Today we’d like to introduce you to Cheryl Abrams.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Cheryl . So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I am a former hair stylist that retired in 2011. It was a perfect time to retire because I was tired of that business and I wanted to do something more meaningful and a little less stressful. If you know anything about doing other people’s hair and working in a hair salon all day and standing on your feet, I just wanted a change. I am now a Birth and Postpartum Doula, Newborn Care Specialist, Community Childbirth Educator, Breastfeeding Educator and Sleep Trainer. All of those titles came later after I completed my birth doula training. I began to listen to clients and just took other classes so that I could help future clients. How I began this journey came by way of working as a temporary nanny. One of my hair clients would come in and talk about her nanny clients. She never mentioned the names of these clients. I know they were people of means and I just thought her stories were funny and the places she went with the families were kind of captivating and I said that I did not want to do hair when I was 65 and I would like to be a nanny too someday. When My husband was in the military, I was a stay at home mom and in order to make ends meet, I took child care education classes offered by the base for those women who wanted to have a home daycare business on the military base and I did that for a while and enjoyed it. I asked my hair client for a list of agencies to contact and that is how my business got started on the path that it is today.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Well, I am glad you asked me that because as you know, I started out as a temporary nanny. I never planned on raising any one’s children. I know what nannies go through and it can be very taxing because you can’t discipline the children like they are your own because they aren’t yours. You have to deal with sometimes the idiosyncrasies of each parent and their quirks or the children being sweet around you and when their parents come home it’s like all hell broke loose. I took a 3-month mothers helper job for a mother who had just had a baby one year. She had two other toddlers. It was a great job not too far from my home. I enjoyed the family and all of their quirks and there were many. I learned how to adapt. Adapting was not a far stretch for me. I am a 10-year Army Veteran, I did hair for 20 years and doing hair will teach a person patience. In about month 2 of my working with this family the dad had to do a job out of town and mom asked me if I did not mind watching all of the children including the baby. The baby was never part of my charge. She said she needed to get a few hours of sleep. Well about an hour and a half mom comes downstairs and sees the baby sleeping and starts going off on me. I was mortified and I had to bite my tongue because I wanted to tell her off, but I was not ready to go to jail. I did not understand why she was so angry at me because her baby was sleeping. All I heard her say, “I can’t sleep, this baby keeps me up at night”. In her mind she is thinking the baby needed to stay up during the day so the baby will sleep at night.( I am a certified sleep trainer now that is not the case It’s the opposite)
So I went home mad and hurt and swore, I would never go back to that crazy house again. I got on the computer and researched depression in new mothers because of what I thought she was going through and I read an article about postpartum depression in new mothers and I saw some of the same symptoms that the article was describing in her. It talked about postpartum doulas and how they can help new mothers and it just made sense and it started to make sense and I wanted to read everything I could about becoming a postpartum doula and enrolled in a training course that month.
Babymoon Concierge – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The name of my business is Babymoon Concierge. It is the rebrand of (We Baby Momma) I specialize in taking birth clients on a concierge journey from prenatal to postpartum so that they will experience a happier birth and postpartum outcomes. The motto for my brand is (Babies Don’t Come With Instructions, But I do). The business concept is offering new parents childbirth education, breastfeeding education and support newborn education nursery setup, postpartum support as well as access to hundreds of New Parent resources Many women and men are ill prepared for birth. They plan for college, weddings, honeymoon and vacations but, when they become pregnant, they leave most of the planning in the hands of the healthcare system. That is a big problem. Never leave the most important event in the hands of someone else. Do your research. Many don’t know they have options. My goal is to educate and work hands on with clients from the beginning of their pregnancy until the 4th trimester so that they are well informed. What sets me apart is I am a trained birth doula, certified postpartum doula, breastfeeding consultant, newborn care specialist, and sleep trainer. I am also a cook and a licensed cosmetologist. I am equipped to assist them and help to get solutions to their prenatal, postnatal and emotional and needs. I am like a one stop shop.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
One of the proudest moments in my career is seeing the business that I started 6 years ago flourish and become sustainable. It is taking off. Also, to have your peers recommend clients to me is a big deal to me. I recently had someone who I don’t even know recommend me to a client who was here out of state and I helped her with a surrogate baby so I am very grateful for that I could teach this clueless mom about newborn care. Most recently I was part of a team of newborn care specialists who took care of a set of rare Quadruplets in Dallas. That was the coolest thing for me because I got to take care of these 4 babies by myself. Taking care of multiples may happen once in a career and I am so thankful for the experience taking care of Quadruplets babies.
Contact Info:
- Address: Fort Worth TX
- Website: https://www.babymoonconcierge.com
- Phone: 682-429-4637
- Email: cheryl@babymoonconcierge.com
- Instagram: babymoonconcierge
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/babymoonconcierge
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/babymoon-concierge-north-richland-hills-2?osq=Babymoon+concierge
Image Credit:
Alison Paige Photography Flower Mound TX
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