How we can help you
Childbirth education
The Foundation currently collaborates with the Women’s Resource Centre in Bermuda to offer free childbirth education classes four times a year for those who can not afford to attend classes elsewhere. We also offer partial bursaries enabling women to attend other locally available childbirth classes.
Evidence-based childbirth education plays a critical role in improving birth outcomes and reducing maternal health disparities. One of the stated goals of the Foundation is to provide ways of undoing the legacy of racial and social inequity and disparity. Childbirth education empowers women to make informed birth choices, increases their confidence, helping them address pregnancy and birth fears and prepares them for the labour process and prepares them to initiate birth-preference conversations with their care teams — all actions that help decrease rates of unnecessary birth procedures and leads to better birth experiences and outcomes.
Doula support
Our ultimate goal, which underlies everything that It Takes a Village Foundation offers, is to increase a woman’s ability to cope and empower them to better face any potential challenges and to establish a long-term sense of self-worth and agency in them and their children. Evidence shows that having a positive birth experience (one where a woman feels safe, respected and listened to) can make a difference to successful breastfeeding, bonding with the baby, family relationships and reduced risk of post-partum depression. The evidence also shows that this is more likely with doula support.
The Foundation offers partial or complete bursaries for birth doula support to vulnerable pregnant women who are referred by an allied professional.
Post-partum doula support packages are also offered in the early days/weeks after the baby is born to provide comfort to those who would benefit from evidenced-based information on topics such as infant feeding, emotional and physical recovery from birth, mother-baby bonding, infant soothing, and basic newborn care. The continuity of care is beneficial to build trust and and decreased risk of post-partum anxiety and depression disorders. A professional referral is also required to access these support services.
Voucher Programme
Among the vulnerable, single parent households with young children are often caught in a cycle of grinding and pervasive poverty, which has an impact on long term mental health, physical health and food security in many families in Bermuda. Further, acknowledging that good nutrition and reducing stress during pregnancy in this vulnerable community can have a direct impact on the health and future well-being of mother and baby we realized that finding a way of providing food security for this sector of the community was paramount.
Facebook community
Through the It Takes a Village Facebook page, families can access donated items and make requests for specific needs including clothing, food, and other utility vouchers. Most of these requests are and will remain anonymous due to our small island community but also because most are ashamed to be in a situation of desperate need. Most needs are met directly by the ITAV community but occasionally vouchers and other support are donated to those in need on application through this website.
How you can help us
Making a difference
"My doula listened to all of my thoughts and worries carefully and answered them all.
Having a doula was the greatest support during the best day of my life.
It is hard to put into words what having a doula meant to me as it meant so much more than words can express. I am so thankful for that experience.
Having the support of a doula helped me during the birth, but it has also made a difference to the way I feel about myself now. She helped me trust in myself and I no longer feel the weight of my past traumatic experience."
Mom of 2
"Think of the impact just a few months of consistent, predictable support for a young parent could make. For the child, it could create a positive jump start in life that would lead to the development of more resilient stress response systems. This makes it clear how important prevention is. If we could support young parents in those first months, it would be like giving their children resilience building megavitamins."
Oprah Winfrey
What Happened to Us
“I have not had much kindness in my life and everything I have, I have had to fight for and to have someone help me that was not a family member or church member was absolutely phenomenal. You were a ray of sunshine in the darkness when I felt like I was losing myself. Thank you so much for everything”.
Mom
Supported throught ITAV Facebook group
“I would like to give a big thanks to those who support It Takes a Village on Facebook. I have needed support recently when falling on hard times and have watched people come together to assist me and my children. Many face struggles of not being able to have basic needs like housing, food, clothing and electricity. To have a group that can just come together and support families; giving good advice, clothing, household items or financial donations it really helps and I am sure many others can agree during very dark moments it reminds you, you are not alone and there are people who do understand and care about you and your children’s well-being so I say, Thank you to everyone for all your help and support.”
“I just want to say a huge thank you to all in this group that help. You have no idea how grateful my family and I are for your kindness in keeping our lights on. It may seem small but it means the world when you can continue to save face and take care of your family without the ‘littles’ asking with a sad look ‘what’s to eat’ or ‘when are the lights coming back on. You mended a piece of my heart. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Many people around our Island are struggling and IT TAKES A VILLAGE is helping and has helped a lot of them. It lets me see that there are people out there who are willing to give a helping hand to those in need.
A few weeks ago I was in a desperate situation and needed help, so I decided to send them an anonymous message. Just a few minutes later they had responded by giving me information on where I can possibly go to get the help that I needed.
Fiona took the time to show me that she cared and that meant a great deal to me because at the time I was feeling so depressed and felt like giving up because I really didn't know what to do. I just want to say I appreciate them for taking the time to reach back out to me. They gave me hope.
IT TAKES A VILLAGE gives many people hope and shows them that someone cares enough to offer them help. This is a motto I truly live by, and it's how I remember it being back in the day when I was growing up. Everyone helping everyone else. We were individual families who didn't have much apart from being that Village
"We are immensely grateful for the opportunity to attend the childbirth class, supported in part by It Takes a Village Foundation. Being first-time parents is both exciting and scary, and this class was a lifesaver! The instructors were incredibly knowledgeable and supportive, guiding us through every aspect of childbirth with patience and understanding."
"It Takes a Village didn't just help us afford the class, they showed us how much the community cares about expectant parents. Knowing there are organizations out there looking out for families who might need a little extra support is incredible. It really warmed our hearts."
"We can't thank It Takes a Village Foundation enough for their generosity. They believe that education and support are key to becoming parents, and thanks to them, we feel so much more prepared and confident to meet our little one!"