Childbirth can be frightening to contemplate for first time moms. Burgeoning bellies often draw uninvited advice, or worse yet, a horror story about another birth.

At the same time, some pregnant moms have never felt so alone.

That’s why local nurse, doula and student midwife Laurie Gallo is offering Birthworks!, a monthly meeting for pregnant moms and moms of newborns to connect and learn. Birthworks! offers a place and a time for parents and other interested folk to meet, learn from an expert, and share heart-to-heart about all the issues surrounding pregnancy, childbirth, and infancy.

“It’s about connecting moms with other moms,” said Gallo. “There is such deep deep deep fear, and such deep deep deep anticipation.

I think it’s best when it gets to be both, you don’t have to be afraid to feel your fear, you have to be able to hold all these possibilities at once..”

A childbirth educator, Gallo is equipped to teach on subjects from natural childbirth to epidurals, C-sections, circumcision decisions and more. Over this past year attendees have learned about breastfeeding, induction of labor, epidurals, newborns and sleep, and vaccinations. While Gallo has about 30 tried-and-true topics that always seem to be of interest, she is also flexible enough to follow the questions of the evening into new territory.

“Laurie provides a very welcoming place for people to come,” said Orcas nurse-midwife Melinda Milligan. “She doesn’t have any specific agenda that she’s pushing. She’s very welcoming to diversity; people can come express any kind of opinion, ask any kind of questions… Her flexibility and caring about people as individuals is really amazing.”

Gallo also regularly asks new moms and dads to share their birth experiences with moms and dads soon-to-be.

“When real people are sitting there who have just gone through it.. they remember what it’s like to be you, just a few months ago,” said Gallo.

Orcasite and mom of two Mindy Idleman credits Gallo’s help during her first pregnancy, saying, “With a deep gratifying love and connection that you would not think possible with a stranger, Laurie Gallo invites you into the world of childbirth with a motherly guidance and reassurance that your body can do what it was built to do. We hired Laurie as our doula after having such a strong connection with her in birth class. There would be no way to know how much her presence in our life would help me, my children, and most unexpectedly, my husband, conquer this giant Goliath they call childbirth.”

Gallo also enjoys being available to new moms to answer their questions as their babies grow, saying that medical checkups tend to become less frequent after six weeks post-partum.

“There’s a pretty good support network on Orcas for pregnant moms,” she said. “Then, it seems like everything ends… This is an attempt to keep contact going after people have their babies.”

Meetings are free, held on the first Monday evening of each month from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Children’s House Infant Toddler Center. For more information, email Laurie Gallo at lauriegallorn@gmail.com.

In addition to Birthworks!, San Juan County public health nurse Tamara Joyner, at 370-0588, and lactation consultant Rita Bailey, at 298-2791, are also available as resources to moms.