500 women in our program and they've shown that they are almost 25% more likely to remain at the bank six months after returning to work, having that extra support, which is really.

Fantastic. So we, we love the work that we do for sure. Can I say, I just love that. That's what you're committed to is employee retention and getting women that want to go back to work, get them excited about going back to work and supporting them, but also so that they have the ability to progress in their roles.

To more senior roles, because one of the things that I know about, um, as an example, your bank fifth, third bank that you work for, and many other companies is that you'll have a large percentage of women working in the company, but a very low percentage of women that are in senior. Uh, roles. And one of those contributing factors exactly is dropping out of the workforce, you know, in this critical period of development.

So it sounds like this program is really committed to helping, you know, moms get back to work, but also, you know, to help them so that they could develop into more senior roles by staying in their career path. That's that's exactly right. You summarized it perfectly. That's exactly what they were looking at.

That's why, you know, really how the program was formed was our CEO at best upon request that's was teaming with one of the executives here at fifth, third, and they kind of dreamed of this program. Lumped together exactly for that reason too, to help retain women and help them move up the ladder and to show that, you know, we support families, you can't have a family and work.

Um, and we're going to try to do what we can exactly. As you said, to take that stuff off of your plate during that imperative time. And it's kind of fantastic that right now, so many more companies are acknowledging. The importance of that work life balance and, you know, thinking about what benefit, you know, what does that look like as far as benefits for their employees?

And obviously this is a major step towards that. So I'm going to throw out a couple of things that, you know, on my pregnancy and journey were. Kind of things. And I want to see if this is like a yes or no, like if you would help with these different yeah. Thanks. Does that sound good? One of the things we talked about was of course, the breast pump, you would help your employees or the bank's employees.

If they wanted to talk to the insurance company, get a breast pump. My next question would be what if somebody wanted childbirth education classes? Do you guys do that research? Oh, yes, certainly. And that is anything from, you know, just your, uh, CA classes that you can find at the hospital too. If they want something, you know, a little bit more holistic or, you know, alternative options, you know, Can be hypnobirthing Bradley method.

If you want something more specific, if you're looking at prenatal yoga, if you're looking at CPR breastfeeding, basically any educational options that they want, you know, we research and provide options about. Now do you guys do anything on the backend? So, or do you just do the research? So if you say I found this Bradley class, and if you go to this Bradley class, you can get, you know, a 20% discount or something like that.

Do you have any partnerships with different, um, you know, breast pumps or, uh, I was going to say like a nursing bra company or a maternity clothes, or do you have any kind of like things where you partner for coupons or, you know, different things for the families or just the research? No. No, absolutely. Um, our, our concierge company is always looking to get different discounts.

And so we have some local, we have some nationwide, um, specifically here in Cincinnati, uh, where we're located. We have there, I don't know how familiar you are, but we have what's called durable medical equipment suppliers. They're DMEs, which is where we work. We work with them to order the breast pumps for the moms.

And, um, even locally we have one. Specifically that we teamed with here that, um, in the Tristate area in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, um, we can get a discount. Um, if they choose to upgrade from the pump covered from insurance, we can get a discount on an upgrade charge as well as we became a local. A distributor of a certain, um, a dealer pump.

So we can give that to them without having to pay any, um, shipping fees. We get that discounted, but that's just one example among many, um, locally we'd have a lot of newborn and maternity photographers that we get discounts with spas for prenatal and, um, ultra those. 3d 40 ultrasound locations. We have a discount there.

Um, it just kind of depends, you know, we're, we're working on trying to get more discounts in our virtual locations, but it's, it's a growing process for the doulas. I'm sure we would be willing to offer, um, you know, a good discount for moms for some of the referrals too, as doulas. You just really want moms to have the best.

Fit. So it's really important for moms to interview and have the choices of multiple doulas, just like multiple breast pumps, multiple newborn photographers, so that they can find the right fit for what it is they're looking for. And I wanted to just keep going on the, on the list. And so what about, you know, baby showers?

