June 26, 2006
Birth of a biz | A chat with Holly Arends, owner of Birch Moon Midwifery in Bath.
By Kerry Elson
Founded: October 2005
Employees: One
Startup costs: $10,000
Projected revenues, year one: $15,000
Projected revenues, year two: $15,000-$20,000
Contact: 522-6043
PO Box 875, Bath 04530
www.birchmoonmidwifery.com
Tell me about Birch Moon Midwifery.
It's a homebirth midwifery practice, so I do comprehensive prenatal care. I attend births at people's homes and then I do postpartum care for mom and baby until six weeks.
How did you learn to be a midwife?
I went to a small school in Bridgton called Birthwise Midwifery School. Their program is a year and a half of classroom work and then an apprenticeship, so I worked with other midwives in the area for close to two years, attending births with them, and then I also spent a month in the Philippines at a birth center there.
Why homebirth and midwifery?
I really believe that women know how to birth their babies and they birth their babies best when they feel safe and comfortable. For some women that's the hospital, but for some women that's notˆit's being at home with their family and their space. I think often the conventional medical system can be set up so that women don't have the choices that I think they should have about how and where and under what conditions to have their baby. My goal is really to empower women to make those choices for themselves and to do so by giving them information.
What are your hours like?
I split my time between doing direct client care and doing the business end of things, which I'm finding takes a fair amount of time. In a typical week I would see clients in their homes, so I'd be driving around, either going to prenatal appointments or checking on them and their baby after they have the birth. And then of course I get called to births at all hours. Once I take on a client I'm on-call all the time until their baby comes. So sometimes I might go weeks without having a birth and then I might have a couple births in a week or I might spend 48 hours at a birth. I also end up doing a lot of phone consulting with people, counseling people during their pregnancy.
How do your clients hear about you?
I get most of my people from the Internet, or from word of mouth and referrals. That's my best source of clients, word of mouth.
Who is your competition?
Certainly my competition is other homebirth midwives in the state, although we have really collaborative relationships. But 99% of women in Maine are choosing to birth their babies in the hospital, and I would love to see that number shift a little bit. It's not safe for 100% of women to have their babies at home, but it's certainly safe for more than one percent. So my competition in that sense is hospitals, but mostly it's an information sort of competition, just getting the word out that women have choices about [birth].
What are your plans for growth?
I would love to be doing more births than I'm doing. The trick for that is getting the word out that this is an option for people and that I'm in the area.
What has been the biggest challenge in going from the idea of this business to the reality?
I'm a midwife because I'm good at caring for people. I'm not a businessperson. The money side of things is certainly the hardest part for me because I love what I do and I would love to do it for nothing, but that's not my reality. So getting my brain around the fact that this is a business and it's a business that I need to sustain me, while at the same time holding my initial passion, which is serving women and families. Balancing the two of those is I think the most challenging for me.
Who or what has been a good resource for you on the business side?
I'm wildly lucky because my father's a CPA in Michigan. So he's been incredibly helpful because not only can he sort of do that stuff, but he's my father so he teaches me. So I feel like I've really gotten savvier with that sort of thing because he's forced me to. It's been great for me in the long run.
New Entrepreneurs profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to kelson@mainebiz.biz.
Employees: One
Startup costs: $10,000
Projected revenues, year one: $15,000
Projected revenues, year two: $15,000-$20,000
Contact: 522-6043
PO Box 875, Bath 04530
www.birchmoonmidwifery.com
Tell me about Birch Moon Midwifery.
It's a homebirth midwifery practice, so I do comprehensive prenatal care. I attend births at people's homes and then I do postpartum care for mom and baby until six weeks.
How did you learn to be a midwife?
I went to a small school in Bridgton called Birthwise Midwifery School. Their program is a year and a half of classroom work and then an apprenticeship, so I worked with other midwives in the area for close to two years, attending births with them, and then I also spent a month in the Philippines at a birth center there.
Why homebirth and midwifery?
I really believe that women know how to birth their babies and they birth their babies best when they feel safe and comfortable. For some women that's the hospital, but for some women that's notˆit's being at home with their family and their space. I think often the conventional medical system can be set up so that women don't have the choices that I think they should have about how and where and under what conditions to have their baby. My goal is really to empower women to make those choices for themselves and to do so by giving them information.
What are your hours like?
I split my time between doing direct client care and doing the business end of things, which I'm finding takes a fair amount of time. In a typical week I would see clients in their homes, so I'd be driving around, either going to prenatal appointments or checking on them and their baby after they have the birth. And then of course I get called to births at all hours. Once I take on a client I'm on-call all the time until their baby comes. So sometimes I might go weeks without having a birth and then I might have a couple births in a week or I might spend 48 hours at a birth. I also end up doing a lot of phone consulting with people, counseling people during their pregnancy.
How do your clients hear about you?
I get most of my people from the Internet, or from word of mouth and referrals. That's my best source of clients, word of mouth.
Who is your competition?
Certainly my competition is other homebirth midwives in the state, although we have really collaborative relationships. But 99% of women in Maine are choosing to birth their babies in the hospital, and I would love to see that number shift a little bit. It's not safe for 100% of women to have their babies at home, but it's certainly safe for more than one percent. So my competition in that sense is hospitals, but mostly it's an information sort of competition, just getting the word out that women have choices about [birth].
What are your plans for growth?
I would love to be doing more births than I'm doing. The trick for that is getting the word out that this is an option for people and that I'm in the area.
What has been the biggest challenge in going from the idea of this business to the reality?
I'm a midwife because I'm good at caring for people. I'm not a businessperson. The money side of things is certainly the hardest part for me because I love what I do and I would love to do it for nothing, but that's not my reality. So getting my brain around the fact that this is a business and it's a business that I need to sustain me, while at the same time holding my initial passion, which is serving women and families. Balancing the two of those is I think the most challenging for me.
Who or what has been a good resource for you on the business side?
I'm wildly lucky because my father's a CPA in Michigan. So he's been incredibly helpful because not only can he sort of do that stuff, but he's my father so he teaches me. So I feel like I've really gotten savvier with that sort of thing because he's forced me to. It's been great for me in the long run.
New Entrepreneurs profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to kelson@mainebiz.biz.
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