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Meet Krystyna Bowman of Sweet Pea Births

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Krystyna Bowman.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
We are the parents of four children. Our journey as childbirth educators started when we were pregnant with our first child thirteen years ago. We took Bradley Method classes to prepare for a natural labor in a hospital setting that is not always conducive or friendly towards couples who desire a natural birth. After the birth of our first child, we had the inkling that we wanted to help other families prepare for their birth journey. We had a long labor, and our knowledge about and trust in the birthing process helped us persevere and advocate for a vaginal birth, albeit with the use of Pitocin.

After our second child was born and weighed in at 11 pounds, 1 ounce after a natural birth in the hospital, we were told by the doctor that if they had known he was going to be so big, they would have insisted on a cesarean birth. His birth was our easiest and fastest – thank God they didn’t know. That sealed the deal – I did not want anyone to be forced into an intervention or procedure because they lacked the tools to ask questions and be their own care advocate. We decided to become certified in The Bradley Method when I was expecting our third child in 2009. We taught our first Bradley series in 2010, and I had the joy of experiencing a pregnancy with our Fall 2011 class series.

Fast forward to 2017 – we just completed our 29th Bradley Method series, and I have also become affiliated with the Birthing From Within mentoring program, and trained to do Birth Story Listening through the Birthing From Within organization.

While we enjoy leading the birth preparation classes, our favorite part of being childbirth educators is facilitating the camaraderie that keeps the families in touch after the classes have ended. It is so great to hear that they are in contact and supporting through the learning curve that comes with postpartum, breastfeeding, and parenting. We are honored that many of our students keep in touch through an alumni community that keeps in contact via social media. It is a great tradition of peer-to-peer support where parents can post questions at any hour of the day or night and get help and suggestions as they grow their families.

Along the way, I have kept up two blogs:
Sweet Pea Births: This blog focuses primarily on pregnancy, labor, birth, breastfeeding and postpartum. I have had the honor of traveling to different events in Arizona and California and have enjoyed “on the scene” live-posting to inform about those events.
Sweet Pea Families – Life After the Birth-Day: This blog allows us to talk about all the things that we just can’t cover in a childbirth class series. We delve into the details of gentle sleep, attachment parenting, extended breastfeeding, and for those that are interested, we offer ideas about toddler preschool and homeschooling elementary age children.

Has it been a smooth road?
It has been enjoyable – not always smooth. As you can imagine, a mother already has a lot of balls in the air. And, there was a time when we had three in diapers! As our children have gotten older and demanded more of my “face time”, the blogging and teaching have been adjusted so that our children receive the best of me. I had a bit of an identity crisis – I wanted so badly to be able to present more and speak more in the birth/breastfeeding/parenting conference space – it has really taken off in the last five years.

However, a gut check into my core belief that children are pint-sized humans that deserve as much, if not more, love and respect than I would offer an adult colleague, I made the decision to step back from the social media presence I was trying to cultivate. We have also adjusted our teaching schedule. Instead of teaching four 12-week class series every year, we now offer two 12-week series and two 6-week series. This allows us to be fully present for our students when we teach, and also gives us some breathing space between class sessions so that we have time when our family can enjoy dinner together more often.

Through it all, we have been able to continue leading couples through the process to prepare for their birth journey and their new family. To date, we have taught over 150 couples.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
The brand is Sweet Pea Births. Our main focus is childbirth preparation. We teach two different childbirth philosophies, both with the end goal of preparing a couple to face their birth journey with confidence and trust that they will know what is right for their family and make the decisions that best serve them for their child’s birth.

We are known for teaching as a couple – most childbirth classes are taught by women, with the birth partner making an occasional appearance as a guest speaker. My husband and I teach all 12 classes of The Bradley Method classes together.
I am most proud of the community of alumni we have created, and also of the networking with professionals throughout all aspects of the birth community. When a student asks us for a referral, I can almost always refer them to someone we know personally and have had the opportunity to meet several times at different birth- and family-related events.

I believe what sets us apart is our commitment to an awesome, nourishing snack every week! When we were students, we might get popcorn or cookies. While we appreciated that, it wasn’t good enough for us to want to continue down that path when we became certified as childbirth instructors. We go all out to make sure our pregnant students and their birth partners have ample food to nosh on while they participate in our two- to two-and-a-half hour classes. We are big believers in the importance of a whole food diet for pregnancy and postpartum, and as such we see each class as an opportunity to demonstrate nourishing foods that our students can prepare or purchase easily without breaking the budget.

Do you feel like our city is a good place for businesses like yours? If someone was just starting out, would you recommend them starting out here? If not, what can our city do to improve?
Yes and yes! Until our maternal care improves and our maternal and infant mortality rate goes down as a country, there is always room for more childbirth educators. I would recommend they start out by reaching out to their care providers and letting them know that they are now offering childbirth preparation classes, and also to attend the many family events that are hosted by the City of Chandler.

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Paula Scott Photography, Brenda Bunch Photography, Erin Rudd Photography

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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