What about registering for baby? Do you help with those kinds of things? Absolutely. We ha enjoy helping them with the planning. We will, you know, we call that the creative yeah. Side of what we do and you know, we've done gender reveal shower. We have, you know, lists of venues and themes and all sorts of, um, Bakery discount.

We actually have a, um, party planning questionnaire that, so it can, regardless of what the occasion is, again, um, going back to that, we can service them. You know, it doesn't have to be specifically related to them in that baby. So let's say, you know, you're throwing a baby shower for a friend or a coworker or a party for your parents or what have you.

It doesn't matter what it is. As long as you're in our program, you're the one we're servicing. We'll help you however we can. And so. We have a fillable party planning questionnaire that we send and fill out whatever pertains. It includes everything from, you know, do you want invitations? Do you want a venue?

If you want catering, are you the babysitter for exactly? If it's baby's first birthday, do you, um, you know, do you want to smash cake? Do you want a highchair banner? Whatever it is, they fill that out and send it back to us. And then we start the planning. Oh, my, this sounds to me like on the outside, looking in, it just sounds like a, like a virtual assistant.

So exactly. And make me more productive. I think this is the most incredible. I really think this is the most incredible program I have. Ever heard of, I wish every single company, I wish this was like mandatory. Like I can absolutely see how this would help you get back to work sooner. Be more productive at work.

Be more present at home with your family, for family bonding time. I mean, it's just that everything that you're saying just keeps giving me. You know, just keeps giving me all the fields. And so I hope you guys are so proud of the work that you're doing. So really it sounds to me like I could probably keep going on and on with my list, but I'm like, okay.

So if I find out that I have to have a Syrian section, like, would they call you and say, Helped me find some resources, learning about Syrians recovery from , um, section at what that's gonna do do with putting me back to work, you know, probably a couple of weeks later, do you help navigate all that? Yep.

That's exactly. We've done that many times. Um, we send some information and exactly that we have some recovery tips that we found, um, you know, those abdominal exercises for AB separation after the C-section. Um, I think, yeah, pretty all of it. Yeah. Oh, it was like all of it. I was like bladder surgery. I'm trying to think of all my clients and some of the things that happened in the postpartum period.

Um, so that's go ahead. Oh, I'm so sorry. I was just gonna say we encourage our clients to think of us as anything that they would spend time researching or that they need resources on anything that's on their plate that they can move to us, you know, no matter how specific and personalized that requests, it was exactly what we're here for.

Wow. Well, that brings me to postpartum postpartum depression specifically. Now we're going to take a short break to just share a few things with you and we'll be right back with our guests. Hey guys, if you're enjoying this podcast, then I need you help to spread the word. If you know, anyone who is pregnant is trying to become pregnant or just loves a good birth story.

If you could send them to iTunes or Stitcher or Spotify or SoundCloud, wherever they listen to their podcasts and ask them to subscribe to the birth story podcast. At the beginning of the year podcast, I mentioned little nest photo. And just a reminder, if you're in the Charlotte North Carolina area, you can receive $50 off your newborn session booking by using the code birth story when scheduling online, or if you call them at (704) 847-4444.

Any you the birth story podcast, you can get that $50 off your newborn session. So when monitoring back to work, we host a return to work interview with them, just to check in here, how everything went. Um, you know, we, because of HIPAA reasons, we're not allowed to know when an employee comes back to work.

So we kind of get based off of their due date. They're estimated due date of when we think they'll be back. And so we reach out, we check in with them and. That is one of the questions we always cover is, you know, how, how, first of all, how did it go? And also, how are you doing emotionally? How are you doing physically?

Um, we ask if they feel like they have any, the symptoms of postpartum depression. Exactly. And obviously we can't look that I knows anything, but, um, That's something that we, if nothing else, you know, we want to talk through it because I'm sure you've seen this it's so under communicated. So, so many people don't feel that they can talk about it.

