The Road to Metro Detroit Birth Stories: Growth, Change & Milestones

New Intro and Outro Still to come:

It’s been a journey! In the last several years, I launched Doula2Doula during the pandemic became a CBI trainer, navigated some major life changes, and finally decided to shift this podcast into a new format—this episode is all about growth, change, and what’s ahead.

I’m sharing the highlights from the past few years—like my son’s wedding, the launch of Medicaid doula coverage, and my own professional milestones—plus the real reason I chose to transition from a co-hosted conversational podcast to a solo-hosted storytelling space.

Join me for this recap of where we’ve been and a glimpse into the exciting future of Metro Detroit Birth Stories! 🩷

What’s one of the biggest life transitions you’ve experienced recently? I’d love to hear—DM me on Instagram @metrodetroitbirthsupport

Tranquil Touch Birth & Women's Wellness
Birth support services helping clients feel supported, cared for and confident about birth.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

I want to hear from you! Tell me your thoughts on this episode, or request to share your birth story in an upcoming episode.

Questions or Comments? Contact or Follow Exie

• YouTube: Tranquil Touch Birth & Women's Wellness channel
• Email: metrodetroitbirthstories@tranquiltouchforwomen.com
• Instagram: @metrodetroitbirthsupport
• Facebook: Tranquil Touch Birth & Women's Wellness

DISCLAIMER: The thoughts and opinions expressed on Metro Detroit Birth Stories are those of the participants. They do not represent any organization or profession. This show is meant to be informative, educational, and entertaining. Nothing in any episode (past, present, or future) should be construed as medical advice or take the place of your medical professional.
Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the very first episode of Metro Detroit Birth Stories. I'm Exie and I'm so excited to be with you here today. If you're new to me, I am a birth and postpartum doula, childbirth educator, and perinatal mental and emotional wellness coach.

Exie: 0:19

I've been supporting families as a birth support specialist in metro Detroit since 2005. You might also know me from listening to the previous iteration of this podcast, Doula2Doula, which I started during the pandemic and co-hosted with my friend and fellow doula Ciana, like so many others.

0:41

We jumped into podcasting when the world was shut down. We really missed seeing each other. Ciana was brand new in her birth doula journey, and I was so excited to be together with a friend who was also in the birth work. And it was an incredible way for us to connect and share our knowledge and build community when everything felt so uncertain.

