Expecting parents in Akwesasne receive bountiful baby bundles

Pregnancy can be a stressful time, which is why a collective of midwives want to make things easier for expecting families in their community.

Twenty-five women in Akwesasne, a Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) community straddling the Ontario, Quebec and New York state borders, received baby bundles this week from the Onkwehonwe Midwives Collective.

"To feel supported and uplifted as a second-time mom has really helped ease any anxiety and stress surrounding the addition of our little one," said Katelynn Delormier, a resident of the Tsisnaihne district in Akwesasne. 

Delormier is 37 weeks pregnant with her second daughter. She said the baby bundle couldn't have come at a better time.

"I wasn't expecting it to be like wall to wall of things that were all for like me and my baby and my family. So it was really surprising, in a really good way," she said.

The collective offers our culturally-safe and culturally-specific midwifery care in Akwesasne. One of the services they provide are baby bundles: a box/bassinet full of baby essentials, prenatal and postpartum care items.

This year, the collective set up the bundles like a shopping experience where expecting mothers and their partners got to hand select their items.

"We wanted these women who are coming to just feel like they were being showered and supported by the community," said Jasmine Kahentineshen Benedict, lead Onkwehón:we midwife and clinical director.

"You know that old saying, it takes a community to raise a child? I think that's very profound. Women and families going through such a sacred event ... I think that it's just so amazing to feel supported by your whole community for these future generations."

Cultural elements

The bundles are based on the Finnish tradition of providing new parents with a box of starter items for their newborns. The collective was previously a distributor of baby boxes from a provincial program, but they said it lacked any cultural elements.

When the OMC decided to "make it their own" in 2021, they said it was important to include culturally-specific resources and items, such as quilts, cradleboards, rattles, and regalia.

"We believe that every new baby or future ancestor in our community deserves the same welcoming start to life, surrounded by community, and our culture," said Benedict.

"A lot of our items were those kind of items that were very specific to Akwesasne and our people here."

Renee Adams sewed 25 quilts between February and April for the project. 

"It's a great idea," she said. 

"When I was having kids, they never had anything like this."

Delormier said the holistic approach to welcoming a baby, and inclusion of cultural items, felt like the most well-received part of the experience. 

"Oftentimes, you would have to outsource most of these items and that can be very costly, especially with everything else families need to buy to prepare for a new baby," she said.

"To be cared for in this way was amazing, and my hope is that more mothers can have this experience."