Baby Cafes offer free, breastfeeding support groups for new moms
MELROSE - August is Breastfeeding Awareness Month and it's the perfect time for new mothers to talk about specific baby issues in a safe space.
"The first week of the month was actually Breastfeeding Awareness Week but really the whole month of August is dedicated to conversations," said Daniela Procopio, the co-founder of SOLMA tea.
The Baby Cafe was founded by Lucia Jenkins in 2006. Her hope was to give new moms a village of support when they needed it most.
"When I first devised the model, I said, well it's got to be drop in. You shouldn't have to sign up or register for anything and it's got to be open reliably each week, doors open, come on in," Jenkins told WBZ-TV.
For moms that breastfeed, the struggle is serious and their spouses may have no idea.
"Being a guy, this isn't something that I ever really thought of. I thought you're just going to breastfeed once you have that baby, it's easy, (I was) completely wrong," said Dan Procopio, the co-founder of SOLMA tea.
Dan and Daniela used their experience to develop a lactation tea called SOLMA.
"So SOLMA is the first ready-to-drink lactation support beverage," said Daniela Procopio. "It has five of the main galactagogues and that's been proven for years, for generations really, that mothers have used in order to help boost their milk supply."
The Baby Cafe also supports the Mother's Milk Bank. If there's any emergencies that happen with babies, there's milk there that they can transfer to help them.
"So in Massachusetts all of the NICUs provide bank donor milk for these very vulnerable babies and it saves their lives," said Jenkins.