We caught up with Birth Day Presence co-founder Jada Shapiro to get the scoop about what’s happening this season for expectant and new moms at one of the city’s premier maternity, birth, and postpartum resources!
For readers who are unfamiliar, what are the main services offered by Birth Day Presence, and tell us a bit about about the backgrounds of the co-owners.
Birth Day Presence provides Childbirth Education classes and Doula Services to expectant families in the NYC Metro Area. We offer Childbirth Preparation (Express, Weekend Intensive or four week format), Breastfeeding& Newborn Care, Infant CPR & Safety, Childbirth Refreshers, New Mom Groups, and Pumping 101. We also match expecting parents with wonderful birth and postpartum doulas. Our classes are located all over the city from our SoHo and Park Slope Studios, to our satellite locations like Rosie Pope Maternity on the Upper East Side and in Tribeca. Myself and Anna Merrill, as the co-Directors of BDP, run the company together, matching doulas with moms and teaching parents-to-be. We are both moms, birth and postpartum doulas, and childbirth educators. I founded the company in 2002 and am also a birth photographer, providing beautiful, intimate documentation of the birth experience.
We see you’re sponsoring a special event in September with Choices In Childbirth. What’s the scoop?
We are thrilled to co-host this special event. coming up on September 18. Dr. Sarah Buckley, expert on the hormonal physiology of childbearing. She will speak about the “Ecstatic Hormones of Undisturbed Birth”, and how oxytocin, beta-endorphin, adrenaline/noradrenaline and prolactin act to enhance ease, pleasure and safety for mother and baby.
What’s the core offering at Birth Day Presence? How about your most popular classes or services?
The core of BDP is our childbirth preparation classes…The most popular version in Manhattan is the Childbirth Express (on sale now!), a three-hour everything-you-need-to-know-in-a-nutshell, followed by the longer format four-week version which is a wonderful way to connect with other parents-to-be and really take time to practice the pain relief techniques we teach. Our most popular services for second-time parents are The Childbirth Refresher and the birth and postpartum doula services.
Any new classes or services you’d like to highlight for fall? When do they start?
We are thrilled to partner with Rosie Pope Maternity in Tribeca and on the Upper East Side to offer a few new classes including Pumping 101 for new moms who are going back to work and want to continue to breastfeed and need to pump, and Cesarean Preparation for mothers who need to schedule a cesarean birth… We’s doing an “Ask a Doula” session there on Saturday September 6 from 12-2 where moms-to-be can come in and shop and ask any birth questions of me or my business partner Anna.
Tell us something very specific about your job that you really love?
There is nothing better than watching our expectant parents gain confidence as they learn what questions to discuss with their care providers and as they practice pain relief techniques. Watching the sense of empowerment that happens as parents learn they have choices and options where they are giving birth is extremely satisfying. But of course, nothing outshines that spark of joy and elation that happens when brand new parents meet their newborn for the first time! That never gets old. We cry every time!
For more on Birth Day Presence, visit birthdaypresence.com!
