Motherhood, B.V. Mary and B.L.O.O.M. -- Happy Mom's Day

I wanted to write a "Happy Mother's Day" Blog and talk about motherhood this May.

So, what is motherhood? How do we define it?

Motherhood usually means a married woman gives birth and has a child...she is now considered a mother. However, we want to add in that even if a mom miscarries or has a stillbirth -- she is still considered a mother in God's eyes too.

Motherhood can be very challenging -- you have the late nights breastfeeding a newborn infant to the toddler making messes in the living room. Mothers are constantly on the go chasing children and wiping them and giving them hugs and love too.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is the "Greastest Mother" that ever lived. She's a super mom! She brought up Our Lord Jesus Christ for us even though she had to suffer along with him in her 7 Sorrows. Mary is also our mother. At the Cross, Jesus told us "Behold Your Mother"....so Jesus gave his Mother Mary to all of us...so we are her children! Let's give Mary a Big Thank You on Mother's Day by praying her Rosary --Mary's favorite prayer! "Hail Mary, Full of Grace!"

B.L.O.O.M. -- what's that? The Acronym stands for "Bettering Lives of Outstanding Moms"

So, what does B.L.O.O.M. do? It is an organization I am starting up right now. We are planning to offer mothers a place for support groups for pregnancy and postpartum.

Our Mission statement for B.L.O.O.M.: Bettering Lives of Outstanding Moms is an organization created to help mothers in their pregnancy and postpartum phases of their lives. We help mothers in achieving their desired birth goals and postpartum goals. We believe in True Feminitiy and Holistic Health for our mothers. We see this as an outreach to reach moms of any income level, but esp. to help women in crisis pregnancies who need extra support and postpartum support too. We are considered non-denominational but we do hold onto 100% pro-life standards

Our first goals right now are training leaders. We have a training through our doula training program (Catholic Doula Program www.catholicdoula.com ). The training is included in the cost of doula training. However, we are about to open up lay leader training program. (Lay leader just means a person who is not a doula to train or perhaps you are a doula with another organization -- just anyone who wants to be a leader).

So, the "lay" leader training program will be able to be accessed soon through our new B.L.O.O.M. website at www.momsofbloom.com This training does cost something -- but we may offer a discount for a short time to interested leaders as we want to offer it in order for moms to have leaders in their communities.

After the step of having leaders available; we will be opening B.L.O.O.M. chapters where our leaders live and hopefully one will open near you soon! The chapters will host monthly meetings for moms to attend.

At some point we hope to distinguish between the 2 types of B.L.O.O.M. chapters or groups. We have training for two types:

1. Birth/Pregnancy B.L.O.O.M. which is most likely to be implemented soon or "first". This type of group will be support for pregnancy and up to 6 weeks postpartum (as needed).

2. Postpartum B.L.O.O.M. which is postpartum/breastfeeding support for mothers. This support will be from giving birth through 2 years. (So, it does overlap the Pregnancy groups some.)

We also have what we call W.O.M.B. which means "Women Officiating Mourning and Bereavement" Support. This type of groups will be implemented as bereavement support in the near future. It is still in the works for the most part.

After we establish a few chapters and all, we hope to start a fundraiser to become a non-profit organization. That is our current final goal; so we can help moms so much more that way.

We also plan to offer online Facebook and Yahoo groups for mothers to join. So, we hope to have some started up by the time of publication of this article. If you are interested in learning more. We have two website links:

1. B.L.O.O.M. Main Website (in the works): www.momsofbloom.com

2. B.L.O.O.M. information from Catholic Doula Program website: http://www.catholicdoula.com/bloom-program.html

Contact us at catholicdoulaprogram@gmail.com or momsofbloom@gmail.com -- The first email we check more often.

Please pray we can get these groups running more quickly. We appreciate your prayers for this beautiful work and Motherhood support is so important. Ave Maria!