It's kind of isolating. And so, um, we want to have those conversations and normalize it. This is very common, um, and just kind of be that support for them and then kind of take it from there. You know, see if there's any steps I need directions. We can give them maybe even if they want to see a therapist.

Um, we have, um, people in the past asked for a list in the area. Um, and then I, I would love to, and what we're doing, hopefully takes a lot of that stuff again, off of their plate, just to, to ease that extra stress. No assistance, statistically, it's hard to quantify, but I would like to think that, you know, just easing some of, you know, the hecticness of early motherhood is some form of relief.

Now, you guys said that you started this program in 2017. Has it been in existence long enough? Do you have enough participants or you've been able to show this was our employee retention rate with women that went on maternity leave. Prior to this program. And then this is our employee retention rate.

After this program, it was implemented. Are you guys there yet was seeing, um, statistically significant, uh, improvements in the data. Yes, that's actually a recent, um, pull that they did. The bank looked into the numbers because they wanted to know, and it is hard to, to quantify. It's kind of hard to get an exact, but they said it was, um, that, that women who enrolled in our program were almost 25% more likely to stay after six months after returning, after work, compared to those who did not use the program.

That was another reason ever they did for, um, a good morning America article. Yeah, I was going to say that's a huge, that's a significant jump. I would think even if it was seven, eight, 10%, that that would be, but 25%, I would say that that is that's huge because that's 25% more women staying in their roles with the opportunity to then grow into more senior roles for more diversity within.

Within your company and with any of the companies that utilize the best upon request services, any companies that are interested can go to the best upon request a website, there's a maternity concierge services link. They can click on there. And there's a place where you can schedule a call, um, because they customize for their, for their clients.

So any businesses interested, you know, they may want four concierges. They may want one. Um, You know, whatever that looks like they can kind of, again, customize it. Um, we need to just pause right there and like let's reiterate and shout from the rooftops right now. And because we're speaking for all women that are in the workforce working for.

A company pick a company, no matter what it is. If you are listening to this podcast, you have an obligation to tell something at your employer to go best upon request and to look into this maternity concierge program. Like. If a company is committed to diversity, if they're committed to it, investing in both men and women, we're turning to work and being productive in work, it is imperative that they either have a program like this, um, organically, you know, in their company, or they are partnering with a specialty company, like best upon request to do this for them.

So I hope everyone is got their ears perked up and is listening like. 25% more women are returning to the workforce and staying in the workforce because of programs like this. So you want diversity, you want women in senior roles, you want happier, more productive employees with better retention. So I will put links in the show notes to the website and all that kind of thing.

But I wanted to ask Jessamine and Jessica, who would be the point of contact for same SES? There's going to be some people from my big old pharmaceutical company, listening that I used to work for, who would they call that they wouldn't do exactly that they would go to the website. Um, and there there's a link in there and that's where they'll schedule is best upon request.com.

And there is that maternity concierge. You know, blink to yes. To select, and then they would schedule, there's a section you can fill out for businesses to schedule an exploratory call. Perfect. That's exactly the link that I will put into the show notes. I wanted to hear. A specific story from you before we close out.

So we've given all these examples of what it is that you do and what the benefits of it are. And I know that HIPAA is a thing, so, you know, of course no names or anything like that, but could you share a few examples of some of the women that you've worked with and what their feedback has been like?

Just some specific things that you really believed that helped them get back to work. One off the top of my head. I had a mother in Indiana who worked in retail also she's in a smaller town. Um, she ended up delivering, I want to six, three to four months early. Um, pre her baby was premature. There were about two pounds.

And so she was even in the NICU for four months. Um, and just. Not only getting to help her with, you know, the standard services of what we do. She really just became a friend. Um, you know, we were virtual with her. So everything we did was, you know, by phone call or over the computer, but she would send us updated pictures, you know, when we saw, um, her a little baby boy growing and just getting healthy and he is he's.

