Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristi Reed.
Hi Kristi, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I didn’t know it then, but at nineteen years old, giving birth to my first child would become the beginning of everything.
I was a young, newly married mother who chose to give birth outside of the hospital at a birth center in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. At the time, I wasn’t thinking about careers or businesses. I was simply following my instincts and choosing the kind of birth that felt right to me. Looking back now, I realize that one decision changed the course of my life.
My birth wasn’t just the day my daughter was born. It was the day I discovered a strength within myself that I didn’t know existed. My midwives didn’t simply deliver my baby—they gave me the confidence to trust myself. That experience stayed with me long after I left the birth center, even though I didn’t yet realize what it would eventually become.
Years later, after leaving a difficult marriage, I found myself rebuilding my life as a single mother of three. For the first time, I had to ask myself, “Who do I want to be?” I didn’t have a college degree or a career to fall back on, but I knew one thing with certainty: I wanted to be close to birth. I wanted to support women during one of the most transformative experiences of their lives.
I didn’t have a business plan. I didn’t set out with the goal of becoming a midwife or building the life I have today. I simply started taking the next step that felt right. Looking back now, I can see that each opportunity found me at exactly the right time, and I had the courage to say yes. What began as a desire to stay close to birth slowly unfolded into the work I was meant to do.
I started where I could. I became a birth doula, then a postpartum doula, and later a childbirth educator. While working a full-time catering job to support my family, I slowly began building what would eventually become Your Birth Doulas. It wasn’t glamorous. I spent countless hours driving long distances to support families, often working during the day and attending births through the night. Like many entrepreneurs, I built it one client, one relationship, and one leap of faith at a time.
In 2019, I left my full-time job and committed completely to my business. As I spent more time supporting families through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, I became even more convinced that women deserve to be educated, supported, and trusted. My role has never been to tell women what kind of birth they should have. Instead, I want them to understand their options, trust themselves, and make decisions from a place of confidence rather than fear.
Then, in the summer of 2021, an unexpected opportunity changed everything once again. A local community midwife posted that she was looking for a student. I reached out, and the day we were supposed to meet, she invited me to come to a birth instead. I found myself driving to an Amish family’s home in southern Lancaster County, not realizing I was stepping into the next chapter of my life.
That day began my apprenticeship in traditional midwifery.
Over the past several years, I’ve had the privilege of learning from experienced midwives while continuing to grow my practice. I’m currently completing the PEP process through NARM on my way to becoming a Certified Professional Midwife. Throughout that journey, I’ve always believed that the relationships, the mentorship, and the experience mattered more than the timeline. I used to tell myself, “The signatures would come.” My focus was becoming the best midwife I could be and serving families well.
Looking back now, I can see that everything I’ve built is connected. My doula agency, childbirth education, postpartum support, placenta encapsulation, and midwifery are all pieces of the same vision. My hope is to continue bringing those pieces together to create a place where women and families feel seen, supported, and respected throughout pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.
When I think back to that nineteen-year-old woman walking into a birth center simply trusting her instincts, I could have never imagined where that one decision would lead. Looking back, I realize everything I’ve built since is a direct result of that path. The care and trust my midwives gave me nurtured my ability to trust myself, and today, that’s what I hope to give every family I have the privilege of serving.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road, but looking back now, I wouldn’t change any of it.
After leaving my marriage, I was rebuilding my life while raising three children on my own. I worked at a catering company making $8.00 an hour while trying to figure out how to build a career in birth work. During the day I worked to support my family, and outside of work I attended doula trainings, taught childbirth classes, and drove long distances to support families through labor and postpartum care. Later, I began apprenticing in midwifery while continuing to build my business and raise my family. None of it was easy.
Looking back, I realize every season required a leap of faith. I never had the entire path mapped out. I simply took the next step as it presented itself—not because it was easy or without fear, but because deep down I knew it was my path. It felt right, and I trusted it.
This work has never been just a career to me. It is a passion. There are certainly easier paths I could have taken, but none of them were the life I knew I was meant to live.
Birth has a way of bringing you to your knees.
So does life.
I’ve been brought to my knees more times than I can count, and each time I found the strength to get back up. I believe birth taught me how to do that. It taught me to trust myself, to keep going when I couldn’t yet see the outcome, and to believe that something beautiful could exist on the other side of uncertainty.