Exie: 1:06

I interviewed other birth workers in the area and got to know them by Zoom before we were able to start seeing each other in person again. So it was a really wonderful time. But over the course of a couple of years, as life slowly returned to normal, Ciana and I both found ourselves pulled in very different directions, work and family, and other commitments just naturally took priority. And so then the podcast started to slow down. You can go back and listen to our Doula to Doula podcast and you'll see that the timeframe in between our episodes got longer and longer and longer. So now it's been actually a whole year since Ciana and I last recorded together, and I think that might've been the only episode we got to record last year. I wasn't quite sure what to do with our podcast, and part of me really wanted to keep it the way it was, but I had to be realistic and so part of me thought about walking away, but. I've always loved having a space to share, and so Ciana and I talked about it a little bit, and instead of letting the podcast go completely, with her blessing and support, I decided to reimagine it. That's what brings me here today. When I went into massage school, I knew I wanted to work with the perinatal or pregnant population. And so I got certified in prenatal massage and then immediately started looking into becoming a certified doula. So I did that and throughout that time I also became a childbirth educator. And during the pandemic, I joined Childbirth International as one of their trainers. And this has just gotten me a whole new outlook on this work. In 2023. My son, my eldest son got married. This was a huge milestone, and then if you're watching this on video, you can see that for the first time in 20 years, after he got married, we had an extra room in the house, and so my husband and I converted it into my office with the help of Devin Baumann from Blondie on a budget design. So if you're seeing this on video, I hope you like my background. In 2023, also the state of Michigan expanded Medicaid coverage for doula support, and that has been a total game changer here in Michigan. Something that so many of us wanted, we would see clients who, potential clients who had limited financial resources and could not pay our normal fees, and so many of us, me included, have done pro bono work over the years. But it's hard work and it takes a lot of time. And if you know anything about how a doula's schedule works, because doula work is based on the continuity of care, we limit the number of clients that we take each month, and so we really were unable to fully serve those in our community who were in great need. So since 2023, once the announcement was made, I jumped on the bandwagon and filled out all the paperwork and became credentialed to work with all of the insurance companies in the state of Michigan and southeast Michigan. That brings me to November of 2024. In October, my lease of the office I had been in for eight years in downtown Farmington, where I did both birth work and massage therapy was expiring again, and it took a lot of time and thought, um, for me to decide what to do, and the answer was for me to transition away from formal office massage therapy. So that I could focus fully on birth work and perinatal mental and emotional wellness. Why perinatal mental and emotional wellness? Because it's so connected with pregnancy, there's so much involved with it, and I myself suffered from what I now know is undiagnosed postpartum depression, and so I know the emotional load that can happen on anybody when they have a newborn, but particularly on those who do not have a strong support system. So during all of this, I was also getting trained formally through postpartum Support International. In December, I achieved my goal of passing my exam, so I now have Postpartum Support International or PSI's credentials of PMHC, which means perinatal mental health certified. I'm not a therapist or a counselor, but I can help my clients, those that I'm working with throughout their pregnancy and birth or those who just come to me to kind of bridge the gap and help them navigate that heavy emotional load that comes with pregnancy and birth and having a newborn and all of those changes. So that was a huge goal and a huge achievement for me. So that brings me to today. Now I'm recording this in March, the end of March, 2025, and I am so excited. I guess I can announce it because it has been publicly made known. I have been asked to present at this year's M-D-H-H-S, Maternal Infant Health Summit's 1st annual Doulas Do day, which will come the day preceding the summit. I'm just so honored and I feel like it's such a privilege. Honestly, it just confirms that the steps that I've taken over the last couple of years, but specifically over the last few months, it just confirms that I am making the right choices. So why renew and relaunch my podcast amidst all of this? Because stories matter. I love to hear stories. I watch documentaries all the time because I wanna know the stories behind historical events, movies that are made from true life events, all of those things, I want to hear the stories. And for years I've worked with parents who have had incredible and challenging and beautiful and healing birth experiences. I often hear from my clients, maybe those who have had babies previously."Oh, I wish I had known this before" or"no one told me this could happen", but alternatively, I've also heard it with this perspective."I wish I had known this before! Now I know what to do!" Or no one told me this could happen, that I could have such an incredible birth experience!" Metro Detroit Birth Stories podcast is a space to share those real, raw and inspiring stories. I'm going to feature conversations with parents, doulas, other birth professionals like lactation consultants and pelvic floor therapists, all sharing their experiences so that you can hear them and connect with little nuggets in their stories so that you can feel more prepared for your own birth journey. I have some really exciting episodes planned. My first interview is next month. It will be my April episode. I plan on doing these once a month, and that interview is going to be with a wonderful woman named Kristi She's going to explain why she reached out to me to share her birth story. So what does that mean for you? It means, I wanna hear from you. If you are a parent or a birth worker in Metro Detroit and you have a story to share, or even outside of Metro Detroit because, hey, we've got technology, right? If you have a birth story, any kind of birth story that you want to share, it doesn't matter if it was six months ago or 60 years ago; those experiences stay with us and I want to hear it. So I'd love to feature you on the podcast. You can message me on social medias: I am on Instagram at@MetroDetroitBirthSupport. You can find me on Facebook, Tranquil Touch Birth Women's Wellness, or you can email me: metrodetroitbirthstories@tranquiltouchforwomen.com any of those ways works for me. And if you're in metro Detroit we can even meet together personally to record and have you share your story. So here's to new beginnings. Thank you so much for joining me on this first episode. I can't wait to bring you more birth stories, insight from the field, from my experiences, from a professional point of view, and conversations in the months ahead. Until next time. Please take care of each other. I hope that you have a beautiful day, and I'll see you again real soon.