63. Build What the World Needs - Tif Bryant on innovation and risk.

So it's okay if you don't know what a doula is.

Less than 1% of UK births involve a doula.

So it's an emerging market, as we would call it, in the entrepreneur world.

And what a doula is, physical, emotional, and informational support.

Traditionally, historically, this would be a mommy, a sister, an auntie, somebody who's really supporting people.

In very layman's terms, it's a birth coach, right, to walk you through the journey of birth, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, various stages.

And really what is happening is like as also the one thing I really want to dispel is that doulas are not – they can be earthy, crunchy, hippie girls who are all women, who are all – home birth and everything.

But I like to remind people that one third of the pillars is informational support.

And where we need informational support is in medicalized birth.

So most doulas work in hospitals alongside as a team with their client going into a medicalized birth or in a hospital.

So that said, there are gaps, gaps in birth.

We expect our partners to know everything, but our partners don't know what tampon to buy us.

And we're like, cool, tell me about birth physiology.

And they're like, what? So it's really great for a partner to be able to be that emotional support, heavy on emotion.

to sit back and also become a parent in that moment.

So the doula fills that gap right there in a partnership, can actually join partners closer together because they feel connected.

She feels supported.

I'm with doula, I no longer practice, but doulas are like, go give her an ice chip, put this on her head.

And you know, when you're in labor, for anybody who's been in labor, all of a sudden, like a cold rag on your forehead, and you're like, the world is okay.

Right? So that makes your partner look sexier, more attractive, more helpful than them being like, what do I do? There's also a lot of physiology things that are happening in labor that if you're not trained, you don't know.

If you're saying, oh my God, my back is killing me and your labor pattern is weird.

Why would your partner say, oh, maybe your baby is OP.

Let's put you in this position and we'll get you on hands and knees and do some as we call it, shake the apple tree or booty shaking and help baby move, right? So we're really there to support a couple.

And we love to come to the house before going to the hospital to help decide when to go.

So we're filling that gap, right? We're building that bridge in coupledom, we'll say, in partnership and where they can be more connected and let us just coach and take that backseat and just hold space or guide, right? Guide and hold space.