Volunteers welcome families at Second Annual Doula Community Baby Shower

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Representatives and volunteers with Doula Care held their Second Annual Community Baby Shower in downtown Rochester on Sunday in an effort to raise awareness for expectant mothers.

New York State Senator Samra Brouk said it was important to attend the event at the Ryan R Center at the Thomas P. Ryan Recreation Center, along with 30 other organizations from around the state, to meet families where they need help the most.

“This year we wanted to make it bigger and better and really bring together as many organizations as possible to offer this information, and of course, we wanted to make it family friendly, so make sure there is something for the kids to do, and also we’ll feed ya,” Brouk said.

Twylla Dillion is the Executive Director of Health Connect One, a national non-`profit organization that helps train doulas and was on site to raise awareness for the work doulas do, and the impact they have on families.

“A doula is non-clinical support that provides child birth education, comfort measures, advocacy, educates birthing families on how to speak up for themselves,” Dillion said.

Assistance that Dillion said is critical for so many families locally and why showcasing the help Doulas provide at this year’s Second Annual Community Baby Shower is an important step to ensuring that support continues well into the future.

“I mean to be fair, in New York State we have really poor outcomes, especially for black birthing families right, three to five more times more likely to die during child birth. We need these kind of events to make sure people know what they can do themselves to mitigate that kind of harm when they go in to have a baby,” Dillion said.