Switched on
Founded by midwife Edwina Sharrock, Birth Beat is an online platform devoted to providing natal care to all new parents.
We all became more accustomed to Zoom meetings and online courses last year, as coronavirus forced most of our non-essential services to pivot into digital. But Edwina Sharrock has been living in that world for years. As the founder of Birth Beat, an online service that offers in-depth natal care to new parents, regardless of their location, Sharrock was well-versed in getting her message across through the medium of screens.
“There were a lot of people who said to me that online is never going to take off,” Sharrock recalls. They were wrong. Over the past year, Birth Beat’s business increased by an astonishing 500 per cent, growth that “established us as one of Australia’s leading childbirth educators”, she adds.
The platform launched in 2013, long before Covid uprooted all life. But being able to provide high-quality childbirth classes online was something Sharrock always wanted to do through Birth Beat. Initially, this was to assist rural parents – Sharrock herself is based in Tamworth in regional New South Wales – but now it’s a way of connecting to all expecting parents, no matter where their location. “I started with remote women in mind, but what I actually discovered was that it was the large cities where we saw the greatest and the quickest uptake,” Sharrock reflects. “It was all about convenience.”
The light-bulb moment came when Sharrock – a trained midwife and mother of two – realised that there was a disparity between the prenatal classes being offered in-person from traditional providers, and what might be achieved if you provided that same help to anyone with a wifi connection. “The model was still that you sat with a bunch of strangers in a hospital setting for an entire weekend, or over several weekends,” Sharrock says. As a midwife, she felt that this was outdated and inconvenient. But when she was pregnant, Sharrock realised that it was also ill-equipped to assist new parents with the realities of birth. “What shocked me is how little of what you experience is talked about,” she says. “I felt like there was a lot in modern childbirth education that was left up to parents to try and work out themselves. And that creates a pretty scary experience.”
Birth Beat was launched to fill those gaps. Over time, the platform has grown from offering childbirth education to facilitating baby first aid and sleep programs. Birth Beat is also interactive and “fun”, Sharrock says, with weekly live Q&As with midwives and an online community that fosters connections between members. She is most proud of the way that Birth Beat takes a holistic approach to prenatal and postnatal wellbeing. “We don’t just look at the physical health of the mother,” Sharrock stresses. “We look at the physical and mental health of the family. I think that is what is missed in a lot of healthcare.” Especially, she adds, in our current world, where the family is no longer nuclear. “A lot of the traditional model is still built for husband and wife, and that’s not our modern family,” she explains. “I’m really proud that we look at the whole family unit, and we take care of that whole family unit.”
The business has not been without hurdles. Sharrock admits that she has struggled in the past with asking for help, particularly as someone who is entering into the world of entrepreneurship from a clinical background – and not a business one. This past year, scaling her offering to keep up with demand was an enormous challenge. It’s why she chose to apply for the 2021 Cartier Women’s Initiative, an annual international entrepreneurship program that supports women in business, and particularly “female entrepreneurs with purpose”, Sharrock explains. For the past 15 years, the program has spotlighted the work of women whose businesses have a social or environmental impact, awarding more than US$3 million in financial grants. This year, Sharrock is Australia’s only finalist, following on from 2020 when Joanne Howarth, founder of Planet Protector Packaging, became Australia’s first Cartier Women’s Initiative laureate. “Cartier is putting Australia, and Australian women on the map as successful business owners,” she says. “That is exciting.”
Sharrock’s dream is to offer Birth Beat’s services globally, supporting women to feel as prepared as possible for this next chapter. “It’s about saying to women: ‘Give yourself the time to prepare and know what to expect, so that you can feel really empowered and excited to be birthing your baby,’” Sharrock says. “It can be such a more positive experience if you know what to expect.” And this is true of partners, too, she adds. “I see so many in the birth suite who just look terrified,” says Sharrock. “I’m sure they’re thinking: ‘When is this going to end?’ But this is the day you meet your baby! It should be a wonderful, beautiful, fun, exciting day, and not a really traumatic, horrifying experience. It breaks my heart how often women say they did have really negative experiences. With education like our program, we can change that.”
For more information, go to birthbeat.com and cartierwomensinitiative.com.