KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Motherhood can bring so much joy. But, in some cases unexpected pain. That’s what metro resident Heidi Faith said led her to open the new M0M Center in Kansas City, Missouri last month. It’s a new place just for moms and it’s unlike any other in the country.
Faith said the M0M Center is a place where grieving moms can find comfort.
“The M0M Center grows from a mother’s darkest chasm it grows from the place where she loses her child,” said Faith.
Faith has five children. But, like millions of others she never got to see one of them grow up. According to Faith a mother gives birth to a baby in the first trimester literally every minute in America. She said the M0M Center is a haven for moms just like her who have lost a child, are struggling to conceive or can’t have children.
“In our darkest day my husband and I both knew this was something that we wanted,” she said.
The name of the center, M0M, which is spelled out with a “0” in place of an “o” stands for “Mothering Our Mourning” and is explained on the organization’s website.
“M0M has a zero in the center. It is the invisible, the uncounted, the unrecognized. So very much is lost, in the struggle of fertility, in pregnancy loss, in infant loss, in child loss. So, very much,” reads the webpage.
Megan McFarland lost two of her children to miscarriage. She said she’s found peace at the M0M Center and that so can others.
“This is a place they can come to that they know they can feel welcome and they can feel the love behind it,” said McFarland. “Having a place like this it’s going to open up to all the moms that feel like they’re not validated.”
Faith said she wants grieving moms to be able to create, grow, share and most importantly heal at the center.
“I don’t want anyone here, I don’t want any family experiencing loss, but that isn’t something that I can orchestrate so families that are experiencing their darkest day are welcome here,” she said.
The M0M Center is located at 11117 N. Oak Trafficway in Kansas City, Missouri. To learn more about the M0M Center visit m0mcenter.com.