Community baby shower gives moms-to-be hope, supplies
LANNASTRR» Glo Mom is hosting four physically distant community baby showers across the state on Sunday, from noon-3 p.m., for mothers-to-be and families, including one at 150 School St., Clinton.
Glo Mom is based out of the College Church of Seventh-day Adventists at 337 Main St. in South Lancaster. Its role is to provide family and maternal wellness resources, and the “First, Last & Best” baby showers are supporting that mission. Prenatal nutrition and natural parenting information, health education, postpartum and lactation support, a diaper pantry, and new and gently used baby, toddler and maternity items will be available for attendees.
Glo Mom is the brainchild of Nicole Broushet, who was inspired to start the group when working in Manhattan eight years ago, newly married and thinking about adding to their family.
“Full of excitement, nervousness and uncertainty, I found a bench in the middle of the park and called my grandmother,” she said. “That call filled me with so much purpose, hope and joy I left knowing that despite my questions, I was ready. I began sharing that same hope with other women who were struggling with the same fears.”
Fast forward to 2016 when Broushet found out she was pregnant with her second of now three daughters. She and her husband were so overcome
with excitement that they immediately booked the first doctor’s appointment. They were told that it was too early to do anything, and informed that the pregnancy was not viable and that Broushet would most likely miscarry.
“I was emotional but full of faith that my baby was OK and thank God that she was and is a very energetic little girl now, but that experience forever changed me,” she recalled.
“What about the women without a support system, the families far from home or without a community, without resources? I wanted to create something that would simultaneously nurture and support while helping others to exercise their voice and advocate for themselves and their family,” she said.
Broushet said that by 2018, Glo Mom “had grown beyond my capacity.”
With established community baby showers and support networks in multiple cities, it was no longer simply her “passion project” but a “fully engaged, maternal health and advocacy organization that needed a proper home.”
In 2020 they partnered with the College Church to establish a home base in New England, “in order to focus our efforts on serving the communities in this region and increasing our level of engagement with families in need.”
Broushet said that besides herself, mother and daughter Deb and Bianca Loss, Ana Carmela, and Mechee Cherine “make up the core of the Glo Mom team, but it is truly a community effort.”
“As Seventh-day Adventist Christians, we believe very much in the whole person and that from our perspective that God cares not only about the spiritual but also the physical health,” Broushet said.
“We are deeply committed to guarding and advocating for health equity, food security and really all things pertaining to ensuring the physical, mental and emotional well-being of others, regardless of who you are.”
Broushet and her husband move to Sturbridge four years ago from New York City to expand their culinary nutrition education organization and open an organic, plant-based eatery on Waldo Street in Worcester, The Vegan Nest Café.
They are currently in the process of opening a second Vegan Nest location in Clinton. She said they have hosted Glo Mom community baby showers over the last six years in various communities around the state.
“The maternal health crisis is absolutely a public health crisis,” Broushet said. “The maternal mortality rate in the United States is disturbingly high and that partly relates to cardiovascular issues and perinatal mental health issues like postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety. There are also many women who struggle with bonding and providing for their newborns because of stress, financial pressure, and or trauma.”
Broushet said the global COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the maternal health crisis and issues resulting from it.
“What we have seen over the years is a need for better maternal health advocates, especially as a result of the pandemic,” she said. “Postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety are at an all-time high. Women have been faced with the fear and uncertainty of how COVID impacts not only them but the child they’re carrying, and that stress can lead to adverse health outcomes, mentally and physically, and the financial burden of it all has also caused increased pressure on families.”
She said their number one goal is to “celebrate the incredible perseverance of these mothers and caregivers, to create a loving, supportive atmosphere that strengthens family bonds, and to provide access to community resources and partners.”
Broushet said they can accomplish what they do through the “incredibly generous support” of community partners and sponsors who align with and believe in their mission. This year Unity Radio will be broadcasting the baby shower speakers live on 97.9 FM and “amazing community partners” such as 360 Women and Girls, Thrift Barn, Tubby Todd Bath Co., Safe Baby Project, First Concern Pregnancy Resource Center, Clinton Public Schools, CareNet Fitchburg and others are involved.
In kind donations from the organizations and groups are enabling Glo Mom to gift expecting families with essential baby items, clothes, books, toys, and more, including information regarding safe sleep, lactation, birthing techniques and the like.
“We receive financial contributions from within the community and individual contributors and we are also blessed to be able to help support this effort, financially, as an extension of the Cafè,” Broushet said.
“As we add services and the initiative grows, we will be looking at long-term solutions to help us reach more women, more families, to serve them wherever they are and to meet their needs as best we can, whether it be financially, emotionally, relationally, physically or spiritually.”
Broushet said they will be rolling out an extended Glo Mom program at the church over the next several months that will include an on-site diaper bank, pantry, and closet that will provide toys, books, clothing, resources and more for expecting parents and families with small children that will be open during the weekly Wednesday morning play group at the church.
“As maternal health advocates, we recognize that action is the key ingredient to change and we’re excited and thankful to be that something different for all families,” Broushet said.
When asked whether her three daughters and the daughters of the other team members have inspired their community outreach efforts, Broushet said “absolutely.”
“We want our daughters to know what it means to truly be in community with others,” Broushet said.
“To serve, to protect, to extend ourselves for the sake of others that we may all be well and in good health, to desire for their good to help them to reach something better.”
The other three community baby showers will be held at Pleasant Street YMCA, 537 Pleasant St. in Attleboro, First Springfield Seventh-day Adventist Church, at 1118 Summer Ave., Springfield, and in Worcester in the Bowditch & Dewey parking lot at the intersection of Exchange and Waldo streets in the city.