NOVEMBER 24 • 2022 | 19

age and life stages and from across the 
Jewish spectrum eagerly signed up. 
Many were eager to give a new mother 
something they would have appreciated 
receiving when they’d had a baby. 
“We train our volunteers on all kinds 
of issues that often come up for new 
moms,” Ungar said. “We have trainings 
on lactation, sleep, pelvic floor health, 
the emotional state of new moms … 
a whole range of things. This way, an 
MWI ambassador can recognize what’s 
normal and help identify red flags in 
‘their’ moms and know when a referral 
to a professional would be appropriate.”
There are also clinical consultants 
trained in perinatal mental health on 
staff for those cases of more concern. 
Eighteen initial volunteers trained 
to become ambassadors in December 
2021 with a second batch of another 18 
volunteers being trained in June 2022. 
Once ambassadors are trained, 
they are assigned mothers who have 
recently given birth from a list culled 

from different school 
and shul newsletters and 
Community Links emails. 
Every mom who’s just 
given birth is eligible — 
whether it’s their first 
baby or their 10th.
The ambassador drops 
off a gift bag/toiletry case 
containing goodies for the new mom, 
including an insulated mug, fancy 
chocolates, tea, coffee and a voucher 
for a heavily discounted massage. 
There’s also a list of healthy, easy recipe 
ideas and a comprehensive list of local 
resources and supports, put together by 
Lev Detroit, a division of Jewish Family 
Service. 
“The moms are so touched. After 
childbirth, people come by with gifts 
for the baby, but how many people 
remember the mother? This gift is 
specifically to nurture her,” Ungar said.

CHECKING IN ON NEW MOMS
The ambassador will usually check 
in with her new mom again about a 
week later. Many moms are fine and 
report needing no extra support, but 
many others feel overwhelmed with 
the needs of older kids … or feel under 
the weather … or just plain exhausted 
from lack of sleep … or are simply not 
managing to create healthy meals for 
their families. 
MWI has a WhatsApp chat for 
volunteers where Ambassadors can post 
the needs of ‘their’ moms anonymously 
— whether its babysitting, meals, a 
simple errand (which is never so simple 

with a crying new baby in tow) or even 
someone just to hold their baby for a 
few minutes so they can take a leisurely 
shower for the first time in days. 
The ambassadors check 
in again at about week five 
and then again at week 
eight. At that point, the 
ambassador usually says, 
“Please call me if you need 
anything.”
Sometimes, those check-
ins are enough to establish 
a relationship. In one case, 
a new mom’s postnatal 
recovery was uneventful, 
and she didn’t require 
any extra help … Until 
her 5-year-old broke her 
leg when her baby was 
2 months old. The mom 
promptly reached out to her MWI 
ambassador who was able to provide 
the family with the practical support 
they suddenly needed. 
Since the program started, more than 
130 new moms have received visits and 
calls from a MWI ambassador. 

MEET SOME AMBASSADORS
Ambassador Debbie Mayerfeld of Oak 
Park has reached out to eight new 
moms in the community. Most required 
no extra support but still appreciated 
being checked on.
“Every new mom was so tickled 

The gift bag new moms receive 
from Bikur Cholim’s new 
Maternal Wellness Initiative

Silka 
Rothenberg

Leslie 
Ungar

Naomi 
Apt

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