Meet Kristin Downey

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kristin Downey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kristin, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

My father is my biggest inspiration when it comes to work ethic. Growing up, I watched him work 7 days a week in order to maintain success as an entrepreneur. My dad owns an asphalt paving company, and the most inspiring thing about him is that he is not only the president of his company, but he is also on the ground getting his hands dirty alongside his employees. He has shown me that the best way to get things done is to do them on my own without waiting on others. Relying on other people oftentimes leads to disappointment. He and I have been cursed with the “I have to do everything by myself, all the time” mentality. While this can be a lot to bear, it is satisfying to know that I can wear so many hats and be successful in so many parts of my life.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I have always been a creative for as long as I can remember. Art was my favorite subject in school and I would often paint in my room, alone on the weekends while listening to music. “Making things look beautiful” in it’s broadest sense, is what I am good at. As a young girl I would always rearrange my bedroom furniture to try and create a fresh new atmosphere. Once I owned my own home, filling it with beautiful things was (and still is) a top priority of mine. Every part of my life is curated just for me, whether it’s my home, my car, my office, even my daughters’ play area. I find that making things look beautiful and organized just adds little pockets of delight into my day. It helps reduce the amount of clutter I have in my brain.

Fast-forward to 2024, I became pregnant with my second daughter and was planning a homebirth. My only hesitation for having a homebirth was the overwhelming feeling of having to prepare a space for such a big event. For me, having a homebirth was not just about giving birth in my home; it was about creating a space that would serve me, my husband and my birth team. Everything had to be meticulously thought out and curated so that it could be both beautiful and functional. I spent months preparing checklists and researching Pinterest for “aesthetic homebirth” articles and surprisingly, I found none. All I could find were people using twinkle lights and affirmation cards. But I wanted more. I wanted big beautiful fluffy towels to envelope me after I gave birth. I wanted flameless candles in beautiful, bohemian colors. I wanted an altar filled with photos of the people who inspired me most. So I set out to do what I do best – create a beautiful space. My birth team was elated that the space that was both beautiful and functional. I got so much feedback on the aesthetics of my birth space that I got a few comments like “you should start your own business.” So I thought about it, talked with my birth team and they agreed that there was a gap in the market. It was then that Homebirth Haven was born. I am still in the infancy stages of my business, but I have a few items listed on my website. Ultimately, I want to be like an event planner for homebirths, but instead of being hired at a premium cost, I will give you all of the tools that you need to do it yourself. I am currently working on an e-book that will be the most comprehensive resource on the market for planning a homebirth in terms of aesthetics.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I think passion is the number one thing that drives me and that can help others be successful. It sounds cheesy, but doing what you love will make you successful. I didn’t start this company out of financial need, but rather out of passion for homebirth and all that comes with it. Follow what you love, do it well and put your all into it.

Time management and streamlining my life are two things that are very important to me. They also go hand in hand. I am a mother of two and I currently have a full-time 9-5 job that pays the bills, so Homebirth Haven gets very little of my time. If I want it to grow, I have to find every pocket of time humanly possible. When you start to think of time as money, you will be okay with delegating certain things or paying a premium for things so that you have more time in your day. For example, in my personal life, I use Instacart for my groceries, I bulk prep a lot of my food and freeze it, and I use my commute as my time to listen to audiobooks and podcasts, which allows me to have time for development. Pick the things that are the most important to you, focus on those, and simplify the rest.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I would love to collaborate with midwives and doulas. The role of a midwife is to plan for the actual birth. To cover all of the medical bases and make sure mom and baby are safe and thriving. Doula’s are support partners and are usually helping the mom manage pain, mindset and immediate post partum. There is definitely some overlap between what I do and what a doula does, but my goal is to empower pregnant women to create their own space that empowers them and allows them to fully relax into labor. Not every doula will be focused on creating an aesthetically pleasing birth space and their ideal birth space may be different than their client’s. I think it’s important for the woman who is giving birth to be in control of her own space and my goal is to help facilitate that. Almost every woman who is planning a homebirth will have some sort of birth worker – those are the people that I would love to collaborate with so I can get the word out!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://homebirthhaven.com
• Instagram: @homebirthhaven

Image Credits

Suzanna Huerta
Stacey Blackwell