For months, Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Executive Director, Brie Oliver, would come into her office, sit down at her desk, prepare to dive into work for the day and glance up at her whiteboard. The words ‘Mother Love’ stared back at her, giving a little wink as if to say, “hey, I’m still here waiting to get off of this whiteboard and out into the world…” Brie nodded back not knowing exactly how to make that happen but patiently knowing it would, when the time was right.
Then, one day, it did. Through the magic of a few aligned circumstances, Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies of MT was awarded a mini-grant by the Maternal Mental Health Task force of the Greater Helena Area Early Childhood Coalition. Suddenly, HMHB was given the means to focus time, energy and passion into launching Mother Love, a safe space for families to connect, share stories, creatively express their experiences (both struggles and triumphs) and, ultimately, to heal and thrive in community.
So far, Mother Love has launched a podcast and hosted two healing arts events at The Holter Museum of Art in the heart of downtown Helena, Montana. Although things are still just getting off the ground, Mother Love has already begun to work its magic, helping moms and families reflect on their experiences and work through sticking points together.
At the two February Mother Love Stitch & Story events, moms from all different ages and backgrounds gathered together to work on their own simple embroidery projects, stitching the words, ‘You are enough’ into colorful fabrics that will remind them of this important idea in their daily lives. One stitch at a time, a circle of women sat and listened attentively while they took turns sharing birth stories, self-care challenges, sibling rivalry woes and chuckling about the silly things people sometimes say to new moms. They touched on ways their babies had transformed them, taught them how to be calm, patient and resilient and how to surrender and go with the flow even when it seems impossible to do so. At times, stitches got tangled and moms got stuck in their embroidery flow. When this happened, another mom was quick to offer help untangling knots and smoothing the threaded mess, like moms do.
On the first episode of the podcast, Trista Vonada, a local social worker and mental health professional bravely shared her story of postpartum depression. If you’d care to have a listen, click here. This podcast will be an ongoing project and the conversations and content will vary but will mostly focus on birth stories, maternal mental health, the transition into motherhood and what it is really like to create and maintain a healthy family.
We are so grateful to have the opportunity to introduce Mother Love to the world and to reach more Montana moms and families in these new ways. If you’re interested in learning more about HMHB and donating to the organization, please visit our website at www.hmhb-mt.org.
