Heather and Tony Villa have left their nighttime callings behind to focus on a new venture, Bella Cova Enterprises LLC, which opened this month.

Bella Cova, which means beautiful nest, is a natural parenting retail and resource center—a clearinghouse of sorts for products and services for expecting and new mothers and their babies.

Natural parenting is a broad concept that includes putting parents, rather than institutions and conventions, in control of birthing and child-rearing options. It also includes providing options for organic and sustainable products for expectant and new mothers, babies, and young children.

"I'm a lipstick hippie," Villa says. "I like to get dressed up and go out and sing, but I'm also a crunchy mama."

Villa has gained some local celebrity as the former lead singer for the jazz-swing band 6 Foot Swing. Villa, who has a marketing degree from Whitworth University, also worked for seven years as an advertising account executive for the Pacific Northwest Inlander free weekly newspaper.

The center is located in 4,500 square feet of leased space in the former Caterina Winery location on the ground floor of the Broadview Dairy building, at 905 N. Washington. It has a retail section, meeting and activity space, a resource library, and a play area. Bella Cova also serves some food and beverages, and a kitchen catering area is in the works.

Caterina Winery and sister wineries Lone Canary and Mountain Dome vacated the Broadview Dairy building late last year and moved to the Spokane Business & Industrial Park, at 3808 N. Sullivan.

Bella Cova is the brainchild of Heather Villa, who was inspired by a Spokane-based online resource and a Coeur d'Alene-based retail and support center.

The online resource, Bloom Spokane, is a birthing education and resource network that shares some of Bella Cova's mission.

"It's wonderful to go to a website to find support," Villa says. "But where do you physically go if you want a natural parenting alternative?"

The closest business she knows of that shares a similar vision is Mothers Haven Inc., a retail store and resource center for new and expectant mothers in Coeur d'Alene. While Villa says she was a happy customer at Mothers Haven, it wasn't convenient to travel that far from Spokane, especially with children.

She says she first wanted to locate Bella Cova in a residential setting, but due to land-use restrictions, had to look for a site in which the business would be a conforming use.

"I was determined to get it going," Villa says. "I've never backed down from anything I was determined to do."

When looking at commercial space, she decided to lease the Broadview Dairy building because of its central location and proximity to Riverfront Park, she says, noting that families with strollers walk by the building throughout the day.

Bella Cova shares Bloom Spokane's goal of empowering expectant mothers to take control of the birthing process, whether they chose to have a baby in a hospital or at home.

Education, care, and support helps take the fear out of having a baby, Villa says.

"The body knows what to do, and the baby knows what to do," she says.

It's important to be educated and prepared for birth, though, she says. Preparation can include walking, yoga, massage, and hypnobirthing techniques. Villa wants Bella Cova to be the venue where such techniques will be taught through support groups and group leaders.

Bella Cova's retail section has the latest in cloth diapers and accessories, including a locally manufactured brand called LolliDoo, which is made of all recycled materials. Villa says the new diaper designs are much more convenient than traditional cloth diapers.

"They have snaps and there are no pins anymore," she says. They also can be adjusted as the baby grows, so parents don't have to buy different sizes.

The center's retail area also carries a line of wraparound baby slings, or pouches, that promote attachment parenting in which parents "wear their babies through what we call the fourth trimester," she says.

The store is stocked with homeopathic remedies for mamas and babies, natural soaps, and even cosmetics.

Besides the Villas, Bella Cova currently has two part-time employees, who work in the retail section. Both employees also are certified lactation consultants.

One corner of the retail area, called the Milk Bar, is dedicated to breast-feeding garments, pumps, and information.

"The Milk Bar is where mamas can belly up to the bar and talk breast feeding," she says.

Villa says Bella Cova has space available to rent to fitness, health, and education program leaders.

The center already is the new home for Mindful Mamas, a five-year-old support group for mothers and childcare givers to meet and share diverse ideas and experiences.

It also has scheduled free breast-feeding support groups three times a week, Villa says.

Next, Villa says she envisions a catering service that would be managed by her brother, who is helping to convert space behind the main center into a kitchen and food prep area.

Villa says she saw a need for a Spokane-based center like Bella Cova about two years ago when she was pregnant with her son Leo, now 21 months old, who was about to join his sister Liliana, now 4 years old, in the family.

Nightlife didn't coincide with parenting, Villa says.

"Our lives both had to change," she says. "I left the Inlander and quit the band and took a whole step back."

Tony Villa, who has extensive experience managing local bars and lounges, is in charge of the Stork Market and Caf, a limited deli-type operation inside Bella Cova that will serve "healthier" food such as sandwiches salads and soups, as well as locally roasted coffee and other beverages.

Though Bella Cova's tagline is "nurturing moms, nesting babies," Villa says he doesn't want men to be left out of the center's natural-parenting theme.

He also plans to start up a support group for new and expecting dads that will meet at Bella Cova. "My mission is to make daddies more involved," he says.

Heather Villa adds that partners who work together enhance the experience of childbirth.

"My husband was my partner 100 percent of the way and after all was said and done, we both got to climb into our own bed on our own time with our new son," she says.