…and somehow, nobody stopped her. Hi, I’m Bailey! Southwest Iowa girl, founder of Iowa and Nebraska’s fastest growing doula agency, and your new ICEA Marketing Director! (All while raising boys, trying to drink enough water, and convincing myself that a third cup of coffee counts as self-care.)
In 2023, while 9 months pregnant, I founded Sweet Pea Doula Services in a town of 1,000 (including the cows). Sweet Pea was built for rural families in Iowa and Nebraska, as we often have fewer providers, longer drives, and fewer choices when it comes to their birth experience, and that gap is something I experienced personally. I started Sweet Pea because I believe that where you live should never determine the quality of care you receive during one of the most important moments of your life. What started as one doula with a whole lot of heart (& caffeine) has grown into Iowa and Nebraska’s fastest-growing doula collective, a full team of birth doulas, postpartum doulas, childbirth educators, bereavement doulas, and fertility experts showing up for families across the Midwest (including us stuck in the middle of nowhere). Especially those ones, actually.
My path to ICEA started with a grant, one specifically designed to expand doula access in rural southwest Iowa. Through it, I was fortunate to become an ICEA Certified Birth Doula at zero cost to me! (Which as a rural doula trying to serve families who are already underserved, meant everything!) While I earned my certification, ICEA did something bigger than simply certifying me. They came alongside my mission and Elevated it. So when the opportunity to join the board came up in the summer of 2026, I said absolutely before I fully knew what I was getting into. (Classic Bailey, honestly.) I flew to Salt Lake City for an in-person board meeting, knowing absolutely nobody, walked in anyway, and left with what I’m pretty sure are lifelong friends. That’s the thing about the ICEA community: when everyone shares the same heart, it feels less like a network and more like a family.
Now I serve as your Marketing Director, which mostly means I show up to toddler-hijacked Zoom meetings full of wild ideas, a lot of enthusiasm, and just enough caffeine to be safely dangerous. I’m still figuring it out, but I believe deeply in what ICEA stands for, especially for the rural communities internationally that need stronger support systems and louder voices at the table. That’s why I’m here, and that’s why I’m staying. (They’ll have to pry this board seat from my cold, caffeinated hands.)
Now let’s talk about ELEVATE, the 2026 ICEA Conference in Salt Lake City, and yes, you absolutely should be there.
If you’re a childbirth educator, a doula, a birth professional of any kind, or someone who is just starting to wonder if this field might be calling your name, this conference was designed for you! Honestly? The 2024 ICEA Conference didn’t just elevate me (both personally and professionally), it elevated my entire agency and my hired doulas I brought with me! The connections, the tangible education, the late-night laughter with my birthy people (abs of steel, I’m telling you), it all turned into something I never saw coming and wouldn’t trade for anything. And I have very high expectations for this year, including that six-pack!
Whether you’ve been in this field for twenty years or twenty minutes, ELEVATE 2026 has a seat that I will personally save for you! Registration is at the lowest price it will ever be, birth workers from across the globe will be in that room, and I will personally be there with some birthy swag giveaways you do not want to miss. But at the end of the day, just come! This community is worth every mile, every dollar, and every toddler you leave at home.
Rooting for you from the middle of nowhere, XOXO Bailey
