Bona Vista, community organizations unite to celebrate new moms

Apr. 20—Kokomo resident Mary Jay smiled and rubbed her stomach Thursday when she talked about her new baby set to arrive in the next few weeks.

"It's my fourth child," she gleefully told the Tribune, "a boy."

A few feet away, expectant mother Ali Perkins was doing the same.

"I'm 28 weeks," she said. "It's a boy, and we're naming him Patrick Jr. He's a daddy's boy already."

And just like when any new baby comes, Jay and Perkins said preparation is key.

But so is getting a chance to celebrate the upcoming event.

And Thursday, Bona Vista Program's Early Childhood Department helped the two women, along with dozens of other expectant mothers around the Howard County community, do just that during its second annual "Community Baby Shower."

Racheal Lisby, family advocate at Bona Vista, was one of the organizers of Thursday's event, and she said the baby shower was extra special to her because she herself was helped by the organization's prenatal services.

"When I came to Kokomo, within a few weeks, I got plugged in here to Bona Vista," she told the Tribune. "And the next thing you know, I'm working here and getting to tell my story, so it's definitely been a part of my journey."

And one of the areas of Thursday's event Lisby said she was most excited for was the opportunity for expectant mothers and families to discover the different resources available to them all across the Kokomo community.

Along with party games and food, five different organizations — the Pregnancy Resource Center, Community Howard Regional Health, Indiana Health Centers, the Howard County Health Department and the Area Five Agency — were also on hand to provide additional information to the expectant mothers.

"I always say there's a whole lot of hoops to jump through when it comes to community resources," Lisby said. "But the payoff is the big one. I mean, right here, you're getting what you need for your pregnancy, but you're also getting what you will need for your infants and toddlers later on down the road.

"And it helps get them (families) connected to us too," she added. "All of our families are in totally different situations. So I think this is a pretty good foundation to start with. At Bona Vista, we not only offer prenatal services, but we offer home-based services and service-based options. So we can follow a family from mom's pregnancy all the way to when a child is 4 1/2 years old and until they go off to Head Start. That's essentially five years with one family. That support is huge."

That support, by Bona Vista and the other community resources offered at Thursday's event, can also be a massive blessing, Jay and Perkins noted.

"The resources are absolutely wonderful," Jay said. "Some of them, I didn't even know they were available with my previous three (children). I felt sometimes like there was no one I could call and talk to. So it's nice to have someone you can reach out to, and they can say, 'It's ok. This is normal.'"

Perkins agreed with Jay's sentiments, adding her husband's work takes him away a lot during the week, so it's nice to have a support system and resources readily available if needed.

"It's everything," she said. "It just kind of takes a weight off of your shoulders to know that, not only do you have resource, but you have several right here in Kokomo. You can call one person, and they can connect you with anybody and everybody you need in that moment. It's just really assuring for an expectant mom or a new one."

Because no expectant mother wants to walk alone, Jenny Young, director of Pregnancy Resource Center, pointed out.

"We all know parenting is hard, right?" she said. "So it's great when we can bring a community together and support one another with resources and gifts. They're gifts of love. That's what they are. And we just want to make sure we're coming alongside each woman, each family, and providing that support that they need. We need to keep getting the word out about these services, and this is a great place to do that."