Today we’d like to introduce you to Marlee and Megan Malone-Franklin.
Marlee and Megan, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Marlee: I’ve always gravitated towards anything related to pregnancy, birth, and family dynamics. Growing up, I loved when an expecting mom would let me feel her baby kick inside her belly, or when a parent let me help them with their toddler. I listened to people talk about their families and eagerly soaked up information about child development, parenthood, and the physiology of pregnancy and birth.
As a young adult, I considered becoming a family counselor or a teacher, but I knew I’d never been comfortable or fulfilled working with families in such a prescribed role. I’d seen parents and children struggle when they couldn’t get the help they needed from institutions and licensed professionals. I wanted to work with people in a more flexible way that was tailored to their specific needs. I was so excited to learn about doula care and this new, dynamic way I could connect with growing families.
Megan: A few years ago, I accidentally started reading about birth, and I couldn’t stop! I was really taken by the way it seemed people could “do everything right” and still hit so many bumps in the road on their path to parenthood. I became very interested in the ways our systems and societal norms affected growing families. It was also hard to learn how isolating pregnancy and parenthood can be in our culture.
I developed a passion for becoming a resource for parents, both in terms of providing information, and as emotional support. This is a time of deep change for many parents, and it’s an honor to be able to provide some guidance along that path of transformation. Becoming a doula and parent educator has provided such a meaningful way to work with people as they explore what it means to grow their family, who they are as a parent, and how these experiences change them as a person.
Fun fact: We adopted a cocker spaniel from a shelter in August, and she turned out to be pregnant! (She couldn’t be spayed right away because she had an infection at the time.) Less than 2 months later, we had a home birth on our couch!
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?
When we first started out, we thought our clients would want ALL THE THINGS. We put together doula packages that involved massages, postpartum gift baskets, baby boxes à la Finland, birthstone jewelry, you name it. We were surprised when clients turned down those perks and chose our simplest package again and again. We started to figure out that what meant the most to our clients was our presence, gentle guidance, and support, instead of more stuff.
We’ve been refining our practice even further in the last year to meet our clients’ needs. We are excited to now offer support prenatally through childbirth preparation, during birth through doula care in labor, and assistance in the early weeks postpartum through doula support as well as lactation and infant feeding guidance. This has allowed us to provide our clients a full continuum of care with people they already know and trust, rather than having to find a different provider for each of those needs (or worse – not receiving needed support because they didn’t know it existed). This wraparound care model has also been a wonderful way for us to build a true connection with our clients longer-term, getting to know their individual needs and values so our support can be tailored for each family.
Please tell us about Hero Birth Services.
Through our business, Hero Birth Services, we offer birth and postpartum doula support, lactation and infant feeding support and education, private childbirth preparation classes, and belly casting. We also recently began offering Birth Story Medicine®, a guided process to help parents reframe a difficult, traumatic, or disappointing birth experience.
We are proud to work with a diverse range of families, including those losing their babies too soon. We created a sister website, ocpregnancyloss.com to offer support and resources for Orange County families experiencing miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant loss.
We’ve been practicing from the Birthing From Within perspective since 2016 and it has made quite an impact on our work. Birthing From Within offers a completely judgment-free approach to working with parents. We love the emphasis on mindfulness and self-exploration in addition to evidence-based information. We have a strong focus on parents’ emotional journeys through pregnancy, birth, and beyond – something that oftentimes doesn’t get much attention, even when parents are working with a childbirth teacher or even a doula.
We’re proud to offer true care and support for every type of birth, walking alongside parents as they journey into the unknown.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Marlee: When my sweet, tiny Russian Dwarf Hamsters had babies! They were the most darling little family. The parents worked together to build a nest of tissues and pine shavings, held together with a wispy web of shredded cotton balls. The mother birthed her babies and stayed with them in the nest while her partner brought her food. When she needed a break, he stayed with her and kept the babies warm.
The parents trusted us and let us hold their babies when they were just hours old – still tiny and pink. It was so much fun watching the parents tend to their little ones! When my family made pancakes on the weekends, my mom and I always made teeny tiny ones for our hamsters, which they would take from us with both hands. They would eat the pancakes all in one sitting instead of stowing them away in their pouches for later.
Megan: My sisters and I were in 4-H growing up. We started out with cooking and photography, but one year my parents decided we could branch out into animals. We got rabbits for Christmas and chicks on Halloween. I loved learning about the animals, getting to hold them, and seeing them grow up. Our chickens even won the egg laying contest at the Orange County Fair one year!
Contact Info:
- Address: Serving Orange County and Long Beach, CA
- Website: herobirthservices.com
- Phone: 562.857.0965
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: facebook.com/herobirthservices
- Twitter: twitter.com/HeroBirthSvs
- Other: ocpregnancyloss.com
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