She's back to work. Now he is a chubby little boy who is so healthy and so happy. Um, but getting to walk that journey with her cheer, her mom, yeah. Shared her. Exactly cheer her on it. Just to be that, that shoulder to lean on. Really. Um, we were honored that she included us to be a part of that journey and would send us all these updated pictures and, um, If it's a mugshot as well, but go ahead and start.

And we had another mom who, uh, contacted us after she found out that she was going to be a. Grandmother kind of at the last minute and that she was going to actually be adopting the child as her daughter was unable to care for the baby herself. Okay. And it was kind of help. I think I'm going to have this in, in, in, you know, maybe a couple of weeks and the ended up being even faster than that.

And so we were kind of trying to help her scramble to get together, you know, sort of the basics. And what does that look like? Um, And even things, you know, yesterday, I talked to a mom who was, uh, in a retail setting here in Ohio, and I asked her what she was coming to do. Um, if she was planning to breastfeed what she was going to do for pumping, when she came back to work and she said, Oh, I'll just drag a chair into the bathroom, you know?

And that's exactly, we said, no, you don't have to do that. They need to make it. Base for you. We believe we really, and this is kind of the route that you're going to take to make that happen. And, you know, she just had kind of no idea. So all of them things and sort of, you know, providing women with the court and resources, I mean, really we could go on and on, but every woman, every woman has such a different journey that we're taking with her.

It's some personalized. Sorry. And I was also going to say the fun thing now that we've just had our two year anniversary in January is we now have so many women who are repeats. We're now finally getting to see all the repeat customers. So we said earlier they graduate when their baby turns a year old.

And again, this is specifically to the site that we're at here at the bank, but that does not mean that would be the case for any other business, but that's the deal we worked out here. Right. And so they graduate when their baby turns a year old. And now seeing all these women who have graduated and are now reenrolling with baby two baby three.

Um, and we get to really just continue that journey with them. It's so much fun. Oh my goodness. It's sort of, I'm hearing from you guys. The excitement that I get with being a doula. Um, it's the same thing. Just, just having the honor to be part of the family's journey, you know, to walk them all the way through the pregnancy and the labor and the delivery.

And then you guys are connected for that whole first year of life, which is so exciting. I love when moms call me and they're like, I'm pregnant again. Then I have delivered up to five. Save is, um, for many of my clients, I've been a doula for about 15 years now. Yeah. And it's just, it's just, I hear in your voice, the same thing that gets me really peppered up, um, is the relationship side of it.

Um, I've got a couple other questions though, that we didn't address that. It just wanted to speak about so many of my clients and those that are listening, um, have had fertility journeys or on fertility journeys. And I know I'm using the word maternity concierge and, and would indicating that you're already right.

You know, pregnant, but what if someone's working King for fifth, third bank and they are trying desperately to get pregnant, uh, does this maternity concierge offer support or research for those on a fertility journey? That's the conversation is actually sort of happening right now, in fact, um, with how our program is going to have in the future, interact with women because you know, right now we're really not able to share that journey with them because they're only reaching out to us later, you know, when hopefully they're successful.

So, you know, it's, what does it look like to you to have them reach out to us earlier? Um, so we can provide that support as well as we're putting together information for future moms or for those who are trying, just to learn from those who've been through it. Um, you know, their recommendations, their stories, it's a growing process, but we're trying to get into that task for two.

Yeah. And I guess that would, it would probably be similar for the adoption journeys also. So if someone. Was in the process of adoption at that point, I'm sure. Assuming they could, um, get your services to help them prepare for their adopted. Child poorly and probably as much, or as little as they want. So if they reach out to us and say, you know, Hey, they're telling us, you know, sometime this is going to happen for us.

