Stacey puts stylish touch to pregnancy

“At last,” said a young mother who recently gave birth — “a place where pregnant women can find ready-to-wear clothing.” In La Madre, which opened its doors two weeks ago on the ground floor of the Starlite Shopping Plaza, one can find every type of maternity garment — casual, career, evening, swimwear, nursing tops, maternity jeans and capris, with underwear soon to be added. The 32-year-old owner/director, Stacey Selman-Edwards, describes the birth of her shop as “a family effort.” “My husband, Nigel, built all the shelves, racks and other infrastructure. My six-year-old son, Chris, spent lots of time here after school while we worked, and three-month old Bella is here quite often with us.” As we spoke, Bella was nestled in her mother’s arms.

A most unusual piece of d?cor which hangs in the shop is a plaster-cast shape of a pregnant woman’s stomach — Stacey’s to be exact. An innovation which can be cast at home from the plaster-of-paris sold in a Proudbody Belly Cast kit so that you and your partner can make a three dimension cast of your pregnancy as a keepsake. It can then be decorated with baby’s footprints, hands or flowers, according to one’s liking. “A Celebration of Motherhood” is the theme used by the shop’s owner because she wanted La Madre to be a place where pregnant women can feel good about themselves and get questions answered from The Informative Breastfeeding Service (TIBS) on breastfeeding and the Mothers and Midwives Alliance of Trinidad and Tobago (Mamatoto).

Stacey also plans to get the group that promotes hypobirthing and painless birth to come into her shop to give classes. “Education is my passion” says this young woman, who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from Howard University and an EdM (Master’s in Education) from Harvard, and whose job is that of education officer, managing the public education programmes for the Seismic Research Unit at the University of the West Indies in St Augustine. “A pregnant woman needs to feel beautiful about herself. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I realised there was nowhere to get fashionable, affordable, maternity clothing and I thought it would be nice to have a store that not only offers that kind of thing but also one where women can get information. At the same time I would support TIBS and Mamatoto in getting their information out there.” At La Madre, Stacey has provided a children’s corner where youngsters will colour, build blocks and read so their mothers can shop in peace. Comfortable chairs, pregnancy magazines/brochures, are available, as Stacey feels “the whole idea is a woman should just be very comfortable while shopping and chatting as there are some women who just want to share about their pregnancy and that is what this space is all about. A meeting space.”

The objective, according to the proprietor, is “to provide nice, affordable clothes because nobody wants to spend a lot of money for clothes they are going to only wear for nine months or less; but the garments must be stylish as well. Women already find it great to have a place where they can get nice stuff, because you are already feeling frumpy, so now you don’t have to wear  make-shift clothing like your husband’s pants and tying strings to button holes to make other garments fit. When you think that some women try so long to get pregnant, the whole thing from conception to birth of the child should therefore just be a beautiful time.” Just one week at La Madre’s and the soft-spoken manager already finds it fulfilling: “It is nice to be there as a sounding-board. It makes the mothers-to-be feel good and confident. Our target group would be women 25 to 45 who lead active lifestyles — maybe running a household, minding children and running a company. The point is they want to look attractive and not compromise their sense of style because their bodies are changing.”