News & Resources

Helping New Parents – and Parents of Multiples – Find Their Way | PEPS

PEPS — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 18:52:30 GMT

Hi! I am Marloes Koning and I live in Sammamish with my husband Remco, our boy/girl twins Kai and Noa, dog Sidney and cat Hunter. My husband and I moved to Seattle from The Netherlands in 2006 and when I had my twins in 2010 there was no family around to help out. Friends suggested I signed up for a PEPS group which I did. It was a wonderful experience meeting other moms that lived close to me. As the only twin mom in the group I received a lot of support and we kept meeting on a regular basis long after our group was over.

I had also joined the Seattle Families of Multiples (SFOM) for more specific twin related support and when I heard that they had partnered with PEPS to offer PEPS groups for parents with multiples (called PEMS groups, Program for Early Multiples Support), I immediately signed up to facilitate a group. I loved seeing the parents get more confident every week and build deep friendships with the other families in the group. I ended up facilitating two more groups before we moved from Ballard to Sammamish in 2013.

Even though I loved facilitating these groups, I was looking for volunteer opportunities within SFOM that didn’t involve driving to Seattle, so I took on the role of PEMS Group Coordinator. Families expecting multiples who were interested in a PEMS group would contact me and I would make sure they got placed in a group and also provide them with lots of twin-related information and resources.

I’m still doing this role and enjoy helping these parents find their way in “multiples land” but last year I realized I was really missing the face-to-face contact, so I signed up to facilitate two newborn daytime PEPS groups in the Sammamish/Issaquah area. I enjoyed it so much that I made a promise with myself to facilitate at least one PEPS group a year.

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Volunteer

Volunteers are an extraordinary part of PEPS - mothers & fathers deeply rooted in the PEPS community and passionate about supporting new parents.

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About the Author

I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to volunteer with PEPS and SFOM, because in working with all these families over the last couple of years and seeing how a little support, connection and community can help them thrive, I realized that I wanted more. I wanted to support families with a newborn one-on-one, for a longer time, in the comfort of their home. I wanted to be a postpartum doula! So I took the training, got certified and have been serving families on the eastside ever since. You can find me here: www.nurturingthenewmom.com

PEPS History | PEPS

PEPS — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 18:51:15 GMT

Our History: Successfully Supporting Parents for More than Three Decades

In 1982, a group of early childhood educators and social service professionals from public and private agencies in King County, WA, saw a need for a program that would bring new parents together, in their communities, during the critical first few months of parenting when feelings of isolation and inadequacy mix with the joy of welcoming a new baby.

These collaborative visionaries used their knowledge, expertise and research to design a preventative model of support and education for new parents.

This work started during an exciting time for changes to thinking about childbirth, evidenced by the popularity of Lamaze classes sweeping the country and parents taking a more active role in the birth process. Yet there was little support for new families after the baby was born.

Lisa Allen vividly remembers preparing for the birth of her first daughter at that time in Seattle. Her childbirth class met only once after the babies were born, and then parents were on their own. She remembers thinking, “It’s not supposed to be like this.” A few years later, Lisa became one of the first group leaders at PEPS.

PEPS launched three neighborhood groups in 1983 and was quickly embraced by the community as a unique and incredibly valuable family resource.

PEPS Created a Lifeline | PEPS

PEPS — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 18:15:00 GMT

Every parent in the room, including the facilitator, understood what I was talking about; it was part of their story too.

- Carol A, PEPS mom

When I signed up for PEPS before my daughter, Beatrice, was born, I anticipated a forum to share the ups and downs of new motherhood and to make new friends. After a harrowing pregnancy and nearly losing Beatrice, PEPS ended up being so much more.

At 11 weeks, I went in for a routine screen. It was the first and last time I went to an ultrasound alone. After the exam the radiologist said a pocket of fluid on the neck indicated an 80% chance something was wrong with our baby. Each ultrasound was terrifying; we’d hold our breath, hoping everything would be ok.

The 28 week ultrasound showed fetal hydrops, a rare condition in which the baby fills with fluid, putting immense pressure on their system. I was immediately admitted to the hospital and told that our daughter had a 5 to 10% chance of survival and no one knew what “survival” would look like.

With the baby in major distress, we opted for a c-section but the doctors were not optimistic and a day later we were told it was time to say goodbye. All we could do was wait and hope for a miracle. Yet somehow, Bea responded immediately and from there we never looked back. The NICU nurses called her “the comeback kid.”

Because of Bea’s prematurity and fragile lungs, we had to keep her out of public places.

My PEPS group started 7 weeks after Bea came home, and I was desperate to get out of the house and feel like a normal mom. The amazing moms and Group Leader Carol Heinz, were cheerleaders for Team Bea!

More so, the group helped me find myself as a mom. They helped me laugh and relax, talk about the big things and the very very little things. We still meet every week, do our high’s and low’s, walk together, babysit for each other, and celebrate together.

Last November, Bea and I went to the first meeting of the newly formed Preemie affinity group - the only support group I found for dealing with life outside of the hospital.

