Elizabethtown midwife and nurse practitioner Kati Frey founded BirthPrint to give expecting mothers something the hospital system rarely offers: a personalized plan built around their fears, their goals, and their birth.

There's a moment Kati Frey describes that probably sounds familiar to a lot of first-time mothers.

You're pregnant. You know roughly what's coming. And yet, somewhere in the back of your mind, you're terrified - not of any one specific thing, but of all the things you don't know you don't know.

What's unique about Kati's story is that when she felt that way, she had spent nearly a decade working in maternal and women's health.

She had a dual degree in midwifery and women's health nursing. She had worked in labor and delivery at Hershey Medical Center.

She had attended births in Fort Wayne, Indiana as a practicing midwife.

And she still didn't feel ready.

"I didn't know what I was doing, and that's kind of embarrassing to say," she admits. "Even as someone who had 10 years of experience before I decided to have my first baby. And it's because, innately, we're like, oh, this should be simple. I know what I'm doing. But I didn't know what I didn't know."

Her first birth didn't go the way she'd hoped.

Her second one changed everything.

The second time around, Kati did things differently.

She prepared in a way that matched what she wanted - not what a generic hospital course told her to expect.

The result? She had what she calls her "absolute ideal birth" at a birth center. Unmedicated. And home within six hours.

"I was like, wow," she says. "More people should know that they should be empowered - not to do it the way I did it, but to be able to have the birth that they want."

That insight became the foundation for BirthPrint, the birth education service she launched out of her home base in Elizabethtown.

The premise is simple, even if the execution isn't. Every expecting mother is different. Her fears are different.

Her goals are different. Her knowledge gaps are different.

So why is nearly every childbirth education course the same?

"A lot of education out there is saying, like, natural is the best, or you have to be at a hospital to be safe," Kati says. "We don't want to pigeonhole people or shame them into thinking they have to be one way."

BirthPrint pushes back on the cookie-cutter model entirely.

Before Kati - or her colleague who works alongside her - teaches anyone anything, they listen.

The first meeting is an intake.

She asks mothers about their experience so far, what questions haven't been answered, what they're hoping for, and - often the most important question of all - what they're afraid of.

"We try not to hit too heavy at first," she says. "But one of the last ones is, what fears do you have going into this?"

From there, she builds a completely customized education curriculum. Not a pre-packaged module. Not a handout from the hospital. A real plan, built around this specific person, addressing what she needs to know.

The sessions can happen virtually, over the phone, or in the client's home. (BirthPrint doesn't have a storefront - they go to you.)

"We put together a toolbox for them," Kati explains. "Whether they want an epidural, they don't want an epidural - we put it all together for them and say, here you go. We review it all with them."

One of the most striking things about how she describes her work: no agenda.

She's not trying to push anyone toward a natural birth.

She's not pushing the hospital either.

Her goal is to give mothers the information they need to pursue whatever birth experience they actually want.

That neutrality, she says, is rarer than it should be.

Two recent first-time clients illustrated this perfectly. '

With the first, they assumed postpartum care would be a concern.

Instead, she already had that covered - she'd helped raise her sister's babies and felt confident there. What she was worried about was something else entirely.

With the next first-time mom? Total opposite.

She didn't know what she was supposed to have at home. She hadn't thought about postpartum at all.

"It's being able to meet with them before we give our education," Kati says, "knowing where their weaknesses are, and then filling those gaps so they feel more confident."

This is why she's skeptical of off-the-shelf solutions - whether that's a $30 online course or a standard hospital childbirth class.

For some people, those work fine. For many others, they leave the most important questions unanswered.

"People who do childbirth education in general have less fear," she says. "But you have to have the right education course for your needs and desires."

Kati is clear about what BirthPrint is and isn't.

They don't deliver babies or attend the birth itself (though she says adding birth doula services is on the horizon).

She's also careful about the line between education and medical advice.

But her background - midwifery, nurse practitioner, over a decade in clinical care - gives her a level of depth that most childbirth educators simply don't have.

When something complicated comes up, she can engage with it more substantively than someone without that training.

She described a recent client whose baby was still breech heading into the third trimester. It was the kind of situation where a lot of educators would say, "I can't touch that - talk to your provider."

Kati went further.

"Only about 3% of babies actually stay breech until term," she told her client. "Here are your options if that happens."

And when they got to the edge of what education could cover, she was direct: "Here are all the questions I would ask, as a provider, to another provider about all your options moving forward."

That kind of guidance - not medical advice, but medically informed preparation - is part of what makes BirthPrint different.

"A lot of first-time moms - and some second-time moms who had a traumatic first birth - at the end of our visit, I ask: how are you feeling? And they still say, I'm absolutely terrified."

She pauses.

"But at least I know what to expect."

That shift from terrified-and-in-the-dark to terrified-but-informed is the whole point. It's the difference between fear that paralyzes and fear you can walk through.

She compares it to reassuring a child there are no monsters under the bed. You can't guarantee everything will go perfectly. But you can hand someone a flashlight.

One thing Kati wants Lancaster County to know about: you don't have to spend a dime to start benefiting from what BirthPrint offers.

Every third Tuesday evening, she holds a free, hands-on class at the Elizabethtown Public Library.

The sessions cover labor positions, touch on common fears, and are kept deliberately conversational - no rigid curriculum, just real talk about what expecting mothers are actually dealing with.

"We keep it really just one-on-one, going back and forth," she says. "And that's completely free."

Cost, she acknowledges, is a real barrier for young families.

Not everyone can invest in private sessions.

So she wants the library class to serve as an open door - a way for any expecting mother in the area to access real, personalized guidance without the financial pressure.

"If it becomes really popular, we're more than happy to expand it," she says.

For private sessions, Kati says BirthPrint's pricing is intentionally reasonable. The goal has never been exclusivity - it's been access.

Kati Frey serves clients across Lancaster County, both in-person and virtually.

To learn more about BirthPrint's services or to connect with Kati directly, visit her website or reach out through her contact page.

The next free class at the Elizabethtown Public Library is coming up this month. If you're expecting - or know someone who is - it's worth showing up.

Because knowing what's coming doesn't make the journey easier by removing the unknown. It makes it easier by turning the lights on.

Click here to learn more about BirthPrint and how they help mothers.