by Merriah Fairchild, Bridgetown Baby Founder

September, 2024

I am so proud to be celebrating our 10th birthday together. It moves me to think of the Bridgetown Baby community over time, with a shared story raising our beautiful children together.

I recently learned that only 6% of women-owned businesses survive ten years.
This begs the question: why is Bridgetown Baby still here?

Three reasons stand out to me:

1. At Bridgetown Baby, we treat what we do as more than a service.

Our work at Bridgetown Baby is to campaign for change, and each of us is part of that. We believe the need for postpartum care is a cultural imperative and what we are doing is big-picture, mission-driven. We are constantly asking: what if having a baby doesn’t have to suck? What if you don’t have to feel alone and overwhelmed? And then we show families, one family at a time, that it doesn't have to suck. By changing the experience and narrative of having a baby, we are changing the expectations for future generations. I know my girls might not have children, but if they do, I want them to expect that it will be the most amazing time in their lives because they understand parenting is a community affair and no one should do it alone.

We are also changing the culture of postpartum care by connecting our clients to the community. Over the past 10 years we have raised over $61,000 for local nonprofits that support families including providing free doula care to low income families. Thank you for being a part of changing our culture for the better.

2. We are all still here because of an internal mantra we call Collective Care.

The idea is that we take care of our own team as well as we take care of our clients. If you’ve worked with us, you know how incredible my team is. It has always been important to me that Bridgetown Baby be a place where people can work for a long time - because being a grandma doula or IBCLC is the dream.

But to make that possible - to avoid burnout - we have to take care of our caretakers.

We are a family. We take care of each other when we have babies or when we are sick or struggling with life - we strive to take care of each other as well as we care for our clients.

3. We are all still here because of you, our beloved clients.

Every day I marvel at how amazing and brave you all are. I’m so grateful you chose us for your most vulnerable life transitions.

We have provided doula care to over 900 families and lactation support to over 250 families since 2014. Thank you for trusting us, for sending us cute photos over the years, for writing reviews and for recommending us to your friends and family. We are still here because of you.

I look forward to growing together for the next ten years!

With love,

Merriah Fairchild
Bridgetown Baby Founder