These parents proved to be just as important as my regular PEPS group, but for different reasons.

I got to talk about the hospital stay; about developmental delay concerns, and about the posttraumatic stress I’ve been dealing with since her birth. With this group, I have been able to begin to process our journey. Simply by being heard and affirmed, I’ve begun to heal.

9 months later, Bea is over eighteen pounds and as busy as can be.

I’m so thankful to have found PEPS and the wonderful families that will be part of our lives for years to come. And I am so thankful to everyone at PEPS for creating my lifeline.

Inspired by this Story?

Donate

Your support ensures that no parent will be turned away from a PEPS program because they can’t afford it, and helps PEPS maintain and expand its programs to reach more parents.

Volunteer

Volunteers are an extraordinary part of PEPS - mothers & fathers deeply rooted in the PEPS community and passionate about supporting new parents.

JOIN A PEPS GROUP

PEPS groups bring new parents together to connect, share, learn and build critical support networks during the earliest days of parenting your new baby.

Share Your Story

Inspire others parents by sharing your story with PEPS!

Breaking the Cycle | PEPS

PEPS — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 14:36:58 GMT

Meeting other parents helped me gain the confidence I needed to be the best parent I could be.

To give you a good impression of why PEPS means so much to me, I need to take you back in time a bit….

A few days before my daughter was born, I was arrested for a bench warrant from my teen years, and then released to Harborview Hospital, because I was so far along in my pregnancy. I became very stressed out at the hospital, and then was told that my blood pressure was too high to be discharged. They wanted to keep me, and I was transferred to Northwest Hospital. I knew I was going to be induced, and was not ready to have this baby. I was scared.

I grew up being abused. I was hit, neglected, and the unimaginable happened to me: I feared I was doomed to repeat this cycle of abuse with my own child though I knew that I did not want to. I also was aware of the lack of support I had, and had just put a restraining order on my daughter’s biological father. I knew I wasn’t able to count on him due to safety reasons. I was painfully aware of all of this, and the fact that there was no turning back.

I was in labor for over 20 hours, and finally gave birth to my beautiful, and oh so perfect baby girl, Zianah. I had hemorrhaged, and lost so much blood that they wanted to give me a transfusion, but I had refused, because I just didn’t want anymore medical help. I was just too exhausted.

Within weeks I was diagnosed with Post Partum Depression. I felt like I had made a big mistake by having this baby and becoming a parent. I loved my daughter, but believed I wasn’t good enough for her. I thought I was already a failure. I strived to be perfect. I wasn’t allowed a break ever. I never let Zianah cry it out, and tried so hard to make breastfeeding work. I feared that if I didn’t do everything right she would become a failure like me.

I started a Post Partum Mood Disorder support group, and had learned from one of the ladies about PEPS. I was immediately intrigued, and decided to look them up when I went home. When I finally did look them up I signed up right away. I had intended to spend the little money I had just to meet other moms, with new babies, people who could relate to me.

You can only imagine how relieved I was when I found out that I could get a scholarship. When I went to my first PEPS Group meeting I had hoped to meet moms who were in similar situations as me, or at least meet women who I could connect with, and share the highs, and low’s of being a mom. Now - I didn’t actually meet any moms with similar situations as myself. In fact there was only one other single mom, who was actually co-parenting with the father of the baby. I feared I would not fit in at all, because of this. These women were married, and had good jobs! How would I be able to relate to these women? It turn’s out that those were not the things that connected us.

It was the babies and all of us being NEW on the job as parents! I met some wonderful mothers, fathers and babies as well. Meeting other parents helped me gain the confidence I needed to be the best parent I could be. The confidence I gained was essential to my becoming a better mother. After all, there is no such thing as a perfect mom, but there is such thing as a good mom!

The PEPS experience has helped me bond with my daughter picture, and has created so many positive memories. By being able to bring Zianah with me to the meetings we spent time learning about each other, and priceless time basking in each other’s undivided attention.

My daughter has friends that she has known since practically from birth, we have done dinner dates, walks and coffee. We’ve also talked on the phone, and now still continue to meet as a group every other Tuesday. The families I had once thought of as strangers who had no idea about the realities that I have seen, have become friends that I can share my thoughts with - whatever those thoughts may be.

Thank you, PEPS Donors for making it possible for me to join this Group by donating toward the scholarship fund. I don’t know where I’d be and how I’d parent without my special PEPS friends.

- Zania C, PEPS mom

Inspired by this Story?

Donate

Your support ensures that no parent will be turned away from a PEPS program because they can’t afford it, and helps PEPS maintain and expand its programs to reach more parents.

Volunteer

Volunteers are an extraordinary part of PEPS - mothers & fathers deeply rooted in the PEPS community and passionate about supporting new parents.

JOIN A PEPS GROUP

PEPS groups bring new parents together to connect, share, learn and build critical support networks during the earliest days of parenting your new baby.

