Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Espey-Mueller and McKayla Espey.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Melissa and McKayla. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Melissa: North Dallas Doula Associates was established in 1999 as the first doula practice in Dallas Fort Worth. Until recently, my primary role was working as a birth doula, but my foundation began many years ago as the assistant to the director of Parent Education at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, where I also served as an educator. Wow, has it all come full circle!
In my nearly 21 years as a doula, I have learned that the best birth is an informed and supported birth and should be built on a foundation of informed consent. Fast forward to 2017, when I was approached by a hospital administrator to facilitate and direct their childbirth education program, which I gladly and wholeheartedly accepted. Shortly after, I took on this new and rewarding adventure and, to my delight, my oldest child decided to come and work with me and the rest is “herstory.”
Mckayla was only four years old when this business was born. I searched and finally found my passion for supporting women and children. It was then that I decided I needed to do it (meaning doula work) at the most professional and sustainable level possible. The practice grew from just me to a team of 22 currently. We, as a practice, now serve thousands of families annually as birth and postpartum doulas, lactation consultants and placenta encapsulators, as well as through our award-winning education programs. I never imagined my daughter would someday work beside me and help me to create additional opportunities through hospital education collaborations. She has been an integral part in helping me to facilitate contracts with three major hospitals in the last three years.
McKayla Grace Espey, named after the fiercest woman I know, my grandmother was born early at only 32 weeks. She weighed only 4lbs and was feisty and a fighter from the get-go. She is the oldest of five children and fills the role as a leader and second mom, even to me sometimes. She has always been stubborn, determined and committed, even in the times I wish she wasn’t committed… like when she was determined to cut her sister’s hair.
McKayla went to college and graduated from Tarleton State University with a Business and Finance degree. She was one of three women who graduated with that degree out of 1500 on her graduation day. She was trained as a postpartum doula through ProDoula her junior year of college and completed her Birth doula training and certification through BEST last year. Still, she is the most “experienced” new doula, I know.
In 2017 McKayla joined the North Dallas Doula Associates team as the Finance and Administrative Director. Her role has evolved as our business has grown and begun facilitating new parent education programs for Baylor University Medical Center and Medical City Las Colinas.
McKayla: I feel like I have been training for this role my whole life up until this point. I can remember listening to my mom talking to clients on the phone, sitting in the back of her classes or lectures, and her leaving events and holiday dinners to rush to be at the side of another woman giving birth. At the time, I didn’t give her much grace, she worked so hard to build this dream of hers and as a teenager, I didn’t always understand why she was always hustling. As I grew older, our relationship changed and grew and I started seeing her as the self-made business-woman that she is. She built this incredible practice serving, empowering and educating women without the help of a degree in business or any knowledge of building a brand. Yet, she did it and she did it at a level nobody in the area had seen before. The connections she has made, especially through her role as a hospital educator, fostered many connections with physicians, midwives and even hospital administration.
When she decided that she wanted to propose a collaboration to facilitate hospital new family education, which includes childbirth classes, breastfeeding classes, CPR classes, newborn care classes, prepared to push classes, LGBTQIA specific classes and many more in a hospital setting, I jumped at the chance to work beside her. I knew I finally had a lot to offer and contribute to her dream. She will tell you that Baylor is her home away from home and that is a true statement. To say we are excited to facilitate the classes and class programming, there is a complete understatement. When a hospital allows families the opportunity to have unbiased, evidence-based childbirth education they experience greater patient satisfaction and confidence in themselves, their care providers and birthing facility. I am incredibly proud to be a part of NDDA and look forward to what the future holds.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Melissa: Clearly, COVID has been a struggle. Our newest education contract with Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas began in December of 2019 and then in March. We had to move from in-person classes to virtual classes only. It was definitely challenging to provide classes on a virtual platform that still allowed families to feel informed and supported. We quickly worked with our hospitals to provide immediate options for their educational needs, while simultaneously working to provide virtual birth doula support until recently. Although our classes remain virtual, we are now able to provide in-person doula support at home, birth centers, and many area hospitals.
Mckayla: Luckily, for the most part, I walked into a fine-tuned machine as far as the marketing, branding, and services of NDDA. This practice is well known and well respected and I cannot even imagine being a new doula without a mentor like I have had. However, I do love systems, charts, graphs, spreadsheets, etc and I have developed many new ways to allow for the practice to run more smoothly and efficiently, which has been detrimental during the pandemic and the need to convert to virtual classes.
I definitely don’t want to discount the rocky road I know my mom and her mentor walked to provide not only me but other new doulas with the ability to do this work professionally and at the highest, most respected level. She has worked tirelessly to pave the way for collaboration between clinical staff and doulas. It is in part because of hers and other experienced doulas and their connections and determination that we were even considered to facilitate education programs within the hospital. I know it is no small feat and something to be celebrated.
North Dallas Doula Associates – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are the oldest and most award-winning doula practice in DFW. We have won Best Doula in Dallas 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020. Best Childbirth Classes 2017 and 2020. And Best Doula in Collin County in 2020.
We work hard to provide inclusive, safe and trustworthy services to families in the Dallas Fort Worth area. We truly believe in the power of non-judgmental support and the importance of finding and using your voice. Birth is transformative and often the most monumental of moments, it is an honor to witness and we regard it as the greatest of privileges.
Contact Info:
- Address: North Dallas Doula Associates
107 Murray St
Dallas Texas 75226 - Website: www.northdallasdoulas.com
- Phone: 469.608.0071
- Email: northdallasdoulas@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/northdallasdoulas
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NorthDallasDoulaAssociates
- Other: https://www.bswhealth.com/locations/dallas/specialties/womens-health/Pages/childbirth-classes.aspx
Image Credit:
Dani Adams Barry Photography
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