Hello! I’m so glad you’re here! Well, my basic info is that I’m a homeschooling mother of four, married to my husband since 2004, a childbirth educator, a birth photographer, children’s ministry director, and artist. I grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago and that part of the world still feels like home. But since then I’ve travelled around quite a bit and in fact, each of my four children was born in a different state! Minnesota, Michigan, Arizona, and my last here in New Braunfels, Texas!
I’ve always leaned toward doing things in a simple, real, natural way so in my first pregnancy I intended to have an unmedicated birth with midwives at a hospital. But while reading good books and taking an excellent childbirth class, I came to realize that what I really wanted was a homebirth. I transferred my care and never looked back. I had to find a new midwife in each state that we moved to, but each experience has been nothing but wonderful.
On my youngest child’s 2nd birthday, I signed up to certify with Birth Boot Camp and it has been so good! I’ve been certified since 2018 and teaching never gets old for me – I love what I do! In 2019 I added birth photography to my services because it’s such a joy to use my art to help parents honor, celebrate, and cherish this most incredible and precious experience in their lives. It’s a gift for them (I wish more parents knew this!) and honestly such a pleasure for me.
I’m a teacher at heart. My degree is in Elementary Education, I teach my kids at home, I teach kids at church, and I love teaching whenever I can about things I love! During my pregnancies I loved to read and learn, and I also took a great birth class that helped me feel so prepared. All of my birth experiences were amazing, and all this education and experience made me just love birth. Becoming a childbirth educator was a natural fit! Now it’s such a joy to get to help parents through this incredible time in their lives!
Working with first time moms is something I absolutely love. There is so much that we hear about, wonder about, worry about when we’ve never done this before and so it’s really powerful for these parents to go to a trustworthy class and get real knowledge, real practice, and real confidence as they go into this new work.
As soon as I found Birth Boot Camp, I felt an immediate connection. Their approach to birth was everything I believed and affirmed about birth. On top of that there is fantastic, personal support as well as excellent preparation for their instructors! It was a no-brainer!
I so enjoyed my Birth Boot Camp training! I appreciated that there were so many to choose from, so I was able to go to the training in Austin, which is not far from me in New Braunfels. Andrea Brannock was my trainer, and she was so warm and patient. The training was absolutely packed with useful information, and I loved that we practiced teaching with each other so we could see how it’s done and get comfortable with it.
One thing (among many) I love about Birth Boot Camp is that we go to training having already learned all the birth info we need to know. At the training we learn how to teach that info and get our business going! It really helps you get off to a running start!
The main class that I teach is the Homebirth and Birth Center class. I add on a Homecoming workshop at the end of that series to round it out. I have the privilege of teaching at Joyful Beginnings Birth Care in New Braunfels, which is where you can find the midwives who delivered my last baby! I always have the Homebirth and Birth Center class series on my schedule, and I absolutely love it since I share that homebirth connection with my students. My favorite part of teaching is showing my students that they do have very hard work ahead of them, but that they can absolutely do it and that it will be *incredible. *
Most of my students are first time parents, though I love it when I get parents in my classes who already have a baby but want to have a better birth experience than their last one. I love seeing my students go from being terrified of birth at the start to feeling confident and ready by the end of the class.
Here are a few kind words from my students:
“Her teaching methods make it easy to remember what you’ve learned, and her enthusiasm makes you look forward to the next class.”
“She has great experience and is incredibly knowledgeable about the entire process of pregnancy and birth! She is also very compassionate and patient. Always super willing to hear our questions and took the time to make sure they were answered.”
FB page: https://www.facebook.com/mollygraceBBCI
Classes: https://birthbootcamp.com/author/mgrace/
Website: https://mollyelizabethgracephotography.com/
