Gracewinds Perinatal Services

Gracewinds is a great facility with many great programs, it just didn’t work for me.
While on the pathway of having a newborn and not sure what to do, I tried one of their programs called «Listening Mothers». It came highly recommended from a few other people. I was a little unhappy from the start that it was women only, but understood why. And they do offer separate family and father workshops too.
The format was a weekly meeting of new mothers and their babies with a leader, usually a doula. It involves meditation, discussing the highs and lows of motherhood, articles to read, and some ideas for furthering your bond with your baby. It’s spiritual and educational. Most of the mothers in my group really enjoyed it.
It was not for me. I was looking for more education on early child care since I didn’t have a lot of resources. I didn’t really feel like I got that here. Sure the articles were nice, but who has the time to read them when you dealing with a child for the first time.
Most of the other women in my group had used a doula and were familiar with their kinds of services. I was not so into that. Nothing against doulas, it’s just not my thing.
There was also a lot of negative feelings in this group towards their husbands and not breast feeding. I didn’t need a group to bitch about my partner. And I personally could not breast feed for medical reasons and I felt really bad about this early on. If I had known then what I known now, I would have been more vocal about telling people to shut up and mind their own business.
So for me, not a great experience. But the people at Gracewinds were very nice and did follow-​up calls once I stopped going. I definitely recommend this program to people I know will enjoy it.

My husband and I took their Childbirth Prep class a few weekends ago which was held at Northwest Hospital. It was a 1-​day class and I really enjoyed the format and content. I highly recommend it for any new parents-​to-​be. It’s also a great way to meet other couples who are expecting at the same time. You also get a ton of stuff including the Pocket Doula book with your registration.

Okay, I won THREE things in the raffle, the proceeds from which supported GBMI. Awesome!

On my single mom weekends the goal is to get the hell out of the house as soon as possible and run the kid’s ass off so he’ll take a nap. What? It’s good for both of us.
This morning we hauled it all the way out to Ballard for Grace-​a-​Palooza — an event put on by Gracewinds to benefit the Global Breast Milk Initiative (
), which is a cause near and dear to my heart as a mom who totally anihilated what were once a pretty nice set of ta-​tas in order to be sure my kid had the best possible start in life. GBMI works to ensure that even babies that are unable to nurse from their mothers receive breast milk and promote breast feeding in African countries in particular.
Totally worth the trip. Great event with music, petting zoo, bouncy toys, and FREE STUFF. Got the Seattle Mama’s Handbook FREE, and the tickets for rides, balloon creations, face painting, etc… WERE 3 FOR A DOLLAR. Family friendly on every level.
The Mini-​Hero was in top form — hucking himself down the huge inflatable slide with NO FEAR, balloon sword fighting in the toddler pit in front of the stage, basically raising baby hell. We bumped into his best buddy from school and they loved each other up in the most adorable way. All was just fine until the top started to blow off the joint about nap time and Ms. Betsy S. and I dragged Señor Stink-​Butt CRANKY pants back to the car.
And on that note — I think I hear him stirring from the lovely 3 hour break this event bought me.
Thanks Gracewinds.