Share Your Story

Inspire others parents by sharing your story with PEPS

Experiments With Board Structure | PEPS

PEPS — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:17:53 GMT

How PEPS is Attempting to Make a Good Board Better

Get a Car Seat, Then Sign Up for PEPS | PEPS

PEPS — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 15:39:57 GMT

"Belonging to a PEPS Group has added a joyful and necessary and critical component to the sometimes stressful and lonely realities of parenting... we are all experiencing the same joys and challenges." - Hilary H, PEPS mom

When Seattle mom Hilary Hoover got the call that she and her husband had been matched with a soon-to-be-born baby girl, life suddenly went into overdrive preparing for Vivienne to come home in just a few short months.

One thing that was never in question was whether or not to join a PEPS Group.

Hoover always knew she wanted to be part of a PEPS Group based on recommendations from friends and co-workers.

Their advice for when she was matched with a baby was to "first get a car seat and then sign up for PEPS right away," remembers Hoover. Support for the baby, support for parents!

Belonging to her particular PEPS Group has added a joyful and necessary and critical component to the sometimes stressful and lonely realities of parenting.

Hoover and her husband joined an evening couples group that is as diverse as her own family. Says Hoover, "I love that our PEPS Group is so diverse; at least half of the families have a parent not born in this country, one family has two Dads, and our daughter is adopted. No matter what our path to parenthood involved, we are all experiencing the same joys and challenges."

The close-knit group, who are all within a few miles of one another in the Madison Valley area, made a conscious decision to stay together after the initial 12 PEPS program-weeks were over. As a result, they have a schedule for get-togethers laid out a year in advance.

They've helped one another through challenges ranging from struggling with the decision to return to work (or not), to sleep struggles, to making time for their relationships.

But the group also makes plenty of time to enjoy life with the kids in tow. They have regular dinners at one another’s homes (and sometimes venture out to the Madrona Alehouse), fun outings (zoo for Halloween, a ferry trip to West Seattle, and picnics in parks), and have even taken a few group vacations to the beach.

"It's pretty rare to have relationships with all the people in a family," says Hoover, who feels that a benefit of the evening group is that "the kids are equally comfortable with the moms, the dads, and each other and can get hugs from anyone in the group. It's pretty hard to replicate this type of situation."

Their group gets excited for each child as they hit their milestones and, for Hoover's family, any get together with their PEPS family is a place and time of great joy.

They also continue to share their "Highs and Lows" which Hoover feels, "helps foster introspection and a greater dialogue among the couples."

Unlike other classes and playgroups, the PEPS experience doesn't have to end.

As Hoover's group knows, PEPS can continue to be a part of your life if you commit to it for the long haul. "We're looking forward to these kids grow up together. I can't overstate how fun and rewarding it is!"

Inspired by this Story?

Donate

Your support ensures that no parent will be turned away from a PEPS program because they can’t afford it, and helps PEPS maintain and expand its programs to reach more parents.

Volunteer

Volunteers are an extraordinary part of PEPS - mothers & fathers deeply rooted in the PEPS community and passionate about supporting new parents.

JOIN A PEPS GROUP

PEPS groups bring new parents together to connect, share, learn and build critical support networks during the earliest days of parenting your new baby.

Share Your Story

Inspire other parents by sharing your story with PEPS!

About the Author

Angie Ballas is a mom to two daughters and lives in the Seattle area.

The Power to Choose: Education Savings Options Made Simple | PEPS

PEPS — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 11:30:00 GMT

A small step today can make a huge difference in your kids’ future. 

By Lynda Ridgeway (Estimated reading time: 3 minutes)

Sick Days, Work, and Childcare: A Practical Guide for Working Parents | PEPS

PEPS — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 14:00:00 GMT

By Dr. Julie Franks (Estimated reading time: 6 minutes)

Will or Trust? A Practical Guide for Washington Families with Young Children | PEPS

PEPS — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 15:00:00 GMT

By Megan Gebhardt (Estimated reading time: 4 minutes)

New PEPS Peer-Support Group Brings Military Parents Together | PEPS

PEPS — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 12:15:00 GMT

By: Avani Nadkarni, PEPS (Estimated reading time: 5 minutes)

News & Resources

Helping New Parents – and Parents of Multiples – Find Their Way | PEPS

Inspired by this Story?

Share Your Story

PEPS History | PEPS

PEPS Created a Lifeline | PEPS

Every parent in the room, including the facilitator, understood what I was talking about; it was part of their story too.

Inspired by this Story?

Share Your Story

Breaking the Cycle | PEPS

Inspired by this Story?

Share Your Story

Experiments With Board Structure | PEPS

How PEPS is Attempting to Make a Good Board Better

Get a Car Seat, Then Sign Up for PEPS | PEPS

Inspired by this Story?

Share Your Story

About the Author

The Power to Choose: Education Savings Options Made Simple | PEPS

A small step today can make a huge difference in your kids’ future.

Sick Days, Work, and Childcare: A Practical Guide for Working Parents | PEPS

Will or Trust? A Practical Guide for Washington Families with Young Children | PEPS

New PEPS Peer-Support Group Brings Military Parents Together | PEPS

A small step today can make a huge difference in your kids’ future. 