Mommy Care By Aimee Heckel for The Colorado Daily
This spa looks different.
First is the entry area. Not far from the hot tea station rests a small basket of toys.
Down the hallway in the first massage room, you’ll find an adjustable hydraulic massage table, and next to it, a small wicker bassinet.
This is a spa for both mother and baby.
A Mellow Mood (amellowmood.com), a spa “for mama and family,” opened about six months ago in Boulder’s Joy Collective (joycollective.net), a group of practitioners who specialize in pregnancy, postnatal care, fertility and family wellness.
In the same building, new parents can find a nutritionist, herbalist, play therapist, massage therapist, chiropractor, lactation consultant, physical therapist, a child psychotherapist, childbirth educator, exercise coach and even family photographer and business consultant.
The Joy Collective launched in October, about the same time as the closure of the Boulder Nurse Midwives at the Boulder Community Hospital and also shortly after the launch of the Birth Center of Boulder (birthcenterofboulder.com).
A birth center is sort of a middle ground between a hospital and a home birth: a freestanding facility of independent practitioners and midwives, set up with special birthing tubs and large beds, as well as massage, acupuncture, yoga and various pre- and post-natal support groups.
The Joy Collective shares a building with the birth center, albeit coincidentally (maybe even serendipitously), and the two businesses support each other but are not affiliated. They refer clients to each other as a way to offer a fuller spectrum of support for parents, as well as build a stronger community, says Joy Collective co-founder HeatherLyn Earnst.
The mom-baby spa, launched by Ernst, treats women from the first trimester of pregnancy all the way through postpartum, and then even offers services for children. Ernst also teaches parents infant massage, although she doesn’t put kids on the table until age 6, and then only for 15 minutes at a time.
