About Birch & Belly
Real talk, warm hands, and support that doesn't flinch when things get hard.
My story
How I Got Here
My road into birth work started about eleven years ago, with the pregnancy of my first daughter. Pregnancy wasn't easy for me, and honestly, most of the time I didn't love it, even though the world around me made me feel like I should, and that if I didn't, I somehow wasn't grateful enough.
At the time I had two very physical jobs, teaching hot yoga and working as a massage therapist full time across two locations. Early on came the morning sickness and an out-of-this-world exhaustion, where getting up off the couch felt like climbing a mountain. Later in pregnancy I had bouts of bleeding that led to emergency visits, extra ultrasounds, and blood plasma injections. I also have structural scoliosis, so my back was generally just furious about all the added pressure. Massage helped, but only once did I see an RMT who had the cushion system that let me lie face down during treatment, and it was a game changer. I was comfortable for the first time in my whole pregnancy.
I was determined to birth my baby at home, with midwives and my husband by my side, even as people constantly asked if I was "sure about that," fired off every "what if," and slipped in the occasional "just you wait, you'll want the epidural." Well, friends, both of my girls were born at home, and their births changed my life forever.
I was so used to hearing birth horror stories that birthing them at home felt surreal for a long time. I felt proud, empowered, strong. I felt like a badass. And down the rabbit hole into birth work I went, certain that if I could have births this beautiful, there were ways to help other people have them too. Surely we didn't all have to become the next horror story told over coffee.
What I didn't see coming was how little support there was in the postpartum days. Everyone visited and brought gifts for the first month, and then, silence. No more phone calls, no more drop-ins, and my husband was back at work by day four. I was officially alone. I developed postpartum anxiety fairly quickly, but because it was all new, I told myself this was just the "hard mom stuff" everyone talks about. I wasn't educated or prepared for what to watch for with my own mental health. I struggled being home alone with my kids for a long time, always convinced something terrible was going to happen and that it would be my fault. I was barely sleeping, and eating stopped feeling like a priority. I went back to work at five months postpartum and felt more isolated than ever.
Fast forward to after the birth of my second daughter, and I made the leap. I took my doula training over sixteen weeks, earned my certificate, and I was off. The catch was that with a baby and a toddler, jetting off to a 24-hour birth at 3am on a Tuesday wasn't exactly in the cards, so I started with postpartum care, which could be scheduled during daytime hours. It was a beautiful way to support families. Once my girls were a little older and didn't need quite as much supervision, I jumped in and started attending births. I had also trained as a childbirth educator, so eventually I taught my first in-person class. Everything was falling into place. I opened my own prenatal-focused massage practice and began facilitating postpartum support groups, so women could finally have the support and community they so desperately needed. It was the very thing I needed and didn't have after my own babies were born. A group like that would have changed my whole world.
So here we are today, and I can't tell you how much I love this work. It feels like a natural extension of who I am. My care doesn't come from just needing to pay the bills. It comes from my heart, my soul, and my experience as a woman and a mother in this world. I want to make your birth and postpartum better. I want you to look back on it with love and admiration for the woman who trusted herself and felt genuinely cared for. I want my daughters to move through the world knowing what women are capable of, and what it means to have support when you need it. And I want to change the way we talk about birth, because I know firsthand the kind of impact that can have.
The why
Why Birch & Belly Exists
At first, I felt called to change how we talk about birth, because my own pregnancy was flooded with other people's horror stories. With time and experience, that grew into something bigger. I wanted to teach women what they actually need to know about pregnancy and birth, with information that isn't from thirty years ago. I've also heard again and again that home birth is "scary" or "unsafe." I support both hospital and home births fully, and I also feel a responsibility to change the script around home birth, and around the kind of support a partner can offer, which looks so different now than it did even fifteen years ago.
As for postpartum, perinatal professionals are working hard to change how our culture treats families in those early weeks, and it's still full of gaps. What made this time so important to me was living the loneliness and isolation of my own postpartum days. What would have changed everything for me was a place where I felt seen and heard, with other people in the trenches beside me, all of us admitting that nobody has it figured out and we're just doing our best, together. The change is happening, slowly but surely, and I want to keep being part of it.
What I stand for
Our Values
Authenticity
There's no room in my life or my work to be anyone but my truest self. That's exactly who you'll meet here.
Empowerment
We're all capable of more than we believe. With the right tools and support, you can do wildly amazing things.
Humour
Laughter is a window into who someone is, and I need it every single day. Life would be boring without it, and so would birth.
Honesty
Authenticity and honesty go together like PB and J. I'll always be honest with you, even about the hard stuff.
Compassion
I might not know you yet, but I believe everyone deserves compassion. We're all just human, figuring out this wild, crazy life.
A Note From Kayla
I know this is a big season of transition for you and your family, so remember this: you get to write the story. Nobody else gets to dictate your plan, your goals, or your boundaries. We can make your care look however you want, because you have full agency over your health and your birth. I'm just here to guide you as you make your goals real, whether that's a hospital birth or a home birth, an epidural or not, bottle or breast. This is a team experience. No bullshit, just support.
The difference
The Birch & Belly Difference
I tell it like it is, and I lead with my heart. I'll never sugar-coat anything, so you always get the most real, unbiased version of whatever we're talking about.
You'll never feel rushed, whether it's a massage, a doula meeting, or a support group. I build in the time so you always feel genuinely held.
Our relationship doesn't end when your class wraps or your baby arrives. Birch & Belly is here to be part of your village, every step of the way.
Ready to Feel Supported?
If any part of this feels like the kind of care you've been looking for, let's talk. A free consult is a no-pressure way to see if we're the right fit.