Hi! I’m Kristen Mason,
I’m a cross-certified full-spectrum doula and childbirth educator! I have two beautiful children, one born at home and the other in a hospital.
I am also the owner-operator of Childbirth Together Education and Doula Services LLC. as well as the Executive Director of Birth It Forward.
Helping families grow in love, bliss, and size is my life’s passion.
I grew up the second oldest in a family of four girls. My mom was a business owner of a gymnastics center. It wasn’t unusual for our house to be filled with gymnasts and daycare kids dropped off before, or kept after school. I was surrounded by big families, including my best friend and her sixteen siblings. Her mother was a midwife and she greatly influenced my view of birth. We talked long and often about how birth could be if a mother’s support team trusted and supported her decisions. That was all I knew about birth until my older sister went into labor.
It was nothing like what we talked about.
The staff simply didn’t respect her wishes and kept trying to force their idea of what birth should look like on her. I distinctly remember one nurse turning to another with a tight smile mockingly saying “this one wants a natural birth.” To say I was shocked would be an understatement. I want to emphasize that they were not bad people, the “enemy”, or anything short of an integral part of her birth team. They simply weren’t the right fit for her. After that experience, I wanted to learn everything I could about building a birth support team.
I started with a book from Ida May, recommended to me by my midwife while pregnant with my first child, followed by the Bradley Method birth course. After the home birth of my first child, I student taught Bradley Method and studied to become a certified instructor. During our reunion, after my students gave birth, the course instructor asked them what they wished they had learned. Many of them answered with questions that pertained to medication, necessary intervention, c-sections, and postpartum depression. I left that night thinking deeply about the short comings of putting birth education in a box and only teaching from within those confines.
After an exhaustive search, I found a certification organization that was full of information I had never been exposed to before called Bebo Mia. I learned to support births in its many forms and the importance of respect in a birth room. My instructors emphasized working with doctors, midwives, nurses, husbands, partners, mothers, friends, any and every person in that birthing space.
It took me a year and a half but I finally achieved my Maternal Support Certification in January of 2020, becoming a certified doula! In that time I had an amazingly beautiful hospital birth and founded my business, Childbirth Together Education and Doula Services LLC.
After moving to the Kansas City Area, I met Cheryl Gates, a local midwife and owner of Milestones Midwifery, where I got my Childbirth Education Certification. Through her, I was introduced to KC Women’s Ministry, now Birth It Forward, where I now serve as the Executive Director and as a volunteer doula for families that can’t afford it. I attend home, birthing center, and hospital births alike; medicated, natural, and elective c-sections.
What all of these births have in common is an informed and empowered mother in the driver’s seat of her own birth - This is what I aim to provide all of my clients.
Certifications
Certified Childbirth Educator through Milestones Midwifery
Certified Birth and Bereavement Doula through Stillbirthday
Certified Maternal Support Practitioner (full spectrum doula) through Bebo Mia Inc.
CRP Certified through American Safety & Health Institute
Professional Memberships
