Wikipedia:Bare With Me Duo

Bare With Me Duo (also known as Bare With Me: A Mother-Daughter Maternity Consulting Duo and Bare With Me: A Mother-Daughter Doula Duo) is an American based birth consulting company and duo of doulas consisting of Stephanie Dixon and Deundra Hundon. Originating from San Francisco, California the duo focuses on evidence-based maternity education as well as labor, birth and postpartum support.

Pre Formation
The duo's work can be described as "ancestral", predating the company itself and tracing to Africa. In Deundra's words, both of her paternal grandparents resided in the great state of Texas. Specifically, her dad was born in raised in Nacogdoches, TX (a population of just over 32,000). Her great aunt was the midwife of Nacogdoches and was responsible for the birth of babies from families, no matter their ethnicity. As a result, local community members and the duo's family provided postpartum care throughout the entire town. After the great migration, their family bought homes in the Bayview neighborhood and at one time operated a small neighborhood market in the neighborhood.

Early Years
The Bare With Me Duo began in the San Francisco, Bayview-Hunter's Point neighborhood with mother, Deundra and daughter Stephanie. Timeline wise, Deundra always knew that she wanted to be a doula from age thirteen but observed that she wasn't supported in her early years into adulthood. Instead, pursuing a career in education and completing a bachelor's degree in Business Administration which has opened up the opportunity for her to earn small business grants with Wells Fargo in the past for a formal martial arts business. It wasn’t until attending Oprah’s, “The Life You Want Weekend”, where her passion for birth work was reignited. After the event, she immediately began researching Doula training programs and signed up for Cornerstone Doula Trainings, which was also owned and operated by a mother-daughter team. Deundra is also has been an activist and an advocate in the Bayview community, speaking out against budget cuts for senior centers housing primarily Asian and African-American senior citizens and disabled.

Whereas Stephanie knew that she wanted to be a doula or a doctor as early as childhood saying that she found a document stating that she wanted to open a store for babies. Stephanie too was discouraged in college, not coming from a background of affluency she felt she could not attend medical school. In college, she was very passionate about health communication and took everything she learned seriously. Right before graduating, she found out she was pregnant, and, almost immediately, knew her Mom was going to be her doula. Stephanie would go on to study and graduate from San Francisco State with a Communication Studies major. After graduating college and being unsure what to do with her degree, she saw her Mom performing doula work and "inserted" herself into the work by giving business advice, asking questions and going to prenatal births. Stephanie's Mom asked her to become a doula, in which she initially declined but decided to become a birth worker.

Birth Education and Mentorship
Both doulas were formally trained by Cornerstone in San Francisco, California in addition to Stephanie being listed as a "child birth educator". Both women also served on the board for the San Francisco Birth Center.

Business
In January of 2019, the duo took part in a panel with other distinguished birth workers hosted by the University of California San Francisco in association with the Preterm Birth Initiative that further discussed the issue of birth in communities of color. In the same year the Bare With Me Duo partnered with San Francisco-based program, SisterWeb, who was given a grant through then-District 10 sitting supervisor, Malia Cohen to provide services specifically to mothers of lower-income in San Francisco's Bayview-Hunter's Point, Excelsior, Mission, and Visitacion Valley neighborhoods. In the same year, Bare With Me planned to launch new merchandise and a podcast.

In March 2019, the duo partnered with the San Francisco Department of Public Health that aimed to provide doulas to low-income Black and Pacific Islander women, who have some of the poorest maternal and infant health rates in the city of San Francisco.

Logo and Name
The original Bare With Me Duo logo, features the silhouette heads of both doulas. The logo was branded in collaboration with the New Moon Creative studio, New Moon worked with the pair to design a website and logo inspired by African textile design. Other ideas such as two pillars and their full bodies were considered for logo choices but were ultimately scrapped.

The duo stated that they didn't want their company name to be centered solely on having babies or a pregnant person but instead "touches" on various topics such as midwifery, doulas, racism, birth, and health education without being pigeon-holed. They didn't want a logo that was "flowery" but after working with designers their logo came out "flowery", the duo and design team went back to the drawing board. The name "Hattie's Love" was considered for the company but was quickly scratched. The "Bare With Me" name broke through when, a family member, stated by Stephanie had been watching Animal Planet and brought the name "Bear" to the conversation. Citing that the family member made an observation that bears give birth in their most primal state. Logos were designed that showcased a bear logo and what a bear would look like holding a baby. Stephanie later went to Google to expand on the word which is where she came up with the double meaning. "Bare" meaning to be vulnerable, be naked, to shed clothing which they felt summarized the birth experience. The company name is also a play on the saying "Bare with Me", which is also used during labor often. Both doulas agree that they use the phrase for their clients hoping that they "Bare with Them".

Hiatus
In August of 2019, due to the physical, mental, and spiritual nature of birth work, one of the partners began to feel burned out from attending prenatal births. The duo chose to go on a professional hiatus.

Awards and Achievements
In 2021, out of 178 candidates, Expertise.com ranked Bare With Me as number 2 in the top 16 best maternity companies in San Francisco.

Philanthropy
In 2020 Bare With Me took to their official instagram, in collaboration with R.O.T.U. World, another Black-owned creative company to create a free “Green Book” for Black-owned businesses for the public and other businesses to support Black-owned businesses in need of revenue.