When Lucy Marshall was pregnant with her first child two years ago, one resource she found lacking was pregnancy from a Jewish perspective – which was something she was really looking for.
“I was…hungry for a Jewish community around me during that time, as I was preparing to become a parent,” Marshall said. “I kept coming up against the reality of there not really being much for me until the baby had come. There was lots of new parent and little baby things, but feeling like [during] the pregnancy time, there was not a lot offered.”
Now the community services director at Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Minneapolis, Marshall designed a class that would help provide some of what she was looking for. The Jewish Pregnancy & Postpartum Support Circle with PJ Library runs for four Mondays in March, starting March 10, from 6-8 p.m. The cohort is designed for Jewish, pregnant people expecting their baby in April 2025 or later, or are postpartum from zero to six months. A light dinner will be served at each gathering, and all participants will receive a personal journal to write reflections along the way. Registration is offered on a sliding scale up to $180, with a suggested donation of $100.
Marshall, who is pregnant with her second child, said that she found a postpartum group based out of Chicago after her first child that she could join online. “They were all hanging out with their babies, and I was the only person far away, which is fine, but it really showed me the importance of building like a local, connection to the community.”
The program has evolved from Marshall’s original idea, which was a support group for people who were due to give birth soon. But in approaching and inviting people, they heard from many people that they had just had a child.
“We were hearing from folks that ‘Oh, I just missed it. I have a two-month-old baby, and I would have loved this,’” Marshall recounted. “People weren’t ready to dive into the tot shabbat events yet, and being in the postpartum period, were still searching for that type of connection and resource. Especially as we’re doing this for the first time, maybe our vision of this cohort should be more inclusive.”
Marshall joined JFCS in June 2024, and the successful and popular PJ Library program is under her remit. While the program sends Jewish-themed books to families and children from birth to 12 years old, some PJ Library chapters are doing programming for pregnant people.
“It’s a meaningful on-ramp,” said Marshall of the branding with PJ Library. “This circle ends at the end of March, and then right at the beginning of June PJ library will host our big annual baby shower for anyone who had a baby that year. So we’re hoping this cohort will all go to that together.”
Marshall said she knows that everyone in the class will be having unique experiences with either childbirth or pregnancy, but people may have similar experiences that others can lean on.
“We might be having similar conversations about grandparents or in-laws or different Jewish traditions and multi-faith families when a baby is brought into the home,” she said.
The class will also look at some of the symbols of protection that have been passed on thousands of years through Jewish communities, as well as some of the ways that community members can show up to support. Marshall said there’s also new, contemporary prayers to support the pregnant person, like a prayer before an ultrasound and a prayer when you reach your seventh month of pregnancy.
“There’s so many new things out there that I think can really help people feel like their tradition is here for them, whether or not they’re observant,” she said. “We’ll be looking at some stories in the Torah around birth and what we can learn from them. And some postpartum traditions, including Jewish recipes that are nourishing that we might want to have in our freezers before we give birth, as well as, like some of those preparing for some of those traditions around welcoming a Jewish baby, whatever that means to folks and their families.”