I don’t think the challenges were obstacles as much as they were part of the education. They taught me resilience, humility, patience, and compassion. They shaped not only the midwife I am becoming, but the woman I am.
People often ask how I’ve managed to keep going through all of it. The truth is, I never chose what was easy.
I chose what was in my heart.
The simpler paths were always there.
They were just too quiet.
Every meaningful step I’ve taken has asked something of me, but every one of those steps has also led me closer to the life I was meant to live.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At its heart, my practice has never been about offering individual services—it has always been about creating continuity of care for families throughout pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum season.
Over the years, that vision has naturally grown. What began as birth doula support expanded into postpartum care, childbirth education, placenta encapsulation, and now midwifery. While those may seem like separate services, I’ve never viewed them that way. To me, they are all connected. They allow me to continue walking alongside families through each stage of their journey rather than supporting only one piece of it.
One of the things that sets my practice apart is my belief that every family deserves to feel informed, respected, and supported in whatever path they choose. My role isn’t to tell women what decisions to make. It’s to provide evidence-informed education, create a safe space for conversation, and help them understand their options so they can make decisions with confidence. I believe birth is deeply personal, and every family deserves care that reflects their individual values, goals, and circumstances.
I’m also passionate about physiological birth and preserving the wisdom of traditional midwifery while blending it with thoughtful, evidence-informed care. I believe there is tremendous value in slowing down, building relationships, and truly knowing the families I serve. Those relationships are the foundation of everything I do.
What I’m most proud of isn’t any one service I’ve added over the years—it’s that each one has grown from listening to the needs of the families in front of me. My practice has evolved because of them. Every new offering has been a natural extension of asking, “How can I continue to support you?”
Looking ahead, my vision is to bring all of these pieces together into one place where families can experience truly continuous care—from pregnancy through birth and into the postpartum season. More than anything, I hope people know that when they come to me, they won’t just receive a service. They’ll receive someone who will walk beside them, listen well, and genuinely care about their experience.
If families leave feeling more confident in themselves than when they first arrived, then I know I’ve done my job.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I grew up in Idaho, and looking back now, I think I’ve always been curious more than anything else. I asked a lot of questions. If something didn’t make sense to me, I couldn’t simply accept it because someone else believed it. I wanted to understand *why*. Whether it was the religion I was raised in, different ways of thinking, or people’s perspectives on life, I found myself genuinely interested in understanding what others believed and how it connected to—or differed from—what I had been taught.
I’ve often joked that I wasn’t wired for blissful ignorance. The easier path would have been to simply accept things as they were, but that’s never been my nature. I don’t ask questions because I want to challenge people. I ask them because I genuinely want to understand.
I’ve also always been a bit of a free spirit. I never felt drawn to the traditional path just because it was expected. I was perfectly happy spending time on my own, and although I had friends, I was never someone who needed a large circle. I’ve always preferred a few deep, meaningful relationships over many casual ones, and that’s still true today.
I’ve always loved working with my hands and creating tangible things. Cooking, baking, gardening, flowers, trees, lakes, rivers—those are the places where I feel most at home. I love building and nurturing things, whether that’s growing a garden, preparing a meal, or caring for a family during one of the most important seasons of their lives. Looking back, I can see those interests have always shared the same common thread: I enjoy helping things grow.
I’m also a very hands-on learner. I learn best by doing, observing, and experiencing something for myself. If what I’m learning doesn’t connect to the work in front of me, it’s hard for me to hold onto it. But if I can see its purpose, I want to understand it deeply.
Looking back, I realize those parts of my personality were quietly preparing me for the work I do today. Curiosity taught me to ask better questions. Meaningful relationships taught me to listen. Working with my hands taught me patience. And my tendency to question things taught me to seek understanding before assumptions.
I don’t think I could have imagined becoming a midwife when I was growing up.
But I can absolutely see that I was becoming the person who would one day love this work.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.yourbirthdoulas.com www.yourbirthmidwifery.com
- Instagram: yourbirth_doulaservices www.instagram.com/yourbirth_doulaservices
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yourbirthdoulaservice
