Today we’d like to introduce you to Erika Moss, PT, DPT.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My story begins in my teenage years. I have always enjoyed spending time teaching children and coordinating group activities. My mother was a children’s minister growing up, therefore I was helping out in the baby and 2-3 year old classrooms at church early on. I grew to love this age and observing all the growth and milestones little ones go through from birth to 3 years old.
My studies took me to the University of Missouri- Columbia (Mizzou, Go Tigers!) for undergrad and graduate school. I completed my Doctorate of Physical Therapy with honors in 2012. Throughout school, my passion for working with the pediatric and neurologic population grew. It was deepened during that time, by multiple experiences within my own family requiring physical therapy. Post graduation, a move took me to Texas, and after a few years working in neurological rehabilitation, I transitioned to primarily focusing on the pediatric population. Working as a home health provider initially and traveling all across the Dallas-Fort Worth area gave me a new insight and reignited my love for early intervention. I quickly learned that proper early intervention can help boost a child’s success from the start. I have since worked with infants and their families over the past 10 years in counting, both in home health and clinic settings, and found so much joy in this specialty area.
As my own personal family grew, we experienced first hand some of the same newborn struggles of the families I had treated and educated over the years. Both of our children were diagnosed with torticollis (neck tightness) and hip dysplagia due to their breech positioning in the womb. Even though I knew this was an in-uterine cause and held prior education about these diagnoses, it was still an emotional process to help each of my girls through this trying time. These experiences gave us a new perspective on the importance of education, early intervention, and a deeper desire to help families, just like ours. The first year after birth is an emotional one. A true roller coaster ride, with lots of twists and turns, so many unknowns, struggles, lack of sleep, along with the laughter, smiles and joy. I wanted to be a part of making this ride a smoother one for our local families.
Womb to Walking, LLC was formed after reflecting on all my experiences, both as a pediatric physical therapist and a mother over the years. I want to help offload even a little bit of stress from new parents and caregivers during the first year of their baby’s life. Being an in-home provider allows me to meet families where they are, both physically and emotionally. I can bring comfort, calm, and knowledge to help these families through stressful situations with their sweet little ones.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Everyone’s journey has struggles along the way, and I am no different. I believe there is still beauty to be found in the struggle, and lessons to be learned along the way. For myself, I had no prior business knowledge upon opening my own company. I knew my vision and had the passion, but had no background on finances, business, nor social media marketing. In discussions with my spouse, we decided that I needed to commit and jump in fully, leaving my safety net behind. This was to allow the proper time and research needed to build, while not taking time away from our children. My husband graciously stepped up and helped me with the business side and financial budgeting. I am very thankful, I could not have begun nor continued this journey without him. I am still learning to take time to be still and balancing a new routine to reach my goals.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Womb to Walking, LLC is a pediatric physical therapy and wellness company. We provide one-on-one, in-home services to the families across the Kansas City metro. I am licensed with a doctorate of physical therapy in Missouri and Kansas. Our mission is “empowering each family with knowledge and individualized therapy, supporting them on the beautiful journey from pregnancy through their baby’s first year and beyond”. The Womb to Walking, LLC Physical Therapy side specializes in early intervention (from birth to about 3 years old) including: developmental delay, torticollis (tight neck), muscle imbalance, weakness, prematurity, rotational preferences, flat head syndrome, milestones, low tone, tension, and more. We also offer early, no prescription needed, one-on-one tummy time and milestone educational sessions for infants to help families with early prevention of flat head syndrome and developmental delay. These sessions are focused on setting up the baby for success from the start. We assist with demonstrating a variety of ways to make tummy time and early milestones easier, more interactive, and even a caregiver bonding experience, while strengthening the baby’s muscles. Infant Massage education is also offered as an additional service. Infant Massage is a great way to bond with your new baby, improve circulation, relax the muscle tension after birth, and is research proven to decrease stress, gas and colic symptoms!
I am most proud of our community efforts to bring this education to families across the KC metro. This is where my true passion lies. I want to reach as many families as possible with a jump start education on proper tummy time and early developmental milestones to prevent motor delays and head flattening. This knowledge and understanding is often overlooked until it’s too late. Womb to Walking has held an informational booth at various community baby showers with free tummy time education and handouts. We hold free tummy time educational classes at the West Wyandotte Public Library and the Kansas City Public Library: Plaza. We partner with many other small business to host or speak at family resource groups and educational sessions. We partnered with The Guild for a free sensory art and milestone education session called Messy Milestones, and plan to hold more in the future. We are continuously working to add more free events for our KC community, as we believe this education should be available to all families. Our goal is to bring bonding and community back into parenting.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
My future vision for this company is to add a non-profit branch to continue with our efforts to bring developmental knowledge, resources, infant-caregiver bonding, and community to all our local families and help each baby succeed from the start! Please reach out to me if anyone wants to partner on improving Kansas City for our families. When we make a child’s environment better, we make the whole community better.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.womb2walking.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wombtowalking/
- Other: [email protected]
