Our Story
Early Parent Network (EPN) grew out of the need to help new families have the support they need. In 2020, as the pandemic disrupted essential services and deepened isolation for new parents, it became clear that rural families on Oregon’s North Coast were navigating pregnancy and postpartum largely on their own. This was layered on our pre-existing health system challenges, including limited services, transportation, and cost barriers, as well as very few Spanish-language services.
The Build Your Nest Postpartum Navigator Pilot Project was created in response.
Between 2022 and 2025, the pilot served over 225 families across Clatsop, Tillamook, Columbia, and Pacific counties through one-to-one postpartum navigation, prenatal classes, and two large Community Baby Showers, and distributed 150 baby carriers (learn about the Community Baby Showers here.)
The program hosted nine professional education opportunities, covering a range of perinatal topics, including lactation, mental health, harm reduction, and a Spanish-language doula training. You can read the full pilot project impact report here and the OHSU program evaluation here.
Our Vision
We envision a region where every parent, regardless of income, language, or geography, can access the support they need to thrive during pregnancy, birth, and the early parenting years.
Our Mission
is to improve rural perinatal health outcomes by increasing equitable access to services, reducing systemic barriers to care, and strengthening regional perinatal health systems.
Our Work
is advanced through direct service to pregnant and postpartum families via postpartum navigation, cross-sector collaboration, and workforce development. We offer a network of doulas and community health workers to provide support and health navigation.
Our Team
Our group of navigators has guided and shaped the program development, bringing their wisdom and lived experience as parents and perinatal health professionals.
Our Community
Our Fiscal Sponsor
New Family Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works to advance perinatal health equity throughout Oregon, with a focus on access to doula services.
Our Gratitude
We are grateful to Nurturely, whose support helped launch our pilot project, and grateful to Baby Blues Connection, whose two-year fiscal sponsorship provided the support we needed to grow.
In collaboration with Jess Sollaccio and the Clatsop Perinatal Task Force, our Community Baby Showers have brought together over 34 community partner organizations.
Collaboration and relationships are at the heart of our work.
We want all families to have access to all of the services in our community.
Our Founder
Kestrel Gates has shaped this body of work and been shaped by it. “I see this work of tending to the postpartum time as a way to cultivate cultures of care, supporting our individual and collective resilience.” Read more here.
