There are a lot of choices to be made when you’re pregnant. Should you still work out? Should you deliver in a hospital or in a birthing center? Hire a doula?
How do you make a birth plan? How can you plan for expenses? Should you breastfeed? How do you breastfeed? It can be maddening and stressful, to say the least.
Thanks to the nonprofit group Maryland Families for Safe Birth, many of your pregnancy, birth and newborn questions will be answered on May 19, at the Baltimore Birth Festival in Patterson Park. The organization has worked since 2010 to deliver “evidence based, culturally sensitive maternity care for Maryland families through legislative action and supports legislative efforts to license midwives and to study racial disparities in neonatal death rates.” According to the group, the event “will be a place for families to discover the local support available for pregnancy, post-partum and parenting.”
During this one-day, family-friendly festival, more than 75 vendors will be on site, including doulas, midwives, photographers, pregnancy care centers, physical therapists and breastfeeding consultants. There will also be over $4,000 in giveaways, as well as fun activities for kids, like face painting, a kid-friendly DJ, balloon animals, live animals from Irvine Nature Center, and family yoga demonstrations.
The festival is free, though VIP tickets can be purchased for $20 on the Baltimore Birth Festival event page on Facebook. Only 100 VIP tickets will be sold, which
will include extra raffle tickets, and a swag bag of amazing products for babies and moms valued at over $100.
Head to the Baltimore Birth Festival on May 19 at Patterson Park from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. More details, including vendors, giveaways and raffle items can be found at marylandfamiliesforsafebirth.org or on the event’s Facebook page.
