As a Nashville native, Tracy is the third generation of females in her family who were born at what is now known as St. Thomas Midtown hospital. Her maternal grandmother was born there in 1920, when it was called Protestant Hospital. Tracy and her mother were both born there when the facility was later known as Baptist Hospital. Who would have guessed that Tracy would eventually support her first birth doula client in that same building!

When Tracy was expecting her first child, she signed up for the standard hospital birth classes and kept her hopes up. Fast forward – let’s just say that things DID NOT go the way Tracy had envisioned them. After a similar experience with the birth of her second child, Tracy read an article one day about birth doulas and knew immediately she had found her calling. She realized that, with the right support and information, her birth experiences might have turned out differently. She wanted to ensure that families in Nashville had access to that kind of support. Within a month, she attended a doula training with DONA International and obtained her birth doula certification in 2003. In 2004, she added Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator to her credentials.

Since that time, Tracy has increased her knowledge about pregnancy, birth, and parenting by attending workshops, conferences, and trainings, including obtaining certification as a Happiest Baby on the Block Educator and doing extensive training with Water birth International and Evidence Based Birth. She has worked with both DONA International and Lamaze International at the organizational level, serving on the Membership and Conference committees for Lamaze International and serving on the Board of Directors for DONA International.

During her years as a birth doula and childbirth educator in Middle Tennessee, Tracy has educated and supported hundreds of families in Nashville and the surrounding areas as they have started and grown their families. She has worked with families planning medicated and unmedicated hospital births, vaginal births after cesareans (VBAC), planned cesareans, twin births, birth center births, home births, as well as many other variations. Tracy has also supported single mothers, teen mothers, and same-sex couples. She has experienced the awe and joy of seeing so many new little people enter our world. But her favorite part of birth doula work is seeing the faces of two people the moment they realize they are now a family of three.