The truth is, the ground is shifting beneath community organizations like ours.

Funding that families depend on is changing at the national level. Programs that have supported maternal and infant health for decades are being reduced or eliminated. Here in the Berkshires — one of the most rural counties in Massachusetts, with one of the most stretched maternal health systems in the state — the ripple effects are real, and they land on real families.

BNF is not going anywhere. But we need your help to stay as strong as we need to be.

This spring, we’re asking you to help us protect that promise — and to do something a little different.

When you make a gift today, you can leave a message of encouragement for a new parent.

A sentence. A memory. Something you wish someone had said to you. We’ll deliver it — at their next visit, tucked into a playgroup bag, or handed to them in a moment of need. Because sometimes the most powerful thing one parent can offer another is simply: I’ve been there. You’re going to make it.

Last year, BNF supported 924 families — 2,187 individuals — across Berkshire County. We showed up for home visits. We ran playgroups. We answered the hotline at 2:00 a.m. We sat in living rooms with new parents who had no one else to call. Every single service, completely free.

Here is what your gift makes possible:

$50 provides two weeks of hotline support — a real person, available day or night, for a parent who has nowhere else to turn
$150 funds a home visit — April, our IBCLC, driving to a family’s door to help with feeding, weight checks, and the kind of reassurance that can only happen in person
$300 keeps a monthly playgroup running — a room full of new parents finding each other, building community, and realizing they are not alone
$500 supports a month of peer mental health support groups — parents holding space for each other through postpartum anxiety, depression, and the weight of new parenthood

Prefer to make a donation without a note? Amazing! Your gift ensures services and access to our professional staff are available.

Messages for Moms & Parents | Spring 2026

Your gift. Your message. Their hope.