This spring, Open Arms Perinatal Services and PEPS started a peer support group for Spanish-speaking families. Open Arms hosted these meetings at El Centro de la Raza and coordinated additional support for the mothers who attended. Maria, Community Connector at PEPS, and Betty Hernandez, a doula at Open Arms, led this first-time pilot group. Betty is also an obstetrical nurse and acts…
Category: Community Connections
Raise a Good Human: Bring them to the Theatre
by Heather Gautschi, Communications Manager, Seattle Children’s Theatre If you’re looking to enhance your child’s artistic activities and experiences, bringing them to live theatre is a great opportunity. The theatre is an amazing place to be utterly, blissfully yourself, and it can be really powerful for children to feel welcomed for precisely who they are. Theatre can be an anchor in an otherwise…
PEPS Spotlight: Wendy Powell, Childish Things
Childish Things is a children’s clothing and toy resale boutique located in Crown Hill. The owner, Wendy Powell, is a local Seattle mom who started her business in 2008. She took a few moments this month to chat with us. Childish Things has been a partner of PEPS since 2012. Thank you! What factors do you weigh when deciding which organization…
Sow the Seed to Reap the Harvest
from PEPS Sponsor, Washington College Savings Plans Fresh air. Brisk mornings. A beautiful kaleidoscope of leaves. Squirrels are storing food for the winter, geese are flying south, and crops are being planted. Fall is here! A lot of time, energy, and planning goes into preparing for what’s next (whether it be the next season, the next promotion, the next child,…
I love my baby, but I miss my old life
by Laurie Ganberg, LICSW “I love my baby but I feel trapped.” “Maybe having a baby was a mistake.” “Every part of my life has changed. I miss my old life.” I often hear these statements hesitantly shared by women experiencing ambivalence and regret after a new baby—along with, “I can’t talk about this in the new moms group.” But it is…
Five Things I Learned From Yoga About Being A New Parent
by Megan Sloan I was a prenatal and postnatal yoga teacher long before I was a mom, and a student of yoga for even longer. Through years of teaching yoga to pregnant students and then seeing their transformations into new parents postpartum, I witnessed the gamut of what becoming a parent looked like. And if there’s one thing I learned,…
New Parent? 5 Baby Basics This Pediatrician Wants You to Know
By Vanessa Raymond It’s hard to know how best to parent a new baby when there are so many shifting trends. Do you need a smart sleeper that comes replete with white noise and jiggly rocking? What about a weighted blanket? A perma-fort? Chewelry? Pediatrician Cynthia Kertesz, M.D. of the Pediatric Care Center at UWMC-Roosevelt believes that the basics of caring for your new baby are not all that…
Let’s Give the Babies a Shout-Out: Think Babies
On Friday, July 27 from 10 am – 12 pm, parents, babies and toddlers will meet up to stroll around Lakewood Park with local policymakers to talk about issues, policies, legislation that affect families and young children. Things like quality affordable childcare and parental leave for the important time needed to bond with your baby. It’s called Strolling Thunder and…
Reuniting Families
At PEPS we deeply value the sacred and irreplaceable parent-child relationship. The practice of family separation is inhumane and unacceptable. There is no shortage of evidence proving the harm inflicted on children when removed from their parent(s). The impact on a baby or child’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health and development when they endure the trauma of separation from their family is…
Mother Soulstice: Nurturing Your Mother Self
by Conni Navarre, Founder of Mother Soulstice The transformation into motherhood is a time of tremendous joy and love that can be coupled with the distress of one’s own personal need to heal both physically and emotionally post birth. Many women don’t receive adequate education and support during this time, which can leave them feeling isolated in their recovery. In…