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The story behind ‘Be Her Village,’ for new and expectant mothers

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Imagine a baby registry through which you can get a cleaned house, promptly folded laundry and home-cooked meals.

“Sounds like a dream,” reads the website for Be Her Village.

We “make it a reality.”

The still-fledgling, yet growing, Be Her Village bills itself as a market for Long Island moms — offering them support, not stuff.

This also includes access to a variety of resources such as doulas, child education, lactation support, pelvic floor PT, bodywork, mental health, and more. 

Kaitlin McGreyes of Farmingdale, the company’s founder, is now a doula and mother of three. She created Be Her Village after her own traumatic birth and postpartum experience with her first child. McGreves is no longer shy to talk about all that, and she wants other moms to feel as free.

her story

While recovering from an emergency cesarean and taking care of her newborn, McGreyes had plenty of wonderful gifts surrounding her such as cute baby clothes and a beautifully decorated nursery.

Be Her Village founder, Kaitlin McGreyes, with her 2 day old son, Julian.

Still, she found herself feeling lost and alone. 

“I remember trying to get my baby ready for his first pediatrician’s appointment, but I had no idea how to get him ready,” McGreyes said. “He was crying constantly, breast feeding wasn’t working, my body hurt, and I realized I didn’t need all this stuff.” 

In the midst of recovering from birth and navigating new motherhood, all McGreyes wanted during this time was guidance. 

“What I really needed was someone to be there to help me breastfeed and someone to help me take a shower and someone to reassure me,” she recalled.

These were the seeds of thought from which sprouted Be Her Village.

Be Her Village has since partnered with over 100 small businesses offering childbirth and postpartum health services for women to help make their transition into parenthood smoother. 

how it works

The registry guide is broken down into four parts: Build Your Birth Team, The 4th Trimester, Restore Your Body, and Heart & Mind. 

New moms can browse through different types of health services from childbirth education to chiropractic care. They can then select from a menu of these services and add them to their gift registries. 

Once the registry is created and shared, friends and family send money directly to the new mom using the company’s “unique cash registry,” then the mom can use that money on the selected services.

“There’s this thing in our culture that just ignores moms,” McGreyes said. “We have all these baby gifts and all these maternity clothes, but there’s nothing really left for the mother; there’s no real attention given to her. Very often women are isolated and struggle in the face of feeling like they have to be happy.”

McGreyes says that many mothers suffer from postpartum mood disorders, therefore it’s important for them to have access to mental health services and support. 

“With Be Her Village, what I wanted to do was create a way of supporting women and bringing that focus back on mothers,” McGreyes said. “It’s about making the celebration about them and their needs because a happy baby needs a happy, well-rested, well-supported mother.”

Top: Baby feet, photo by Picsea via Unsplash.

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