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 Story: 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 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 Fiscal Sponsor: Portland New Family Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works to advance perinatal health equity throughout Oregon.
Our Gratitude: We are grateful for the original support from Nurturely, whose Ford Family Foundation grant helped launch our project, and grateful to Baby Blues Connection, whose two-year fiscal sponsorship provided the support we needed to grow. We are grateful to all the funders who have and continue to trust us to work in our community.
Our Community: 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.
We believe that no parent should have to navigate this season alone, and that having a trusted person to call on makes an immeasurable impact.
