Inspiring Conversations with Courtney Satow of Courtney Nicole Birth Services

Today we’d like to introduce you to Courtney Satow.

Hi Courtney, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I have always wanted a career in women’s wellness. I’m a former collegiate soccer player and through my own struggles as a young adult, I realized how important it is to take care of ourselves from an early age. I graduated college with a BS in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Wellness. I immediately enrolled in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition to pursue a career in holistic nutrition and well-being. I worked at various places offering my services and also did corporate wellness for a number of years. Through this, I took notice fairly quickly that most people dramatically needed to reduce their stress and take time for themselves. I was referring clients to yoga classes and to take up a spiritual practice but I too needed this recommendation. I took a yoga teacher training in 2014, began teaching shortly after in both public and private settings, and loved it. It truly transformed my life. I opened a private studio space that I shared with an esthetician and massage therapist called “Bliss”. It was our baby and we loved being there.

One day while teaching a public class, I had a pregnant woman walk in. I had a brief training on Pre/postnatal yoga but not near enough to remember all of the things I could offer up for her to feel taken care of. I ended up telling her all the things she couldn’t do and left that class feeling like I didn’t do enough. I enrolled into a 100 hour pre/postnatal specific teacher training and it blew my mind. I loved everything about it. We dove into childbirth education, postpartum preparation, and all the things pregnancy, birth, and beyond. I was hooked. The following month I completed my Doula training at Bini Birth in Sherman Oaks. I was able to support three lovely women and their partners during their transition to becoming parents as a doula trainee and am forever grateful for their faith and trust in me. Those births, among many other things, allowed me to become certified and continue on my path to serving birthing people.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I would say it has been fairly smooth and I feel lucky to say that. I would not be able to live this on-call life without my Mom who lives 5-minutes away and my husband who adjusts to my ever-changing schedule as best he can. With that, I do want to call attention to our hospitals. There are quite a bit of working pieces that have made it difficult for doulas to do their jobs (in general) but mainly since the start of the pandemic. From not allowing us to attend to our clients at all at the start of COVID to ever-changing policies that make no sense. This seeking of control has only hurt birthing people (not allowing anyone in triage/leaving someone to labor by themselves, telling doulas to wait outside until client admitted, the rise in unnecessary inductions under the guise of safety). It is frustrating to say the least. There are a lot of incredible birth workers out there that want to change the world. Happy and healthy moms and dads and children are an essential piece to that puzzle. We must do better for birthing people. America’s maternal and infant mortality rates are going up and as a developed country this is unacceptable. Doulas know a lot. We see a lot. With that, I want to add that there are many nurses and sometimes OBs taking it upon themselves to take trainings like “Spinning Babies” where their philosophy is “balance before force”. This is proven to provide better outcomes.

As you know, we’re big fans of Courtney Nicole Birth Services. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I offer birth doula support, childbirth education, pre/postnatal yoga and wellness. I co-teach a series called “Prepared Pregnancy” which started as an online pandemic childbirth education series and is now in person. Our participants get to know each other well, continue supporting each other, and many have become close, hanging out with their littles often and enrolling in Mommy and Me classes together. We are starting to teach yoga in studio again which has been fun. You don’t get the same experience practicing through Zoom. All of our classes and how to enroll are listed on my website.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I think any time someone starts their own business, it’s a risk. Putting yourself out there and not having a steady paycheck can be scary and I’ve gone through lots of ups and downs, especially having two kids and one during the pandemic. I didn’t work while pregnant for a substantial amount of time and also took months off postpartum without any paid leave. Outside of that, I don’t really like taking risks I hate to say! I am such a planner in most aspects of my life. I wish I was a little more free in that respect. In my line of work as a doula, we do weigh a lot of risk vs benefit. It’s my job to educate my clients so they can make their own choices and advocate for themselves. I think there is a lot of misconceptions about risk in the birth world. For instance, there is risk associated with birthing in a hospital setting but many feel most safe there in the case that something could go wrong. On the contrary, it is quite low risk to birth at home for those with healthy pregnancies. It’s all perspective once you engulf yourself in the information and data.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.CourtneyNicoleBirthServices.com
• Instagram: @CourtneyNicoleSatow

Image Credits
Rachel Campbell Photo Alexis Peterson Photography Nicole Leigh Foster Courtney Satow