Our Journey to Riverbend Birth
After 7 years of supporting growing families in Orange County and Long Beach, California, we’ve moved to Pittsburgh!
Along with so many others, we spent time during the pandemic reevaluating our priorities. In the new all-virtual world of 2020, we carefully considered our goals and our options, and made a big decision.
In fall 2020, we sold our house in California and moved to Pittsburgh, PA!
Moving during the height of the pandemic was one of the most intense experiences of our lives - and we couldn’t have pulled it off without A LOT of practical and emotional support from amazing friends and family. Our only regret is that we weren’t able to say in-person goodbyes with lots of hugs!
We’ve been in Pittsburgh since October 2020, and we absolutely love it here!
As southern California natives, we’ve never lived in a place with “real” seasons before.
It’s been so amazing to be surrounded with nature in new ways. We’ve been overjoyed to experience STUNNING fall colors, magical snowfall, and the gentle unfurling of spring for the first time. This has been a beautiful opportunity to feel more intimately connected with the earth’s cycles.
We were so grateful to find a new house in a peaceful wooded area with lots of bird and animal visitors, complete with a groundhog that lives under our deck. Our dogs can’t believe all the new “friends” they’re making (that’s the generous way we refer to any creatures they bark at excitedly from the back door). Our new house is about 15 minutes away from downtown Pittsburgh, but you’d never know it!
To acknowledge our new home, we chose to re-name our business to reflect the beauty of the landscape here.
Pittsburgh is interlaced with three rivers. We love seeing the beautiful water, luscious trees, and amazing bridges in the city as we go about our life. We’ve been so inspired by the beauty of this unique setting that we’ve rebranded our business from Hero Birth Services to:
Riverbend has other layers too - we often refer to the metaphor of a river in various ways as we talk about pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum and newborn time with our clients.
Now that we are vaccinated, we are looking forward to working in-person with clients in Pittsburgh for the first time in summer 2021. There is a thriving birth community here, and we are thrilled to be part of it!
SoCal folks, we’re still here for you virtually!
Throughout the pandemic, we have offered virtual support in the form of private birth classes, our new self-paced lactation course, virtual postpartum doula support, and virtual lactation and sleep consults. If you’re open to distanced support, we're here for you.
In our 7 years of practicing in Orange County, we’ve built so many relationships. We look forward to continuing to share our knowledge and experience of the OC & Long Beach birth community with our clients, and referring to amazing local support there as needed.
Orange County will always hold a special place in our hearts - not least because of the amazing people we’ve been fortunate to connect with in our birth work!
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
YOU - our clients, fellow birth workers, and community - are what makes this work so special. Thank you for being amazing humans and making the world a better place.
