Our word of the year for 2023 was STRENGTHENED!
We strengthened our relationships with the community, our clients, and our team of subcontracted doulas and educators. We focused on creating strong systems to better serve families in the community.
Here are the Gold Coast stats for 2023:
- Number of group and private classes taught: 39
- Number of students (couple or individual counted same): 128
- Number of birth clients that were delivered in 2023: 101
- Birth clients supported during pregnancy in 2023 with 2024 due dates: 23
- Average Continuing Education training per doula: 5.5
- Sleep Consultations: 32 clients served
- Day and Overnight Postpartum Doula support hours: 6,178
- Multiples: 12 families served
- Our entire team had a 2-hour virtual training on supporting Plus Size Births with Jen McLellan of Plus Size Birth
- New subcontractors added to our team: 7 doulas, 1 sleep consultant
- Advanced certifications achieved: 8
- Katie Bertsch celebrated 5 years with Gold Coast
- We had our 8-year anniversary in October
- Kristin Revere spoke at DoulaCon in Parker, Colorado, and the Nasdaq Milestones Circles Spring Summit in San Francisco, California
- Ask the Doulas Podcast – We ended the year with 218 episodes total, Goodpods ranked Ask the Doulas in the top 100 Kids & Family All Time Podcasts coming in at 81 and #12 in the Top 100 Indie Kids & Family. Listen Notes ranked Ask the Doulas as one of the top 5% most popular shows out of 3,261,989 globally. We launched our podcast in 2017 and are still growing strong thanks to our fantastic guests and listener support.
- We offered 2 pro-bono spots in the Becoming A Mother course to low-income women
- We held our holiday party at Pursuit of Happiness in Eastown. We love supporting, local, women-owned businesses.
- We became a Diverse Business Enterprises Certified Women-Owned Business through the Grand Rapids Chamber
- Kristen Revere completed the Up Next Fellowship through St. Mary’s Foundation
- Kristen Revere became a certified Gift Registry Expert through Be Her Village and launched our Baby Registry Planning Services
- Media – We were interviewed in Parents Magazine, Business Insider, US News, Well + Good, Oprah Daily, and more.
- We continued as a Climate Leader with Aclymate since 2020
- Gold Coast was recertified as a B Corporation in August. Our score improved from 80.7 to 112.1. The minimum score is 80 points.
Volunteer Hours: 242.5 hours
- Charitable Donations: $1,153.35 to charities supporting low-income women and children
- Organizations donated funds to include Mama Glow Foundation and Corewell Health Foundation
- We donated a new Kaya birth stool and a Spinning Babies Quick Reference Guide to St. Mary’s Foundation
- Diapers Collected for our 8th Annual Diaper Drive for Nestlings Diaper Bank:
- 13,372 disposable diapers
- 67 packs of wipes
- 196 cloth supplies
Many thanks to our partners: Rise Wellness Chiropractic, Fit4Mom Grand Rapids, Mind Body Baby, Mindful Counseling, Advent Physical Therapy, Hopscotch Children’s Store, EcoBuns Baby + Co, Brann’s, The Insurance Group, Lucas Scott. Co, and Howard Miller Library, and Lake Michigan Credit Union in Holland.
We are so thankful for our clients, partners, podcast listeners, and students.