Formerly known as Mama2Mama

Programs

RISE

Resources for Income, Shelter & Empowerment

Financial stability is postpartum care.

RISE provides cash directly to the mothers who need it most — offering dignity and removing strings attached.

You can’t recover from birth while worrying about rent.

Medical care often ends weeks after delivery. There’s no federal paid leave. Unstable housing, increased expenses, limited healthcare access, and childcare gaps pile up right when a family can least absorb them — and this doesn’t just add stress, it drives worse outcomes for mothers and babies, especially Black and Indigenous birthing people.

A baby adds $12,000–$15,000 in costs during the first year — and up to $30,000 once childcare, medical expenses, and essential equipment are factored in. That’s not a disaster statistic. That’s for every growing family.

Postpartum care requires stability, not just physically or emotionally—but financially. RISE is our wrap-around answer.

What RISE provides

Unrestricted Cash

Direct financial support mothers use however they need — rent, groceries, transportation, childcare. Their call, not ours.

Relational Care Coordination

Dedicated staff help navigate benefits and insurance, with warm handoffs to outside agencies and access to culturally responsive doula and birth worker support.

Community & Tangible Support

Peer connection, perinatal mental health resources, and essential postpartum supplies — so no mother is figuring this out alone.

Why Cash

As members of the Mother Infant Cash Coalition, we believe trust is the intervention. Cash says: we believe you know what your family needs and that we all deserve dignity. That’s the whole model.

What we believe

  • Parents are the experts in their own lives.
  • Care should not be transactional.
  • Support should be flexible to adapt to changing needs.
  • Dignity and choice are non-negotiable.

 

Financial stability in postpartum shouldn’t depend on privilege, luck, or circumstance. It should be a standard of care every mother and birthing person can count on. RISE is how we move from belief to practice.

Help us build what postpartum care should be.

RISE isn’t a stopgap. It’s a new standard — proof that unrestricted, dignity-first support changes outcomes for mothers and babies alike.

The research behind RISE — and the movement we're part of: