Community and parenthood... they should go hand in hand.
Soon after I found out I was pregnant, I dove right into community. Both online and in person, I became active in groups that offered a safe place to express concerns, ask questions, and just chat about pregnancy, birth and what being a mom is all about. With a variety topics and passions, each group offered an assortment of points of views and experience.
Through the brilliance of Facebook, finding community seems a million times easier than it used to be. With 24/7 access, the facebook groups I am a part of have come to the rescue for me in the middle of the night on more than one occasion. (Like when my baby who once slept through the night is on night five of waking every hour... that can make a mama lose her mind!)
Some of my favorite online communities:
- A number of local Facebook groups, including: Lynchburg Moms Supporting Moms, Lynchburg Babywearers, and others. (Most of these are closed or private groups so if you are local and want to join, you can search for them on FB.)
- Gentle Christian Mothers (Even though I do not agree with everything these moms do, a lot of the pregnancy/birth/postpartum topics were extremely helpful for me!)
- Mothering.com forums
- Diaperswappers.com (where I found a cool group of women that all had babies due in November of last year and got a lot of my cloth diapers)
Of course, nothing is better than meeting together in the presence of like-minded souls. On the 2nd and 4th Mondays of the month I experience a beautiful community that is The Motherhood Collective Cafe. The women involved are welcoming, encouraging, loving, and most of all, truly caring. Their passion is to help encourage and support one another in our journey of motherhood. The environment is warm and cozy, with candles and coffee, conversation and support. It's such a sweet little escape from my normal routine of life.
For the past few months I have had the honor of being on the leadership team of the cafe and we've been brewing up some awesome things. On July 1st we launched a new brand, website, and we became an official non-profit organization. My favorite thing about the launch is that we have a new blog so we can start to share our passion with women outside of the Lynchburg area. So wether you are local or not, please head over to the site and check it out!
I am honored to be a writer for the blog as well and I recently shared about my new obsession with Coconut Oil here.
