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Mommy’s Homecoming focuses on self care of postpartum mothers

In this week’s Midweek Mugging, we talk to the owner of a company in Bradford West Gwillimbury that makes gift baskets full of all-natural products for mom and baby

Childbearing is no easy feat. The emotional and physical stress can be debilitating to women in the weeks after giving birth.

After her son was born, Bradford West Gwillimbury resident and mother Andrea Marini noticed a gap in the market for postnatal care products, so she decided to start her own business that focuses on the self-care and healing of postpartum mothers.

“When we give birth we should be mothered, too,” she said. “We go to the hospital and come out and then there’s nothing much. It’s a hard time in general. You don’t know what to do with yourself (physically).”

In March 2016, she started Mommy’s Homecoming, a gift basket company that provides mothers with all-natural healing products like herbal baths, teas, perineum sprays, and mothering oils.

She believes the road to postpartum recovery is not much of a priority in the North American culture, and said some other cultures refer to the postpartum period as “the sitting in,” when mothers stay home and rest.

“I started this journey trying to find something (a healing process) that maybe is lost somewhere,” she said.

She began reading and learning about herbs and went to a medicinal tea workshop in Newmarket where she met Correne Omland, who is a homesteader and herbalist who runs her own herb shop called Spiraea.

This was the beginning of their working relationship.

Spiraea supplies Marini with the labouring and pregnancy teas in her gift baskets, as well as the herbs for herbal baths. The latter are organic and made with lavender, calendula, chamomile and witch hazel.

“The medicinal properties (of the herbs) support the body's efforts in recovery during this time of motherhood,” she explained.

The products Marini puts in the baskets are a combination of handmade products and sourced items.

Marini sells all products separately or can create customized gift baskets that include all the essential items for moms, as well as some clothing and blankets for babies.

“It’s a rite of passage, birthing … and I don’t think sometimes we feel it’s been completed… because we are missing the elements and one of them is nature. So I bring those back because that’s what our grandmothers would have used,” she explained. “(The act of postpartum healing) a little bit lost. If we feel that self-care then we can feel robust again… and feel a little bit back to ourselves.”

Marini said she loves this business because she enjoys helping new mothers.

“You turn into a different person,” she said, about becoming a mother, “and you don’t want to feel alone.”

Most of Marini’s business comes from her networking at local mommy groups and through word of mouth recommendations. She enjoys creating customized gifts for all her clients and helping them feel like their best selves.

To get in touch with Mommy’s Homecoming, check out the Facebook page or send an email to [email protected].

Midweek Mugging is a regular series profiling local businesses or interesting people in Bradford West Gwillimbury. Want to be featured? Email [email protected].


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Natasha Philpott

About the Author: Natasha Philpott

Natasha is the Editor for BradfordToday and InnisfilToday. She graduated from the Media Studies program at The University of Guelph-Humber. She lives in Bradford with her husband, two boys and two cats.
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