We just wanted to touch base with our followers and let everyone know where in the process we are at!  Building a birth center has so many facets and so many moving parts!  We have been working for almost a year now to bring this service to Cheyenne.  On the one hand that seems like a long time, but on the other hand, we are really just beginning.  Allison and I have put a lot of time, effort, and thought into our business concept, our ideals, our mission, our vision, and our sustainability.  After hammering out our business plans, budgets, pro formas, figuring out business structure, coaching, and a lot of dreaming, we hit the ground running.  

When it is all concept, it’s hard to know what step to focus on next!  (Short answer, ALL of the steps ALL at once!)  Last fall we had our eye on a building that would be the “go big or go home” version.  Vast amounts of space, ideal location, and the option to purchase.  We pursued this, even getting a Conditional Use Approval from the city as it was zoned Multi Use Residential and we needed permission for Medical Office space.  We received that permission and were encouraged by the approval!  However, as we began contract negotiations, we realized that we weren’t comfortable with taking on such a huge purchase, realized our rehab costs would be upwards of $500,000 on top of the building purchase, and we had too many unknowns, including how long it would really take to find, hire, and employ a midwife or three.  We decided against that building, even after we had spent some money in preliminary planning.  While that stings a bit when you start out with such little capital, it’s a small price to pay for avoiding a potentially stressful mortgage situation!  We learned a lot in the process, though, so that counts for something!  

Realizing purchasing a building seemed like putting the cart before the horse, we began focusing on the search for a midwife.  We were elated to find a great fit with Kim!  This really inspired us to keep moving forward and to stay motivated and committed to our vision.  Hiring our first midwife subsequently set into motion the next level of efforts.  We started moving from “concept” to “reality”.  Payroll.  Policies.  Procedures.  Electronic Records.  Clinic space.  Birth Space. And so much more!  

In the meantime, we had to also begin pursuing any type of funding available.  We have applied for grants and have been turned down.  We have applied for other grants and have been accepted!  Being awarded several paid internship grants through Wyoming Workforce Services was a HUGE boost!  We also received a mini grant through The Local Crowd which has been supporting us in building a startup campaign for small businesses to get seed money.  This has also been a huge boost.  Not only does The Local Crowd help us build a campaign, they provide a platform, one-on-one coaching, and several bonuses in monetary value along the way!  We have a goal of $15,000 to earn by the end of April.  We are almost to $5000, and even if we don’t get much past that, it’s $5000 more than we had before!  We are SO grateful for any level of support.  We have already been able to purchase ALL of our clinic supplies, and hope to earn enough to purchase the remaining birth supplies soon!  We are continuing to pursue loans, lines of credit, and more grant opportunities.  

So, now that we have a midwife, the big question is, “Where are you located?”  The answer?  “It’s complicated!”  The space, for a while now, has been a “we need to keep looking, but we can’t make anything official because we aren’t generating income, and it’s a ways down the road, but oh wait!  Now we need space and we need it yesterday!”

Currently, we are offering childbirth classes, breastfeeding classes, and breastfeeding support groups in Sarah’s home living room.  We are offering Mama meetups in the park or at Allison’s home.  We felt strongly that regardless of how long it takes to build out a permanent facility, these services are so needed in our community we wanted to start anyway.

We have a temporary “clinic and birth space” location to begin seeing clients as well.  It’s a cozy studio that has a full bathroom, kitchen, queen bed, and enough space for an inflatable birth tub in addition to a regular bathtub!  It’s also located 6 blocks from the hospital.  We are currently on the hunt for more temporary office space to do clinic work and reserve the studio for strictly birth space.  We have our eye on a potential permanent facility in the downtown area but it is in the very beginning stages.  We think it’s IDEAL and we are hoping it comes to us and can’t wait to begin that phase, while at the same time, we are quite conscious of moving forward sustainably, “frugally”, and reasonably!  We have been able to begin to break down our steps forward into more bitesize chunks and every day open to the knowing that the next step will appear.  We may have to operate in several different spaces in 2023.  Hopefully, we will have a temporary office/clinic space, a birth space, and a meeting space with the intent of a permanent space within the next year, that will then be licensed and accredited. This will remain the goal, even as we start small and in a cozy, homelike setting. For now, we are focused on the baby steps, the next steps, the steps that will lead to sustainability, quality, and the right steps forward.

I tend to be an open book and am willing to share that this vision, which seemed to come to me as an inspired idea, has brought so much excitement, fear, hope, confidence, growth, anxiety, and pretty much every emotion to the forefront for me.  The days of confidence and excitement and progress can be thrown off by a day of disappointing news, realizing I’ve made a mistake, or being overwhelmed by the many tasks and hurdles that lay ahead.  I often think of a cartoon character who leaps off a cliff and is soaring, yelling, “I’m flying!  I’m flying!  I’m really doing it!” Only to look down, see the ground so far below, and start falling.  It is there I am able to slow down, stay present, and realize that is me holding back my own potential.  I am in this project deep enough that I realize we will either succeed or fail, either one on a quite spectacular level.  As my friend tells me, there are only successes and there are learning opportunities.  We try to step back from those moments of fear, allow it to wash over us, see it for what it is, breathe, and remember our “why”.  

We are doing this scary thing because someone needs to do it.  We are doing it because women deserve midwifery care.  They deserve holistic care.  They deserve to feel cared for, supported, and empowered.  Families in Cheyenne and the surrounding area need it, and they need it now. 

We continue to feel so much encouragement from our community, our supporters, and our friends and family!  We hope that our transparency is helpful and that we appreciate those that can see where we are at, and our next steps forward, and are in it with us, even through the temporary spaces, the changes, the unknown, and the adventure!