Parenting Resources and Support Services

Our nation’s most comprehensive resource on free-standing birth centers, is a multi-disciplinary membership organization comprised of individuals and organizations who support the birth center concept. Resources for parents are avilable.

Professional association for CNMs, also locator service on web site for parents.

I wrote a book to help out guys just like you. Guys who want to be an awesome supportive teammate for their pregnant partner, an awesome Dad for their new little baby, and are smart enough to realize they could use a little help and guidance along the way. Offering workshops, consults and ongoing support.

The Green Mama helps to grow greener families through consulting, classes, and inspiration. Worried about toxins in your nursery, daycare, or food? Want to live green and save green? Get answers and get inspired at our web site.

Promotes the Midwives Model of Care™ as the best care for pregnancy and birth. The only national consumer-based group. CfM works to provide information and resources that promote the local midwife, as well as midwives and midwifery care across the country!

Doula certification, training & referrals. Great resources for parents considering hiring a birth or postpartum doula. The oldest, largest and most respected doula association in the world. Founded in 1992.

A not-for-profit family support agency whose mission is to promote the well being of children from birth by supporting and strengthening their families in and with their community. Providing parent support, social and educational programs and child development activities since 1983.

National, nonprofit organization for parents and others interested in natural living and holistic parenting. Helping parents build local communities to learn and support one another. Chapters across the US, including IL.

Infant Massage USA promotes nurturing touch through the training and certification of Parent Educators, and classes and one-to-one instruction for parents and full-time caregivers. List of providers.

ICM has been the global voice of midwives and midwives’ associations for more than 100 years. We work to advance midwifery and support strong midwives’ associations worldwide, so midwives can provide high-quality care in every setting.

The International Cesarean Awareness Network is a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve maternal-child health by reducing preventable cesareans through education, supporting cesarean recovery, and advocating for vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC). Find a chapter near you!

Locate a leader, meetings or get help with breastfeeding problems, quarterly magazine w/membership, conferences.

Professional doula training and certification. Become a birth, postpartum, or end-of-life doula. Programs are all online and self-paced. Owner Patty Brennan is author of  The Doula Business Guide: How to Succeed as a Birth, Postpartum, or End-of-Life Doula, and specializes in helping to envision, create, and grow a business.

Information on pregnancy, natural birth, homebirth, midwifery, breastfeeding and other natural-parenting topics. Publishes books, e-books and a quarterly print magazine, Midwifery Today. Offers a free e-mail newsletter and free articles online. Holds 2–3 conferences each year in the US and Internationally. Applies to both parents and practitioners.

NPN is a non-profit 501(c)3 that connects a diverse community of families with the resources they need to navigate parenting in the city. Whether online or in person, NPN makes it easy to find support, must-have information and amazing city events.

Offering comprehensive services, serving young moms and their children in Chicago for 35 years. With the same location (former Parenthesis location), continued programming, and expanded housing plans in Oak Park, Committed to seeing existing services continue in Oak Park and suburbs.

Supporting a health care system where every family in North America has access to skilled and responsible midwives. Setting standards for competency based certification, allowing midwives to support a woman’s right to choose her birth attendants and place of birth.

We push for more birth options in America with CPMs, who provide affordable, quality, community-based care that is proven to reduce costly and preventable interventions, as well as decrease the rate of low-birth weight and premature births. Map that shows what states CPMs are licensed in. Additional information also.

Our vision is a world in which all children are treated with dignity, respect, under­standing, and compassion. In such a world, every child can grow into adulthood with a generous capacity for love and trust. Books, articles and other resources to support parenting, birth, attachment parenting and unschooling plus more.

Waterbirth International provides educational workshops and lecture for parents and providers throughout the world and online; consultants for hospital integration of waterbirth; personalized referral services.