Mother, wife, trained doula, surrogate and all around good person: meet Allison Farrance, One Tough Mother’s new Co-owner! In her own words:

I’m a Mom to Alexis and Dylan, and a wife to Stuart. We’re all living our best life by the ocean in small town Vancouver Island, where we recently moved.

Now I spend my free time drinking too much coffee, petting the dog and hiking in the mountains behind our house, but one thing has never changed: I’m passionate about motherhood and all things pregnancy and postpartum!

After Alexis was born in 2010 — and after struggling with perinatal mood disorders through both pregnancies and postpartum periods — I thought, there has to be a more positive way to support new and expecting Mothers.

This led me to doula work. I wanted to participate in supporting and normalizing all the pieces of transitioning to new parenthood that society doesn’t talk about. I’m passionate about informed choice and about always being educated about the choices that are available.

Then, in 2018, I did something that still gets a lot of questions: I became an altruistic gestational carrier surrogate to help another family experience the joy of parenting.

The baby’s parents were incredible and supportive, but what I realized through this experience — even though I had birthed twice myself and supported hundreds pregnancies and births —  is that there just aren’t enough supports in place for dealing with the postpartum reality.

I still had to do school pick-up less than 24 hours after giving birth. I had my first postpartum check in the back of my van! (Shout out to my midwives for being so incredibly flexible!) Then it was the kids’ summer vacation just as my husband had to return to work onsite, and I was left alone to recover armed with nothing but adult diapers and two energetic kids that needed me to be their Mom. Without the celebration of a baby (it wasn't my baby, after all), there wasn't any celebration. And I had just birthed a human!

It really illustrated to me how far we have to go to give pregnancy, birth and the postpartum experience the true reverence it deserves. Joining One Tough Mother is the perfect transition from supporting all birthers, to shining focus on the days leading up to and just after giving birth in a holistic way.

___

At One Tough Mother, everything we do, we do because we believe that expecting and new parents deserve so much better. Allison is the absolute embodiment of this, and her skills and knowledge only push us further as a business. Welcome aboard, Allison, and thank you for choosing this to be your next, great adventure! Want to drop her a line? Allison can be reached at community@imonetoughmother.com.