About Hunter:
I was drawn to become a doula as an answer to a personal call to start helping and supporting people in a truly meaningful way. I developed a deep desire to spend my time working closely with families right in my community and apply my passions in a way that could really give something back.
After experiencing my own pregnancy, and a challenging first birth, I realized how much there is to learn and the level of support that is truly needed during this precious time. I felt a call to become the support I had been missing during that experience. So after years in fashion, merchandising and retail management - I moved on to pursue birth work full-time as a doula and never looked back!
The lead up to all of this looked like: earning a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from VCU in 2008 (Go Rams!) meeting my husband, getting married and welcoming that first child in 2015. Shortly after I started birth-work in July 2016, attended birth doula training through toLabor in October 2016, layered in Certification as a Lactation Counselor in March 2018 and became a certified doula through toLabor in 2020. Now I also work for toLabor helping train brand new doulas on how to set themselves up to run a successful, organized + supportive doula business! I’ve been working closely with families in our community since 2016 and have supported around 250 births with all different plans right here in Richmond, VA.
We welcomed a second child in 2020 and approached that birth totally differently: we had a doula, changed care providers, changed birth locations, we were more educated and we knew how to advocate for what we wanted. It made all the difference and helped me achieve the un-medicated VBAC I’d been dreaming of! Now VBACs are near and dear to me both personally and professionally as I help my clients navigate them too! 2024 would bring us the biggest family surprise yet, fraternal twins! What a wild and wonderful way to round out our family, and of course now I love supporting families expecting multiples too!
Supporting folks through making the right decisions for their family with evidence based information is the root of this work for me. Birth is an adventure and having someone who knows birth as your guide can be invaluable. There is no one right way to birth and I respect all of the directions individuals come to this experience from. I am open to all birth plans and happy to support folks at several local hospitals and at home births.
As the Collective Coordinator, a former educator and an active birth doula in the A Brighter Birth Collective I am able to offer my clients highly experienced back-up doula support as well as a curated Collective of other practitioners in town who are supporting folks from fertility to postpartum and beyond! We also offer opportunities to genuinely engage with other expecting families and new parents in Richmond through community events, group prenatal meetings, exceptional childbirth education options and a free birth + postpartum support circle.
When I'm not doing birth-work I'm usually running my four busy kids around to town to dance + soccer, sneaking off to one of Richmond’s amazing local restaurants with my supportive husband, playing in the backyard with our big silly doodle dog pretending to grow things and likely drinking a few stiff cups of coffee!