The kid, you know, the child might be anywhere from . Yeah. You know, they often have kind of this time range and the age range and. We just provide as much support as possible and whatever resources they need at that point. Yeah. We've had, um, we've actually serviced a handful of adopting and fostering parents so far.

Um, and as you know, every story is a different is one of those, we're still learning. Look, what's the niche there. What can we do to help besides, you know, getting. Getting the whole prepared, but what information can we send you planning, travel? You know, we had one mom that was adopting down in Phoenix, um, and it was a very quick thing and we researched hotels where you could stay, what did they provide to bring a baby back there?

Like travel to get down there at a moment's notice, you know, it was very tailored per person, but we're certainly going to do what we can to help. And then, um, I feel like I just want to give you guys a standing ovation for that. Okay. Um, so any of my clients and friends who have gone down the fertility journey and then down the fostering and the adoption and just honoring.

All the ways in which we become a mom and a dad is so important. And I'm just so proud that your company is, is doing this and is kind of paving the way, how much does this cost? The employee, our services are a hundred percent free for the moms that are in our program. You know, the only. Time that they're ever charged as if we buy, you know, if we purchase their birth announcement, you know, do on their behalf, we have in our enrollment form, they can have their credit card and it's all PCI compliant and protected.

Um, but we do shopping all the time for customers in our program. So I was tell moms, you know, if we're ordering something off of Amazon for your nursery, you know, we purchased with our corporate cars, we reimbursed with the card you have on file. Your part has never used publicly. Okay. So there is no hidden fees, no charges to use us for anything.

It's a free benefit. I hope you know that this podcast and you just got a ton of exposure on the today's show. And did you say good morning, America also that people are paying attention to what you're doing in that it is supportive. I mean, it's just, it's everything that a new mom needs on this journey.

And so I'm just so proud of what you guys are doing. And thank you for letting me interview you. I ask every mom that I interview, what your favorite baby product. And so, Jen, Jessamine, I'll ask for you specifically, cause I know that you're a mom and then Jessica, I want no what your favorite baby product has been to recommend in this program.

So I want each of you to answer that question on what your favorite baby product is and what your favorite baby product is to recommend to moms. You know, I'm definitely the middle minimalist mom. I didn't, I tried not to get, you know, tons of gear and lots of stuff, but definitely the thing that we've been using absolutely the most have been our carriers.

We'd love. Um, you know, I did the movie when she was small and now the Lily baby, and I really couldn't live without, I have so many moms that tell me that their baby care is. Are just baby wearing is so important to so many minds. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, whether you want to be out at the farmer's market or do you want to make dinner?

I mean, I don't know how I could do it without it, me either. So, Jessica, what is one of your favorite baby products to recommend or to get in the hands of a mom? One of the items that I love to tell moms about most, never seem to know about it. When I talked to him, um, is for moms who want to say that the baby BREADA, um, that's the, uh, the Keurig bottles.

And so, especially if we can have moms that are, are, you know, choose not to breastfeed or not able to, we always recommend that because you know, it, it. Measures your model for you. It warms it for you and you think of all the late night feedings over the course. Yes. It's like a genius machine. And so we've heard wonderful things about it.

Um, but I love to, I love to let Monica know about that. I'm Jessica and Jessamyn. Thank you so much for being on the show. This is a birth story podcast. So it's, this is the first episode that I've done. That's really not about birding and birth stories, right? But when I learned about what you are doing it.

It just lit a fire inside of me where I thought, wow, I really need to interview you guys. I want people to listen and pay attention to what you're doing, and I hope that today's show and good morning America and everybody that's interviewed you guys. I just hope that it keeps helping that you grow so that we can support moms.

Anyone wants to know more about best upon request and any of the favorite baby products. It will be linked in the show notes@birthstory.com. Thank you guys.

Thank you for listening to birth story, Michael is you'll walk away from each episode with a clear picture of how labor and delivery might go, and that you will feel empowered by the end of your pregnancy to speak up plan and prepare for the birth you want. No matter what that looks like.