Dr. Melot here! I often get asked about the inception of BirthCo. and let me tell you: it's been a wild ride.
I graduated Chiropractic college in 2015 at the ripe age of 24 years old and shortly afterwards moved to Austin to open up a practice. Being so young, I really had no idea what I was doing but I was super passionate about working with babies and moms so I bought a used table, some decor from goodwill, and converted an extra room in my rental home into a clinic space. I remember being so terrified and excited all at the same time. With no resources, reputation, and no business skills I set out very determined and very naively to build my business.
About 6 months after I opened my home clinic I moved it into a commercial space. This first space looked like a warehouse and was upstairs. Can you imagine a 39 week pregnant person climbing steep creaky stairs? Or a mom with toddlers trekking up the stairs.... I can't either. But at the time I made it work! That was the space where I honed my craft both clinically and with running a business. There were other clinical providers who had their own businesses within this space so it also was a chance for me to start imagining what it would be like to work with a team. Three years in this space I was still a one woman show - I answered phones, scheduled, took payment, treated patients, did marketing, cleaning, bookkeeping. I was on a bootstrap budget and every penny counted so I learned how to do everything.
The warehouse lease was up, COVID hit, and I moved into a temporary space while a long term space was going through a build out. This was when I hired my first employee and holy smokes it made my life 98709879087 times easier. That employee also became skilled at almost everything (except chiropractic). We were the dream team and I had a busy schedule helping so many mommas and babies.
It was during this time that I also developed our defeat diastasis® program. After watching a colleague using technology to assist in speeding up the rehabilitation process, primarily for whiplash or post surgical rehab, I was convinced that this technology needed to be leveraged for moms to heal faster postpartum. I put together an 8 week program and began putting patients through it. The results were SO MUCH MORE INCREDIBLE then I even thought they would be. Moms were healing in record time with their sweet baby next to them and my heart knew that this program needed to be something every mom could access.
Six months into settling into this new space my personal and professional life hit an unexpected crisis. I'll spare you the details but I do remember this time in my life was hugely monumental for doing a 180 turn and finding a new path. I was standing in my garage looking at all my equipment and feeling defeated, heartbroken, and completely numb. I knew in that moment I was either going to give up on trying to build a life and a clinic I always dreamed of or I was going to commit 100% and build something big. I chose the latter.
Saturday morning I was staring at my stuff in my garage and by Monday I had signed a new lease. This space was going to be the start of a new clinic that was heavily branded in my niche. I named that clinic "birthbabybody" because I already owned the LLC and it fit my niche. That first year was a wild ride. There was so much learning that had to happen within the business at the same time as I was also dealing with my own personal healing journey. But I was committed to growth. Our team grew, our services grew, and I think our hearts grew too. 2021 will always go down in my books as one of the most challenging of my life but I made it out a stronger and more equipped human.
One year later we rebranded into BirthCo. Chiropractic & Wellness clinics. We now have three locations, and incredible team, and even more incredible patients. Each year we become better at our craft, we become closer as a team, and we pursue our mission a little bit harder with a little more passion.
