We are honored to share the powerful voice of a mother we’ve been supporting since January, who experienced our wildfire relief efforts firsthand. Her words capture not only the critical need for postpartum support during disasters but also the transformative power of community care—exactly what we’re building together at Mama2Mama.
From “Trauma-Informed Lessons from the Pandemic Babies for the Fire Babies”
My four-year-old middle child is starting TK this month, and every parent of a four- or five-year-old that I know is feeling very out of sorts. As another mom whispered to me at the park last week, “Do you think all the TK and kindergarten teachers this year know what they are in for?” Our kiddos born in 2020 and 2021 are the “pandemic babies.” They were born into a fundamentally different world than children before them, and scientific studies have shown a marked difference in their early childhood development and socialization. Many are now comparing the pandemic babies to our children of the fires—or, as we’ve similarly taken to calling them, the “fire babies.”
If the isolation of the pandemic was a bigger detriment than the stress, then I have so much hope for our fire babies. We don’t have to recover apart this time. Evacuations and displacements are only temporary breaks in our social bonds. Unlike our pandemic recovery, our fire recovery depends upon our physical connectedness. Our fire babies—and fire moms—desperately need a village rebuilt.
The local Pasadena non-profit organization, Mama2Mama, is now that village for more than 150 local families. Founded in 2023, Mama2Mama provides intensive, culturally-informed, personalized fire relief efforts and has become the model village for the Eaton Fire’s pregnant and postpartum moms.
Built upon true “fourth trimester” support and care and working with more than 80 midwives, doulas, and lactation specialists, Mama2Mama has rebuilt meaningful, intimate personal support networks for families by establishing additional programs across four core areas:
- Practical support such as diapers, formula, meals, postpartum essentials
- Community building such as mental health healing circles and creating peer communities
- Integrated care through partnerships with family service and mental health organizations to provide expanded access
- Cash assistance like their wildfire cash aid program, which puts cash into the hands of families most impacted by the wildfires
According to Executive Director Rachel Scandling, Mama2Mama is designed at its core to promote connectedness. “Understanding that postpartum is already an isolating time for new parents helps inform our approach,” she stressed. “Our work addresses real needs: access to essentials, spaces that accommodate parents in all stages, and ongoing connection during vulnerable times.” Importantly, Rachel underscored, “we deliver care that is practical, emotional, and systemic, offering postpartum families what they need, when and where they need it.”
“In the aftermath of a natural disaster,” Rachel added, “the stress is insurmountable.” The postpartum year is extremely difficult and isolating for all families, but in periods of extreme stress such as the pandemic and Eaton Fire, these difficulties are even more pronounced. “Postpartum is a tender time of need,” Rachel said. “The uncertainty of birth and postpartum is already a stressful time; not knowing when to return to a smoke-damaged home, what new school older kids might be attending, or how to make ends meet with a longer commute and new rental expenses adds exponential stress.”
“We need disaster responses that treat caregiving as central infrastructure,” said the Stanford research report’s author, Professor Garcia. While his report strictly discusses the Eaton Fire, the recommendation could have applied to the pandemic as well. The pandemic response centered the immediate survival needs of those most vulnerable to the coronavirus, but we have learned from the long-term developmental effects on pandemic babies that greater attention needs to be paid to mothers and babies in current and future disasters.
This lesson is key for anyone seeking to help the fire babies— recovery means building villages that center mothers and babies. Connection, socialization, and personal support can prevent the negative impacts seen in the pandemic babies. When more organizations help the community adopt mother- and baby-forward wraparound care models like Mama2Mama, we can build new villages of care that can help write a new developmental success story for our most vulnerable. We can—and must—all help center and uplift the fire babies.
Excerpted from “Trauma-Informed Lessons from the Pandemic Babies for the Fire Babies.” Read the complete piece at voices.lotusrisingla.org/trauma-informed-lessons/
Help Build the Village
The need continues. Mothers are still unhoused. Families face unemployment and precarious work situations. Parents endure longer, more expensive commutes. Pregnant and postpartum women struggle to cover basic necessities AND medical bills.
