First day of my internship with
Bentonville Birth
Services.
June 1, 2026
Super excited to jump right in. Please enjoy the random photo breaks throughout this article. Welcome to my intern scrapbook!
Hi everyone! My name is Sophie Kennedy, and I was an intern with Bentonville Birth Services for the summer of 2026. I am heading into my junior year at Hendrix College with a passion for maternal health and hopes to pursue a career in midwifery. I accumulated more than 100 hours working with Bentonville Birth Services this summer – I have never learned so much in such a short amount of time! I can confidently say this summer has changed the way I think about healthcare, birth, and the kind of provider I hope to become.
I had the opportunity support a woman labor, attend doula integration meetings at Mercy Hospital, sit in on the hiring process for a new doula, participate in continuing education with the team at BBS, and learn what it actually looks like to support families through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.
And those weren't even the official tasks of my internship!
I had three main projects this summer: creating a community resource binder, developing a social media strategy, and researching what an online learning library could look like for Bentonville Birth Services clients. I was able to put my organizational and creative skills to work, but the most valuable part of this internship wasn't a project I could list on a resume.
It was listening.
I listened to doulas talk about their experiences supporting families. I listened to conversations about the healthcare system and barriers families face accessing care. I listened to midwives, lactation consultants, and other professionals talk about the gaps they navigate every day. And, perhaps most importantly, I listened to Whitney as she turned every interaction into a teaching moment about maternal health and doula work.
Shameless puppy photo!
Dean is the new mascot at BBS, and snuggling him was definitely a perk of the job.
Before this internship, I knew maternal healthcare in America had problems. I knew about maternal mortality, disparities in care, and the importance of having access to evidence-based information and supportive providers. But knowing these problems exist and actually hearing people’s firsthand experiences are two very different things.
My time with Bentonville Birth Services provided me a closer look at the realities of maternal healthcare in Arkansas. And we have some serious work to do! Throughout the state, families do not have equal access to the same quality of care. There are gaps in health education, postpartum support, lactation care, mental health resources, and access to obstetric providers. The way someone experiences pregnancy and birth depends heavily on where they live, what resources they have, and whether they have an advocate alongside them.
These problems are not the fault of individuals within the medical field. I have seen firsthand how hard healthcare providers work and how much they care about patients in front of them. The problem is bigger than any one person. It is a system that asks hardworking people to provide excellent care within a framework not designed to support that level of care.
That distinction matters to me.
I don't want to spend my career blaming hospitals or the people working inside them. I want to understand why disparities exist and explore what we can do differently. I want to be part of the solution!
Awkward.
Client + intern family photo after a prenatal visit. Because, why not?
I want to work in a healthcare system where women feel informed rather than intimidated, supported rather than dismissed, and empowered rather than treated like passive participants in their own birth.
One experience that really brought this into focus was attending the Bentonville Film Festival screening of The Ebony Canal. That film opened my eyes to the disparities and tragedies that occur within our healthcare system, particularly for Black mothers and families. It reminded me that statistics about maternal mortality aren't just figures. Behind every number is a person, a family, a baby, and a story.
That realization will stay with me long beyond this summer internship.
The Ebony Canal
Doulas and maternal health advocates at the screening event. This was such a powerful experience.
The best part of my BBS intern experience were the people I met along the way. I connected with two midwives I can reach out to with questions about the profession I hope to enter. I met a lactation consultant who completed an accelerated nursing program and can offer advice as I consider that path for myself. And I met SO MANY DOULAS who welcomed me into their work and allowed me to learn from them.
Those connections have been invaluable. But even more important is what they all taught me about the kind of provider I want to become.
Peanut ball. IYKYK
Birth team training on maternal positioning for labor and delivery support.
I want to be the kind of provider who listens. Who educates. Who advocates. Who respects the person giving birth as an active participant in their care. And ultimately, I want to live in a world where every mother has the opportunity to receive the care she deserves—and where babies can breathe life without their mothers having to lose theirs.
One of the most meaningful experiences of my summer was supporting a family during the birth of their first child. There is really no way to fully explain what it feels like to be in the room when a baby is born. It was magical, intense, emotional, exhausting, and completely incredible all at once. I watched a family move through some of the hardest and most powerful moments of their lives, and I got to see what it looks like when a doula is there to support them without judgment, to remind them of their options, to answer questions, and to simply be present.
My first ever doula birth!
Whitney’s clients kindly allowed me to attend. It was amazing to see doula work in action — and to be part of the support team for this family.
It was one of those experiences that made everything I have learned about birth and maternal healthcare feel so real. I left that birth completely certain that this is the kind of work I want to do for the rest of my life.
What strikes me the most is that Bentonville Birth Services is already doing the kind of work I hope to do someday.
They are not just supporting people through labor; they are educating families, advocating for them, listening to them, and helping them feel confident in their own decisions. These doulas recognize that good healthcare is about more than what happens medically. It’s also about how people are treated and whether they feel heard and respected. I hope that one day, as a midwife, I can provide care with that same level of compassion. This summer gave me the opportunity to see that approach in action – it has given me something to strive toward.
I am incredibly grateful to Bentonville Birth Services, to their founder, Whitney Hardie, and to every doula, midwife, and family who allowed me to learn from them this summer.
I came into this internship looking for experience.
I left with a much clearer idea of what I want to spend my life working towards.
— Sophie K.