It takes a village

When preparing for a baby, moms often get all kinds of advice, solicited and unsolicited. From tips on which baby products to avoid to comments on how baby is going to be fed, mothers are inundated with feedback on how to care for their newborns.

Outside of the oh-so-helpful, “sleep when the baby sleeps,” moms are rarely given real advice on how to care for themselves. While 65% of women say they are ready to care for their baby, only 47% feel ready to care for themselves postpartum.

Over the past year, Jenna West of Creston has been postpartum with her daughter Allie, now 13 months old. As West self-reflected on what lights her fire, she realized she could use her own experiences to help others.

“Truly to my core, I just really love helping people, and I really enjoy babies,” she said. From there, the idea for The Village - Postpartum & Prenatal Support was born. The Village is an in-home service providing cleaning, care and comfort to postpartum and prenatal moms in Creston free of charge.

“I was like, what better way to help moms because going through postpartum, I just wanted to also be an example for our community of how they can show up for moms during this time,” West said. “So that’s why I started it. I just know we could all put a little skin in the game. It also just shows our community we can be there for each other and it doesn’t have to take like a bunch of work.”

As a full-time education coordinator with Buena Vista University, a part owner of the family business West Aviation and the mom of two little ones, West has no trouble staying busy. To help facilitate this hectic schedule and her desire to help other moms, West is taking on a few moms a month, giving an hour of time to help in any way she can.

“I think in order to feel fulfilled in life, you have to still be able to give to other people and that’s fulfilling to me to still be able to do that,” she said, “But I knew I had to have some boundaries around it. So I obviously can’t do it during the day when I’m working. I let the moms know ahead of time. I put that on there that I have limited availability.”

Since creating the Facebook page, West has had other people reach out saying they would help out, depending on how many moms want to take advantage of the assistance.

“An hour of my time once or twice a month, I feel like that’s a very small drop in the hat,” she said. “My husband is supportive of helping me get the time out of the house to go.”

West has had a few moms reach out but is looking for The Village to gain more traction and less stigma.

“It can be hard for a mom to raise their hand and be like, ‘yeah, I want some help,’” she said.

The Village isn’t just for women really struggling with postpartum depression. It’s for prenatal women facing third-trimester challenges, newly postpartum women facing the fog of life with a newborn and moms up to even a year or two postpartum depending on the circumstances.

“If I had a higher influx of people wanting to be served, I would probably have to dial that down to the first few months postpartum,” West said. “But right now, anyone postpartum up to a year or two.”

West is really flexible on what services she can offer in that hour timeframe. From just a listening ear to help cleaning the house, West knows each mom’s needs are different.

“I can help with some dishes, maybe folding some laundry,” she said. “A couple of the moms I’ve talked to, one would like help with organizing their closet and cleaning out their closet, like going through their clothes. Another just wanted someone to sit with and chat with and have a coffee with. And I’m open to that. I would help with like, here’s maybe a meal plan that we follow and sharing a meal plan that we do. Just taking some of the extra weight off on that.”

The best way to get ahold of West is by reaching out to her on her Facebook page or emailing her at west.jenna23@gmail.com.

“It’s a free resource... Don’t be afraid to submit an application or just to message me because we all need a little help here and there,” West said. “I feel like sometimes people feel like if it’s a free service, like their financials may come into play like, if we make so much, we shouldn’t be taking use of these resources, but I don’t want that to ever be a factor.”