Together in Crisis: Navigating our First Year In Business During a Pandemic
Being in a partnership with like-minded birth professionals certainly had its benefits pre-pandemic. And as we look back on the last year, we can’t help but revel in how deeply grateful each of us is to have had one another to lean on through the twists and turns of navigating business, birth, and life during this time. As a team of birth photographers and doulas in the Twin Cities, we have had the unique challenge of enduring our first full year as a business…in 2020. We’ve taken leaps forward and steps back, and navigated terrain we couldn’t have ever imaged we’d encounter in the next 20 years of our career.
The Gather Team together in 2019: Brooke, Emily, Meredith, and Gina
With so many unknowns with the onset of the pandemic in Minnesota at the beginning of March in 2020, there was a flurry of things we had to figure out as a business, and fast. Local hospitals in St. Paul and Minneapolis began to limit birthing people to just one support person, a role most often dedicated to a partner or family member. Our contracts needed tweaking. And of course, we all had our own families and personal health at the forefront of our minds. Life during a pandemic forced each of us to step back from birth work momentarily at one point or another, yet the rest of the Gather team was able to step up and keep the wheels turning. In a time where so many small businesses had to close their doors entirely, we feel especially thankful to have had each other to share the weight of entrepreneurship and professionalism during a pandemic and economic crisis.
Fortunately, virtual doula support had been a topic at our weekly team meetings for months and we all continue to hold public safety high on our list of values. We were incredibly intentional as we were forming our team, and so it is no surprise that we were able to reference our core values and business mission as we made the decision to shift all business virtually, social distance, and stay home as much as physically possible. Though time and science have allowed us to slowly ease back into documenting and supporting births in-person again, many of the initial safety precautions we took in our personal lives remain the same today.
When you hire Gather Birth for birth support and documentation, you’re hiring a team of professionals who not only have your back, but one another’s as well. All four of us are trained doulas and professional photographers who meet weekly and talk daily. This means that we can ensure a healthy doula or photographer for every family we work with, and that no matter who attends your birth, you’ll be supported by someone with years of experience and talent who knows your family as well as your hopes and dreams for this birth. Rest assured that we are all taking every step possible to make sure we are healthy and ready for you when you need us most. For a list of all the steps we’re taking as a birth business to keep our community safe, click here.