Today we’d like to introduce you to Joy Kobrick and Dara DeSoto.
Joy and Dara, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
We both entered doula work because of our desire to support women and families. Listening to the storytellers in our lives, hearing their stories of labor and birth, stories of their re-wilding and initiation into parenthood, helped spark a passion in both of us. We both saw that there was this vulnerable time when non-judgmental support could make such a difference for these families.
Although at very different seasons of our lives when we entered this work, with Dara already raising her four children and me still hoping to one day have my own, we both felt drawn to support others and were able to build solid doula practices in our respective cities.
When Dara first reached out to me, we were both new to San Diego and looking to build a new business. Dara was looking for a solid backup to have in place, and I was looking to create a new partnership like the one I had while in the Bay Area. We quickly discovered during our first tea date together, that we are in alignment with how we view and approach birth work. It became clear as we spoke about our shared value of creating rhythm and sustainability in our practice, that we had found something special in one another, and so I pitched my idea of a partnership to Dara. To my elation, she was a game! I love that so much about her! Her enthusiasm and how she embraces trying new things is so inspiring.
We then spent the next nine months creating our business plan, building our joint website, and marketing our services, and in very short order, we found ourselves already booking out months in advance. It was clear we had something special to offer and families were seeking us out.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Being parents ourselves, we have learned that flexibility is such a necessary muscle to build and see the value in bringing that sense of openness and fluidity to our work. Because there is so much about the work that we cannot control or compartmentalize, one of the best ways we have found to create more work/life balance is by working in shifts. We have experimented a great deal over the past year with how we manage our on-call time and have been able to build a sustainable business by adopting a model that suits both of our individual needs, and also allows us to support our clients the best way possible.
Birth work is hard. It’s emotional and tiring. On-call life necessitates being ready to drop whatever you are doing, sometimes at a moment’s notice. Striving to create sustainability and balance makes a huge difference, but the long hours, the intensity of birth, and the emotional scaffolding we work to provide our clients can deplete us and have a lasting impact. Being able to work with a partner through this and build our work schedule in a way that supports the very different seasons we are in, allows us to then show up more fully for each other and our clients.
Tell us more about the business.
We are certified, birth doulas. Essentially, families invite us to journey with them through their pregnancy and birth. We serve as their ally, someone who walks beside them and is there to lean on when needed. We recognize that every parent to be has their own set of hopes and expectations for their birth, and every birth is unique and the experience of it is deeply personal and so we offer non-judgmental care and mentoring in preparation for birth and parenthood. We also focus on evidence-based information so that our clients can make informed decisions and “own” their births. We are also both Spinning Babies trained, and understand that birth is easier when the baby is in an optimal position before labor and so we work with our clients prenatally to help them prepare in a way that allows their births to be effective, progressive and easier!
Besides birth work, Dara is a certified lactation educator and counselor and helps families minimize the stress of feeding their baby. I am a certified placenta specialist and childbirth educator.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sandiegocertifieddoulas.com/
- Phone: 858-699-2710
- Email: joy.kobrick@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyfulrootsdoulas/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CertifiedDoulas/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/a-joyful-doula-san-diego
Image Credit:
Megan Burgess
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