DENVER — When new parents prepare to leave the hospital with a newborn, they are usually handed a stack of medical paperwork and instructions. A Colorado-based nonprofit is making sure they also leave with something else: A human connection.
YANA, a peer-to-peer maternal support organization, is stepping in to address critical gaps in postpartum care across the region. Founded by Chief Executive Officer Nikki Brooker, the group has now expanded to four hospitals, placing volunteer mothers directly into hospital maternity units to meet with parents before discharge, delivering pre-curated support lists and immediate community connections.
Denver7 morning anchor Anusha Roy talked to Brooker about how Colorado parents can benefit in the video below:
The program currently operates across four regional facilities: UCHealth Highlands Ranch Hospital, AdventHealth Parker, AdventHealth Castle Rock, and a hospital facility in Colorado Springs. About 7,000 moms have signed up over the last few years. Organizers are actively working to expand the initiative's footprint.
“You don't have to figure it all out, and get off of Google because it's a slippery slope,” Brooker said. “We give them vetted resources, things that they don't have to go looking for. We just give it to them.”
In addition to in-hospital visits, YANA hosts in-person gatherings and online groups, connecting families with specialists in infant sleep, maternal mental health, and car seat safety. For families living outside the current hospital network, the organization offers free digital resources and pairs mothers with individual support peers.
Brooker noted that YANA is also quick to connect mothers with licensed therapists and physicians if clinical care or medication is required.
The foundation of YANA stems from two tragedies in 2016 and 2017. In 2016, a mom shot and killed her two sons and herself. Two months later, another mom and daughter were found dead in a Highlands Ranch home.
Brooker said the losses deeply impacted her community and convinced her that maternal support systems needed a radical overhaul.
Since its inception, the organization has broadened its scope to include specialized groups for single mothers and fathers, alongside a check-in program where volunteers follow up with new parents after they head home.
“How are you doing? Are you struggling? Is there anything we can do to help you?” Brooker said of the check-in calls. “Most of the time we get voicemail... or we get a mama who says, 'I'm doing okay, but thanks for asking. No one's asked me that. I've had this baby for six months, and no one's asked me how I am.'”
UCHealth Highlands Ranch Hospital was YANA’s inaugural medical partner. Chelsea Carlson, director of patient services for the hospital’s women and infant service line, has witnessed the program's impact from both a professional and personal standpoint.
“What's amazing about it is that it allows them to be vulnerable, ask for help, share how they're feeling, what they're thinking, how they're struggling,” Carlson said. “It's not perfect, and it's not Instagram-real worthy, not TikTok-worthy at all. They come to a place where everybody's accepting of that.”
Carlson, who experienced postpartum depression after having her first daughter in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, joined YANA as a participant after giving birth to her second daughter.
“I think I was five or six weeks postpartum... and I was struggling already again with postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety,” Carlson said, noting that she was already thinking about seeking out the group and did so with the encouragement of her family.
Carlson said the peer environment gave her the confidence to communicate her needs more openly. She highlighted the organization's active WhatsApp group chat as a vital lifeline for late-nights.
“It's so wonderful to know that you can be up at 2 in the morning and struggling, and you can text this group, and you get somebody to respond to you,” Carlson said. “You get somebody that's willing to listen to you.”
YANA will host an upcoming fundraiser benefit on Nov. 14 as organizers continue discussions to bring the peer support model to additional hospitals.
