Baskets of Healing

Who we are

About Baskets of Healing

A small New Jersey nonprofit, started by one family after the loss of a baby boy, that helps grieving mothers heal with free baskets of postpartum recovery supplies.

Several finished Baskets of Healing lined up in a corner, each topped with a cream blanket embroidered with a heart

What we do

Baskets of Healing collects donations of postpartum recovery supplies, assembles them into baskets, and delivers the baskets to hospitals. Our partner hospitals then give a Basket of Healing to a mother who has experienced stillbirth or infant loss, before she leaves to go home.

Every basket is free to the mother and free to the hospital. We fund the supplies entirely through donations from people who want a grieving family to feel less alone, and we pack every basket by hand.

Our mission

We envision a world where everyone who gives birth feels fully supported as they recover, physically and emotionally, from childbirth. Women who have experienced stillbirth or infant loss deserve extra love and support, and we exist to make sure they receive it.

We dream of a day when every single person who gives birth, in any circumstance, receives a Basket of Healing, because all women deserve quality postpartum care.

Why this matters

It is devastating to lose a child at birth. The psychological cost is unfathomable, but there is also a hidden and substantial cost to physical recovery. A mother's body does not know that her baby has died. She will still bleed, still ache, and in most cases her milk will still come in.

The basic supplies needed to heal after such a loss can cost several hundred dollars in the United States. More than that, most women do not even know what they will need. Many are never told by the hospital treating them, and are shocked to learn they must go through a difficult physical recovery on top of processing their grief.

Baskets of Healing puts everything a woman needs to recover more comfortably into a single basket, so that no loss mom has to leave the hospital in the dark about what comes next.

Our story

On June 5, 2023, Amanda experienced the preterm delivery and loss of a healthy baby boy named John Aydin. The loss felt incomprehensible and impossible. As she went home, she was given very little guidance about what her body would go through in the days and weeks to come.

Her sister-in-law, Jessica, could not let that go. The more she learned about the gap in postpartum care for women who experience loss, the more determined she became to do something about it. A conversation with the founders of a postpartum healing practice gave her the words for it: each of us has to be a link in a chain that bridges the gap for mothers recovering after loss. Her brother Tim became a daily sounding board as the idea took shape.

When Jessica shared the idea with Amanda, Amanda dove in head first, in the middle of her own grief, helping decide exactly what belongs in a basket. It was Amanda who asked for the candle. The first basket was donated in John Aydin's name to the hospital where he was born. Every basket since has carried his legacy forward.

You can read the story in our founders' own words in Links in the Chain and A Hope in the Light.

How a basket reaches a mother

  1. Donors giveFriends, families, churches and strangers give funds or ship supplies from our Amazon wish list. About $250 fills one basket.
  2. We assembleVolunteers pack each basket by hand: medical supplies, comfort items, a printed lactation-after-loss guide, a blanket and a candle.
  3. Hospitals receiveWe deliver baskets to the bereavement, social work or labor-and-delivery teams at our partner hospitals, who keep a small supply on hand.
  4. A mother goes home with supportWhen a loss occurs, staff give the basket to the mother before discharge, so her recovery starts with what she needs and a reminder that she is not alone.

The people behind the baskets

Jessica

Founder. Jessica started Baskets of Healing after watching her sister-in-law go home without the care she needed. She runs the organization, coordinates with hospitals, and is the first person to answer every email.

Amanda

Co-lead and John Aydin's mother. Amanda shaped the contents of every basket from her own experience and wrote about why each one includes a candle. Her courage in the middle of grief is the heart of this work.

Tim

Jessica's brother. Tim helped the vision take shape in its earliest days and supports the organization behind the scenes, including this website.

Transparency and organization information

Baskets of Healing Foundation Inc is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

We are an all-volunteer organization with no paid staff. Monetary donations go directly toward the supplies in each basket: the medical and comfort items listed on The Basket page, the printed lactation guide, and the baskets and blankets themselves. Donated supplies from our wish list are shipped to our storage location and placed directly into baskets. You can see a line-by-line picture of how a gift is used on our Donate page.

If you would like a receipt for your donation, a copy of our IRS determination letter, or have any question about how funds are used, email jessica@basketsofhealing.org and we will gladly provide it.