Inspiring Conversations with Abrie Koupal and Amanda Boni of Boulder Birth & Holistic Health

Today we’d like to introduce you to Abrie Koupal and Amanda Boni.

Hi Abrie and Amanda, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
Our birth center has been operating in the same location since July of 2014, and we have welcomed nearly 1000 babies earthside. We are a freestanding birth center that offers midwife-led prenatal, birth, postpartum, and early newborn care to low-risk families. Originally founded by a group of trailblazing women, the birth center was acquired by a local hospital at the end of 2021.

On October 1, 2023, we divested from hospital ownership and returned to a woman-owned model, rebranding with a new name to better align with our expanded care model as well as a new logo featuring a dragonfly, which symbolizes our intention to embrace transformation in order to achieve our fullest potential.

In addition to birth services, we also offer a wide range of holistic healthcare options to our community regardless of gender, including sexual health and gynecological care, acupuncture, functional medicine, lactation support, mental health therapy, and more.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I would definitely NOT describe our road as smooth! It took an incredible amount of determination, creativity, community support, and blind faith, to pull off divesting from hospital ownership to private ownership without interrupting client care – all in an absurdly short amount of time and with no prior experience in business ownership nor plans to assume ownership.

We were notified by the hospital at the end of March 2023 that they were going to close our practice in mid-June. The hospital, like so many in the post-pandemic landscape of healthcare, was unable to financially sustain ownership of many practices it had acquired, including our birth center. Our center fought hard and stood up to the leadership at the hospital, advocating for the importance of our care model and its widespread benefits in our community.

Both of us are longtime staff members (Abrie has been a midwife at the center since 2015 and gave birth to both of her babies there, and Amanda has been part of the administrative team since 2018) and organically ended up taking the lead in negotiating with the hospital executives. We bought ourselves some time, extending their ownership while negotiating for several more months and investigating every alternative scenario we could dream up, none of which panned out.

When it became apparent that the center would actually close unless we took it back ourselves, the two of us asked ourselves and our team to take a long, hard look in the mirror and decide whether we wanted to create and be a part of the birth center’s new vision and leadership team, whether we wanted to stay through the transition but not assume a leadership role, or whether we needed to leave the practice. About half of our staff decided not to stay due to the financial instability of doing so. The other half stuck it out with us but did not want a leadership role.

The two of us agreed we were not willing to let the birth center close and committed to taking the leap together. We got the word out and accepted the support of anyone who would offer it. We threw a community fundraiser in August and raised over $60,000 between our silent auction and other contributions – a great amount of money and yet not nearly the amount we needed.

At the 11th hour, we had an angel investor pull through and provide a large enough sum of money that we found the courage to sign our names on the dotted line, though far short from the nearly $400,000 we anticipated needing in order to bridge the gap between taking ownership, continuing operations, and having regular income streams due to near-certain delays in insurance contracts being finalized.

Operating capital has been our biggest ongoing struggle. While we were able to hit the ground running with 3 insurance contracts finalized and operational on the date we assumed ownership, we were unable to finalize contracts with two insurance payers (with whom we started negotiating in July 2023 and which make up more than half of our client base) until February 2024.

We still have not seen payments for services rendered since 10/1/2023 for these insurance payers, though we now have legal agreements in place and know we will, soon, see those payments come through. In the meantime, we have needed to constantly problem-solve, pivot, and creatively find alternative funding to keep our doors open and keep serving families in our community. We are still not out of the woods but can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We assumed ownership of the birth center on October 1, 2023, and while it’s been a steep learning curve with challenges facing us almost daily, we are immensely proud of the fact that our families have never stopped receiving the evidence-based, family-centered care we are known for while navigating this massive transition – and that we’ve been able to successfully introduce important services such as mental health and lactation support, both of which we have wanted to be able to offer for years – since taking over ownership.

The driving force behind our business is the belief that individualized, client and family-centered care that views clients as active participants in their healthcare journey should be the standard. That birth – and the way people are treated and supported as they journey toward birth and in the time afterward – matters, and directly impacts families for a lifetime.

That midwifery care should be integrated into and valued within the mainstream healthcare model and if recognized and utilized appropriately could be an integral part of the solution to the maternal health crisis we are facing in this country. That we can and should expect more from our healthcare system.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Perseverance. Creativity. Integrity. Open communication. Accepting help when it’s offered. The belief that our model of care is worth fighting for and that we can be a part of redefining healthcare for the better.

Contact Info:

• Website: boulderbirthandhealth.com
• Instagram: @boulderbirthholistichealth
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boulderbirthholistichealth

Image Credits
Monet Nicole Birthing Stories, Lindsey Eden Photography, Sarah Boccolucci Photography, and Belly Fire Productions