Our Story

Before Thrive existed, there was just one of us: a healthcare professional who thought she knew what to expect.

She had years of experience observing and managing labor and birth. Countless hours babysitting growing up. She was financially stable, emotionally ready, and completely in love with her partner. By every measure, she was prepared.

And then pregnancy humbled her.

She experienced several miscarriages before a pregnancy finally stuck, and when it did, hyperemesis gravidarum made those early months brutal. She labored for 72 unmedicated hours to bring her sweet, stubborn daughter into the world. Two days later, she was sent home still reeling — physically and emotionally — with a baby and no roadmap for what came next. She didn't recognize her own body. Breastfeeding felt impossible. She felt so unlike herself. She needed help, and she didn't know how to ask for it, or where to turn.

What saved her wasn't a single resource or a perfect plan. It was people. An incredible network of friends and birth workers she discovered along the way — people who showed up, who knew things, who helped her figure it out. With their support, she began to thrive. (Yes, that's where the name comes from.)

By the time she added her second, third, and fourth children, the difference was extraordinary. She could feel her community around her at every turn. The transitions were still hard — but she never felt alone in them. That experience changed what she believed was possible for new parents, and it changed what she knew she had to do.

After the pandemic birth of her fourth baby, she made the decision to scale back her clinical hours and build something she wished had existed when she needed it most. She trained as a doula in 2022 and is certified through DONA International, earned her credentials as a Certified Lactation Counselor (CLC) through the Academy of Lactation Policy and Practice, and completed her training as an Evidence Based Birth® Instructor — because she loves learning, she's a nerd, and she's completely unapologetic about it.

That's how Thrive began. But it didn't stay a team of one for long.

As word spread, other doulas — each with their own reasons for choosing this work, their own training, their own stories of being changed by birth — found their way to Thrive. Today, we're a team of doulas serving the Columbus, Ohio area, united by the same belief our founder discovered in her own postpartum days: no one should have to figure this out alone.

We specialize in being a calm, trusted presence when things feel overwhelming. We're good at translating medical language into plain English, cutting through the noise in high-pressure moments, and making sure birthing people have the information and confidence to make the right choices for their bodies and their babies.

Thrive exists because every new parent deserves what our founder eventually found: a community that shows up, knowledge that empowers, and support that makes the hard parts feel survivable.

5 things for potential clients to know about our founder…

She is a Family Nurse Practitioner with an additional board certification as an HIV Specialist from the American Academy of HIV Medicine.

Her favorite part of my job is building long-term relationships with my clients and watching them flourish.

She has personally given birth 4 times in a variety of situations (birth center, hospital, midwife, doctor, doula, no doula, long labor, short labor, unmedicated labor, epidural, induction, & the pandemic…)

She secretly love being awake in the middle of the night while the rest of the world sleeps. It's when she feels most creative and courageous.

She hates coffee. She does, however, love an ice-cold Diet Coke any time of the day or night (she knows. It’s gross. We all have our vices.)