Support in St. Louis?

[NettleTea]

Is St. Louis a decently supportive place for things like breastfeeding, babywearing, ECing & homebirthing? We are considering moving there and I would like to know.

[greenmagick]

I would say yes It may take a bit of time to find your niche, but it is here. Different areas of St. Louis and the county have totally different feels to them so that would make a difference as to the support. Pretty much every mom I know babywears, breastfeeds, etc. but that is who I have surrounded myself with through local playgroups, hang outs, etc.

My ds was a planned HBAC (ended up transferring), and homebirthing isnt great here yet, but its on its way. Midwives were just legalized this past year and there are several practicing in the area, as well as one doctor who does homebirths.

[NettleTea]

I was almost hearing crickets chirping in this thread.

Thank you for your response, green.

[greenmagick]

no problem...there are a lot of STL mamas here, but we are not always very active in the tribe forum. If you do a search, in the past year there were a bunch of threads about relocating to STL with lots of good advice about neighborhoods, etc.

Would love to have you here! Good luck with whatever you decide

[NettleTea]

Thanks!

[wendyland]

I agree with greenmagick. It's supportive for most of your list and will hopefully get better in terms of homebirths and midwives. I'm pretty happy with STL.

[jessitron]

Yeah, St Louis doesn't have huge numbers of moms who parent like this, but we have enough. Dozens. And they're super friendly and easy enough to get together with.

We have Cotton Babies and Kangaroo Kids. We have an awesome free zoo and museums and more.

It doesn't take a lot of natural-parenting moms to make a place good, when the ones we have are so friendly!

[kbl]

Got to chime in: yes! Of course you have to find your tribe, but we are here. I recently love Hartford Community Cafe in the Tower Grove neighborhood. I also love living in University City - a very cosmopolitan, broad-minded community full of academic folks who have seen the world and love it here.

[Masel]

Of the 4 things you mention I can only speak to babywearing. We see baby wearing mamas all over the place. If I happen to not notice one my daughter will say "Sling, momma, Sling" and then insist on taking a peek at the baby.

Do you know where in the St. Louis area you'd be moving to? Are you looking for city living, inner ring suburbs, or outer suburbs? Is it for a specific sort of job?

[NettleTea]

Originally Posted by Masel

Do you know where in the St. Louis area you'd be moving to? Are you looking for city living, inner ring suburbs, or outer suburbs? Is it for a specific sort of job?

Not yet. Somewhere close to the rail, hopefully
City living.
No, not job related.


Thank you all for your replies! It is positive and appreciated.

[Masel]

Around Tower Grove park is nice. My sister and a bunch of my friends live there. The park has a farmers market in the summer and a bunch of festivals too. I'm not sure how it relates to the rail system there but there are a lot of busses.

I'm fond of Maplewood. It is a first ring suburb, close to the light rail system and they have a Farmer's market too.

[Dar]

We live in the Skinker - DeBaliviere neighborhood, and like it a lot. It's close to metro stations, Forest Park, and the Loop (like, you could walk to any of these fairly easily) but because of the way the roads are set up it's not on the way to any of them, so there's not much traffic. It's generally quiet and friendly here, very diverse, lots of community activities, nice parks... we are in the city limits, so the schools apparently aren't great - we homeschool, so it wasn't an issue.

Wash U is also a short walk away. I go to school there, but they also offer lots of stuff that's open to everyone - lectures, movies, arts events, museums, etc. It's also a gorgeous campus...

dar

[nancybotwin]

I live in South City, am a big fan of STL City living! Not a mom yet, but my friends who are live around Tower Grove park, both north and south of the park and have started some very good parenting co-ops and even a montessori charter school. I'm south of that area, can't really afford the neighborhoods near the park but Hartford Coffee Co is a good community spot there. Very, very affordable city as cities go!
Not as progressive as some, but we're working on it.

[Lizafava]

Originally Posted by Dar

We live in the Skinker - DeBaliviere neighborhood, and like it a lot. It's close to metro stations, Forest Park, and the Loop (like, you could walk to any of these fairly easily) but because of the way the roads are set up it's not on the way to any of them, so there's not much traffic. It's generally quiet and friendly here, very diverse, lots of community activities, nice parks... we are in the city limits, so the schools apparently aren't great - we homeschool, so it wasn't an issue.

Wash U is also a short walk away. I go to school there, but they also offer lots of stuff that's open to everyone - lectures, movies, arts events, museums, etc. It's also a gorgeous campus...

dar

I live in Tower Grove South and am a big TGS cheerleader. But I've recently discovered Skinker-DeBaliviere (pronounce, for some reason, "deboliver") and its really great!

Theres lots of crunchy folks here, but not so many that we can afford to be too cliquey . There are 12 or so moms in my playgroup and most have planned homebirths, all breastfeed and babywear. But we a relatively diverse bunch spiritually and politically.

[MommyDOK]

I would say St. Louis is an excellent place. We have thriving LLL meetings, a homebirth community that is very connected--a hb doctor, underground mw and more in training, 4 ICAN meetings a month, an ec support group, a baby wearing group, an API group, 2 whole foods, 4 Trader Joes, food co-ops, lots of homeschooling groups, etc. And those are just the ones I've been to. I never knew I was crunchy until I became a mother....I say I'm crispy, not crunchy.....I still have lots from my past that is very non-crunchy.

keep us posted!

[racheleh]

I'm in St. Louis in Skinker-DeBaliviere looking for a good coop. We're switching to a mostly organic diet. I found a little bit about City Food Coop in the Tower Grove area (where we used to live) but would love to know if there are any other good coops around, or from anyone who is part of City Food. TIA!

[claddaghmom]

Don't forget, we have Dr. Wessling here, too!::

[NettleTea]

Thanks for all of the info!