May 2021 Update | On Covid-19 and the Steps We're Taking to Keep You Safe
Hello to our Gather community!
Once again, we’re writing to touch base about the COVID-19 pandemic. Our greatest priority continues to be supporting and serving you safely and well. We recognize that the best way to honor our steadfast commitment to birthing families in Minnesota is to remain nimble and vigilant as the circumstances and guidelines regarding COVID-19 continue to evolve so that we can always say with certainty that we’re doing everything in our power to keep you, your family, other birth professionals, and our Gather Birth team healthy.
Since March of 2020, we have made proactive precautions our priority to ensure your wellness and preserve our ability to support you in full health when you need us most. Many remain the same today, which include:
Conducting internal Gather team meetings virtually.
Scheduling all prospective client meetings virtually.
Scheduling all prenatal and postpartum meetings virtually.
Taking proactive measures to stay healthy in our personal and professional lives.
We are happy to report that each member of our team (as well as the other adults in their households) is now fully vaccinated for COVID-19, and we are deeply grateful for our access to this important protective measure. Nonetheless, we continue to exercise an abundance of caution and adhere to evidence-based guidelines for our - and our community’s - continuing health. For the foreseeable future, we’ll continue staying close to home with our core family members as much as possible. When do we venture out, we will do so with current safety standards in mind, double up on masks, wash our hands frequently, and use hand sanitizer often.
Monitoring and following MDH, CDC, and WHO recommendations for health and safety, as well as using our own best judgment.
So, what has changed? Great question! Now that the members of our team are fully vaccinated and birthing location/community restrictions have been loosened slightly to reflect the increasing number of vaccinated folks our region, we find ourselves able to revise and expand our service offerings. The most impactful changes include:
Providing in-person birth support (doula) services to clients in any location
Providing birth photography services to clients planning a birth in any location
Increasing the number of families we are capable of serving each month
A list of the services we currently offer is right here. As of today, we have a few openings for new clients during the summer months, and again in late fall. May, June, September, and December are booked (or very nearly booked) and we’d love to hear from you if you’re interested in working with us. If we aren’t available, we’ll pass along the names of trusted birth workers in our community who are.
We are so grateful to you all. Know that we are standing alongside you in your efforts to keep our community safe! As always, we are here for you should you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions on how to better support you.
