WORCESTER—A new community event aimed at supporting expectant parents and improving maternal and infant health outcomes is coming to Worcester later this month.
The Together for Kids Coalition and the Worcester Healthy Baby Collaborative hosts a Community Pregnancy Pop-Up Celebration on April 11 at the YWCA of Central Massachusetts, bringing together healthcare providers, family support organizations and local vendors in a setting designed to connect families with resources and one another, according to a release announcing the event.
The event, scheduled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the YWCA at 1 Salem St., is intended to celebrate pregnancy while providing access to maternal health information, postpartum resources, and family support services. Attendees also find wellness information, local food vendors and opportunities to connect with other expecting parents.
Organization participation in this event is impressive. Those planning to attend include Pernet Family Health Service, BeaFit Doula & Wellnezx, WIC at the Family Health Center of Worcester, Health Care For All, the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Help Line, Worcester Family Partnership, Quinsigamond Community College, Nurturing Babyhood N’ Beyond, SevenHills Child Care Resources, Rissa Cares, the Latino Education Institute, Worcester JCC, Centro Las Americas, LUCE Worcester, the Office of New Americans at Friendly House, Worcester RISE for Health, MSPCC’s Healthy Families program, Worcester Community Midwifery, Family Health Center of Worcester Baby Café, the Black Breastfeeding Circle, Worcester Public Library, UMass Memorial Health’s Moms Do Care program and Mentor South Bay.
Local vendors and small businesses, including Lili’s Accessories, Kaitlyncantcrochet, Che Empanada, D&M Brothers Cuisine, Sweet by Ley and and Big Belly Barbecue, join in the event.
Registration is encouraged but not required. Childcare and transportation can be arranged for those who register in advance.
The concept for the event was inspired by San Francisco’s “Pop-Up Village” model and aims to bring Together for Kids Coalition’s Worcester Welcome Baby Guide to Resources to life. Sara Shields, MD, professor of family medicine and community health, physician at the Family Health Center of Worcester, and chair of the Worcester Healthy Baby Collaborative, described the approach as “co-led, intentionally celebratory and uplifting,” according to the release.
Shields said the San Francisco model went beyond traditional health-focused events.
“It wasn’t just what we’ve tried to do in the past in Worcester,” Shields said in a statement, “which was more about health and wellness, they were talking about things like having arts and crafts, free supplies, getting some music in there and designing it with this community focus… food, performance, and promoting retail vendors that came from the black community. It wasn’t just the medical piece; it was way more than that… it was a healing place, very person-centered and respectful, and a lot of attentiveness from the providers. It really was a model to prioritize people’s needs, values and preferences.”
The event is scheduled as part of Black Maternal Health Week, observed April 10–17 and led nationally by the Black Mamas Matter Alliance. Organizers said the timing reflects ongoing disparities in maternal and infant health outcomes.
“Together for Kids Coalition is focused on ensuring every Worcester child has all they need to thrive. We firmly believe that when the youngest among us do well, we all do better… As evidenced by the Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University, we know that attachment, bonding, and ‘mattering’ are key to healthy growth and development from the beginning of life. The Pop-Up is one community-centered way to show Worcester families and their developing or newborn babies that they matter to our city,” Dodi Swope said in the release.
Swope also emphasized the event’s focus on equity.
“One of our core principles is ‘supporting equity from the very start of life. We intentionally scheduled this first, of hopefully many, Community Pregnancy Pop-Up Celebration on the advent of Black Maternal Health Week in recognition of the serious and stubborn maternal and child health disparities that unfairly burden Worcester’s Black and brown families,” Swope said in the release.
Organizers hope the April 11 event will be the first of many, with students from UMass Chan Medical School helping evaluate the program and gather feedback from participants.
“It’s an iterative process, and we’re going to learn. One of the things we’ve always believed in at Worcester Healthy Baby Collaborative is trying to get some evaluation and hear the voices of the people who have gone through pregnancy and birth experiences in Worcester, to help us make our programs better and more responsive to community needs,” Shields said in the release.
The event is supported through a community grant from the Greater Worcester Community Foundation, with the YWCA of Central Massachusetts providing the venue.
