Margaret Hildahl strives to be a nurturer. She says she seeks to create an atmosphere that's both bright and calm, and that's the feeling one gets upon entering Mother's Haven, her Coeur d'Alene business.

Though Mother's Haven makes its bread and butter as a retail store, selling an array of pregnancy and baby-care items, Hildahl says she seeks to provide a gathering place for new parents to find community and social support with each other.

"Mommies and daddies are too alone now," she says. Because of that, Mother's Haven offers classes and support groups for new and expectant parents, and Hildahl says they're extremely popular.

Hildahl's vision appears to have been borne out, particularly since Mother's Haven moved into the bright yellow house at 2112 N. Government Way in July.

On a recent afternoon, for example, about a dozen new mothers who brought their babies gathered in an upstairs classroom space above the retail store. The purpose was a breastfeeding support group, but a number of the women at the class said they mostly come every week for social support and to meet other mothers.

Hildahl says she tries to provide support and encouragement to her retail customers, making herself available as a resource for expectant and new parents. While the support group met upstairs, a pregnant woman came in seeking a bra that would provide her comfort later in her pregnancy. Another customer, due to have a baby in the next few weeks, queried Hildahl about the best kind of bottles to try after having her baby, and when to try them.

Though she launched Mother's Haven with a focus on items and classes for women and infants, Hildahl also is seeking to start a fathers' support group and prominently displays a number of daddy-centric parenting items, such as T-shirts emblazoned with slogans like "Super Dad" and books about hands-on fathering.

In addition to classic infant-care items such as bottles, cloth diapers, and nursing pillows, Mother's Haven sells and rents breast pumps; does fitting for and sells nursing bras; and sells maternity clothing, diapers, and an array of baby carriers, such as slings, that encourage parents to hold their infants close to their bodies. Hildahl says she tries to educate her customers gently about how beneficial it is for babies to be held most of the time and to be breastfed if possible.

"Every baby I see put into a sling makes it worth it," Hildahl says.

A growing business

Hildahl started Mother's Haven about eight years ago. Before that, she had been teaching infant massage while working in a three-person massage therapy practice in Coeur d'Alene.

"I was a massage therapist for many years, but that wasn't my calling," she says.

Hildahl says she kept hearing the women in her infant massage classes say things like "I'm lonely," and "I don't know where to meet people."

She says the women also often lacked basic infant-care and maternity equipment and knowledge of how and where to find it.

Frequently, they talked about struggling with issues such as how to get a good-fitting nursing bra and how to decide what kind of breast pump to buy, so she began selling such items out of her massage office. Eventually, as her retail sales picked up there, she needed more space, so she moved into a bigger space in the same building, launching Mother's Haven there in September of 2001. She later moved into a leased space in a small retail center at 1034 N. Third.

Hildahl says that easing into Mother's Haven very gradually with a small inventory of items allowed her to keep debt to a minimum.

"Originally, if we did $500 in a week, we were thrilled," Hildahl says. Now, she's thrilled with how popular the store has become, saying that a $500 day would be shockingly slow at the busy store. Though she declines to disclose the business's annual sales, she says sales have been increasing by between 10 percent and 15 percent each year.

Hildahl says making the store do double duty to provide space for new parents to connect with each other as well as sell items is a big part of the success of Mother's Haven so far, and the emphasis on gatherings fills a niche for new parents who now tend to have fewer family members nearby for support. In addition to Hildahl, the store has four part-time employees, and contracts with others to run classes or facilitate support groups.

Hildahl herself still teaches infant massage classes, and lactation specialist Alicia Burgett runs the breastfeeding support group and offers private consultations.

In May, with her lease expiring, Hildahl and her husband, Brian, bought the 2,500-square-foot house on Government Way to expand the retail store and to provide more space for classes and workshops.

Some of the classes include a cloth diapering class, a nutrition class, a first aid class, and a sign language class. There's a fee, ranging from $10 up to $85 for private lactation consultation, for most of the classes, but a few, such as the two-hour cloth diapering class, are free to anyone, though the store does still pay the presenter a nominal amount to teach the class.

Such classes serve to boost sales of certain items, such as cloth diapers.

Hildahl started a newsletter in January for customers. The mailing list already has grown from 800 people to about 3,000, she says.

Hildahl says she's pleased that Mother's Haven has become a valuable support center for many parents. She doesn't know of any other similar stores in Spokane or Coeur d'Alene that combine retail and class offerings, but there are some similar businesses in other parts of the country.

Currently, Hildahl says she doesn't plan to open any additional stores, but has started marketing more to Spokane-area customers.

"If I was younger, I'd franchise this place all over the country," Hildahl says.