Rachel Ellis, RN, works in the ICU and, for the past five years, has primarily worked in the critical care setting, but on the side, though, she provides postpartum care to new moms.
Here’s her story. We edited the interview for length and clarity.
Why did you decide to start your postpartum side gig? When did you start it, and how did you go about it?
The decision to start a side gig in postpartum care stems back to 2009, after the birth of my first child. At that time, I didn’t have the language for the postpartum experience I found myself in. Sadly, this is a common theme for most new mothers in modern-day America.
I had spent nine months planning for a beautiful water birth but had completely neglected to prepare for the postpartum time. In hindsight, I noticed how providers offered little-to-no education or care about the postpartum period. Because of my wonderful birth experience, I initially chose to go into the nursing field to become a midwife but ended up in bedside nursing instead.
In 2020 while in my second pregnancy and during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I realized that I wasn’t doing what I felt most passionate about. Although nursing is rewarding, I felt burnt out and began to remember my “why.” Why did I get into nursing in the first place?
Throughout my second pregnancy, I began researching and prepping for my postpartum time instead of planning for my birth. While exploring, I found a podcast episode featuring Rachelle Garcia Seliga, a New Mexico midwife speaking about postpartum care.
After listening to a particular episode, I suddenly had the language missing from my previous postpartum experience. With intentional preparation, I went on to heal my story by having the most wonderful postpartum experience after the birth of my second child. I wanted everyone to know they could have the same experiences after birth. In 2022, I became a certified postpartum care practitioner through Innate Traditions and created a business called Nourished Beginnings. I had never worked in a postpartum care setting before this.
What need did you see in the community—so that you knew or at least thought this would work? What type of women uses your services? Why do they need assistance postpartum? Is this covered by insurance or a cash-based business?
Innate Traditions was created by Rachelle Garcia Seliga, a midwife in New Mexico, to teach people traditional postpartum care. This model of care is unique in our modern-day society as her teachings weave together the common threads of postpartum care from cultures around the world.
For millennia, communities have been utilizing specific modalities to tend to postpartum mothers’ physiologic design resulting in optimal health. Today–especially in America–most people associate postpartum with depression when in reality, the postpartum time is when a woman heals and should come out on the other side thriving. Luckily, in most intact cultures (China, India, New Mexico, Somalia), these traditions are still carried on and passed down from generation to generation. We are looking to the wisdom of these cultures to relearn and remember how to take care of new mothers.
This is important work for the collective of humanity because “Mothers are the soil from which humanity grows,” to quote my teacher Rachelle. I often notice how negatively women speak about their postpartum bodies, experiences, etc. The need for this work is so dire, in my opinion, as I’ve seen new mothers in the darkest moments of their lives after having a baby.
The type of women and families who seek out my services are typically not first-time mothers. They have already been through the trenches and realize the importance of having help outside their partners.
Most women seeking my services also live a holistic lifestyle and typically experience more natural ways of birthing, such as unmedicated or home birth. My type of service is not covered by insurance; however, I am connected to a large doula agency working in the tri-state area, which can match families looking to utilize health insurance or working on a sliding scale based on income.
Approximately how many patients do you serve? You can make it on a weekly/monthly basis. Is it challenging to balance your side gig and your full-time job?
In terms of service, I typically take on 1-2 clients a month. I will work with a new mother for the first month after her baby is born. My offering emphasizes nourishment, as I am passionate about food as medicine and utilizing a lot of bodywork in my care with a new mother.
It can be challenging to balance my life as a bedside nurse, running my business, and being a full-time mother. Still, I am choosing to go per diem as a bedside nurse shortly to allow room for my business to blossom, as this work will change how our society cares for mothers.
Did you have previous entrepreneurial experience? Or did you learn on the go? Did it take a lot of time or money to establish your business?
As someone with no previous entrepreneurial experience before this, navigating details such as website design, marketing, and social media, has been interesting. The program I took through Innate Traditions was an investment and a nine-month commitment. However, beyond that, it hasn’t taken much financially to start going out there and working within my community. It has been more of a time commitment than anything else.
What did you enjoy most about your side- gig?
What I enjoy most about my side gig is the freedom to create hours that work for my lifestyle and family.
I also love teaching the education series “Innate Traditions Planning for the fourth trimester” with clients and their partners/friends/families because it genuinely brings that piece of the community into the postpartum time before a woman even arrives there. So many families appreciate this education series and have told me they feel way more prepared to care for their loved ones than ever.
What are some of the challenges?
Some challenges I face are finding time to bulk cook for clients throughout the week with a toddler and infant at my side and learning certain things on the go since I am new at running my own business. Luckily, I have a great community that I’m a part of where I can ask questions when more support is needed.
What are the most significant rewards of having your side gig?
This work is gratifying because I witness new mothers come out of their postpartum cocoons feeling rejuvenated and wanting to do it all over again. It truly doesn’t feel like “work” at all. \
What would you say to someone considering starting a side gig like yours—with postpartum care?
Something I recommend to anyone looking to start a business like this is to remember your boundaries. It can be easy to become a babysitter to older children and occasionally perform some light household chores for new families. Remember to center the new mother and inform everyone in the new mother’s postpartum space what your role is. Education is so essential beforehand as this will help all parties recognize what you will be doing during that time.
Also, make sure you’re taking time to prioritize your needs. Remember that you can’t pour from an empty cup as you serve others.
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