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Those blurry first days, weeks, and months of new parenthood are, particularly for birthing people, a transition unlike any other. “We’re fooled into believing that it’s all just going to click,” says Liz Turrigiano, “that we’re going to give birth to these babies and then suddenly everything makes sense and we know exactly what to do.” That’s just not realistic, continues Turrigiano, a mother of two and a co-founder of sustainable diapering brand Esembly. What is realistic, she continues, is that none of this happens instinctively, or without an adequate support system.
Community building is a central tenet of Esembly, which launched in New York City in 2019 as an evolution of the cloth diaper laundering service Turrigiano cofounded 12 years ago to help families without access to a washer and dryer opt into reusable diapers (it has since gone global). “We created a full product line that enables families anywhere to diaper sustainably with the same ease and confidence that we had instilled in our New York service family,” she adds. Two years later, Turrigiano found a kindred spirit in Domino Kirke-Badgley, a doula, herself a mom of two (her youngest son was born last year), and cofounder of Brooklyn’s Carriage House Birth, a hub for doula training and childbirth education. Kirke-Badgley, who logged many years attending countless births, has now shifted much of her attention and efforts to training, mentorship, and education. “We found that doulas who have community are going to be better equipped on all levels to serve families,” she adds. In February, inspired by their own paths to parenthood—and by the needs of the parents in their extended communities—Turrigiano asked Kirke-Badgley to contribute to Arrival, Esembly's new guide to postpartum care for your baby and your body.
“Arrival is our way to share the nuances of post-birth and postpartum and raising babies and helping new moms in particular stay true to their values and ethics as they transition into parenthood,” explains Turrigiano who wanted to address where many of these women felt they were “left hanging” by existing resources, she says. Postpartum is where the need for more information really lies, adds Kirke-Badgley, who likens the anticipation around pregnancy to planning a wedding: “People are really interested in the wedding, but then there’s a marriage. The same is true around birth.” Their goal was to get fairly granular with their content and put it into what Turrigiano calls, “one really fun place.”
And the format is fun, thanks to the wildly talented Miami-based artist Reyna Noriega who designed the 51-page digital zine and provided the eye-popping illustrations for interviews with and stories from a wide and varied group of gifted contributors. There are conversations with “Cool Moms” podcast cohosts Elise Peterson and Simone Toomer, a Brooklyn-based birth and postpartum doula and lactation consultant; a nourishing recipe from cookbook author and Top Chef Canada host Eden Grinshpan; Djali Alessandra Brown-Cepeda, filmmaker and founder of Nuevayorkinos—a visual archive of the Latinx experience in New York—delves into decolonizing birth; Simmone Taitt, founder of telehealth service Poppy Seed Health, debunks postpartum myths; and Snoo creator and Happiest Baby founder Dr. Harvey Karp demystifies newborn sleep. Furthering their commitment to community, 100% of the proceeds from sales of Arrival will go to Every Mother Counts. There is indeed something for every parent to connect with, whether their child is ten months or ten years old. Because the postpartum period doesn’t just magically end after 40 days, says Kirke-Badgley. “Postpartum is forever.”