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I want to start this blog post by stating the obvious. 
Time goes by. Tech changes. Marketing changes. Everything changes. 
When I was a student midwife, I valued the idea (and still do) of the slow-living movement. I have always romanticized a life wherein one's attention is on one thing at a time. Making a pot of stew. Laughing with your children. Creating a piece of art. Catching a baby. Tracing the freckles on the face of your sleeping child. Reading the 30th night of Harry Potter and creating different voices for each character. Enjoying the different things you might see on the side of the road while riding your bike. 
Directing one's full focus on one beautiful, wonderful thing in front of you. 
I have been SO THIS, in fact, that I've been incredibly reluctant to move with the times, to adjust to how word-of-mouth works, how marketing and (I'm trying not to choke as I write this word) BRANDING works.

I have not gone softly into this good night. (Thanks, Bobbi D)

I've been reading, studying, learning, catching, crying, managing situations, rocking babies, rocking parents, cursing too much and laughing too hard- writing statements, teaching students, having peer reviews, buying new equipment, going to workshops, reading new evidence, showering meconium stained hands, pouring peroxide on yoga pants, comforting grandmas and - being a midwife- for a long time now.
I have never marketed. I have never "reduced myself to posting photos of families' private most intimate moments" (or so I viewed it) "sold tickets to your most treasured experience" (or so I've described it) or even asked clients to do so much as leave a Google review.
This is just not how I think.
It isn't even how I see this process.
All this- it isn't even about me.
I considered myself blessed by the universe that I do this midwifery thing and the world takes care of my basic needs - in a large sweep of happenstance, faith, and undying devotion to the mystery of it all, I have never gone without or struggled as long as I was showing love to the families I serve and kept first and foremost in my heart, that the purpose of this work was YOU, I have been met with warmth and kindness by the world. I am grateful for that.  Lately, I have been pummeled with the reality that this world has changed in the ways of technology, marketing, online presence, strategy, and branding. (choke).
Midwifery is not a brand. I, as a midwife, am not a brand. I'm a person. My name is Lora Marie Hart. I have two daughters, one granddaughter, A son in law, an awesome dog, a pain in the ass cat, a cool tree in my backyard that the monarchs tend to meet at during their flights, a nice library, a love of handwritten letters and wax seals, an obsession with painting and writing bad poetry, a very toxic love of potato salad and nice boots, I'm a girl who is still 17, 28, 37, 46 and also now- a woman-crone of mid fifty arena.  I am all these things as well as a CPM and midwifery teacher. I refuse to believe that just because midwifery is my business I need to create some kind of poster child of myself - of my business name- of what I stand for. Just the thought of this makes me laugh.
Go read everything you can on physiological birth. On midwives. (It starts at the Bible. We were the first of the great rebels;-) Go read everything you can, watch all the videos, talk to all you've known who have given birth, and then tell me what my "brand" should look like. What is the "tagline" for that?
I'll wait.
So. RIGHT?!?! How does a person "brand" what birth is? What coming into parenthood is? What midwifery is? 
It's like trying to put into 1-second "story" or an iPhone snapshot of what LOVE is. 
It's ridiculous. I guide people into a different version of themselves. At the same time, I'm aware clinically, of what to do with my hands to help your baby out if needed, or resuscitate if needed, and help parents prepare to change themselves into completely different mentalities based on what is happening in pregnancy. It is silly to reduce what is happening with people during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum- into a marketing strategy. This is so much bigger than that. So much older than that. And when these concepts fall away, we will still be having babies. We will still be experiencing this which happens when you are in the moment of birth, in a room, feeling your baby's crown, looking over at your midwife.
And yet, everyone LITERALLY - ALL THE COACHES (also my former clients:-) are saying now "YOU MUST HAVE AN ONLINE PRESENCE". And so. Here I am. Sharing this post. The blog is more my speed. I can get on here and talk to my people and share all the hilarious thoughts in this midwife's head and you'll know that you may just feel comfortable with us coming to your birth because, after all, we are your friends, your neighbors. We are just like you. So. Go "follow" OhioHomeBirth on Instagram. And Facebook. And- you know- if you want, tag me. (I'm literally gagging right now, I want you to know)...and please do leave me a Google review. I mean, I personally will not get around to looking at it for 3 weeks or so, because I am clearly doing something else at the moment. But others will see it. And that is important to me, and I thank you for that. I really do enjoy this. All of this. It's such a lovely ride. Help a lady out with her learning curve. We ol' gals are still making sourdough by hand and doing air guitar to Pixies over here.
"We don't know 'nothin' bout no Insta".

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​Ohio Home Birth. Lora Hart C.P.M. Columbus