Maternal health research shows prenatal stress can be dangerous for mother and baby, according to the National Institutes of Health. One of the leading causes of maternal causes of stress is not having material essentials. One organization has made it its mission to fix that.

Two weeks after giving birth to baby Kaira, new mother Omwatee Teekaram-Parmooram is completely in love and dedicated to providing for her child.

"She's probably the best thing that ever happened to us," said Teekaram-Parmooram. "She is one of a kind."

But like many pregnant women, she struggled to afford a new car seat. She told her prenatal care provider, and with just days until Kaira's birth, the nonprofit organization Mom Starts Here got the call to help.

"There is so often that I can feel the energy [when we get the call] and here I am too going, 'Oh no, I'm panicked, too!' " said Damaris Daniels, a prenatal health specialist with Mom Starts Here. "We need to help them."

New York State's funding for car seats is administered by the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee.

While Mom Starts Here Executive Director Kyla Schmidt says the state's work is critical and intentions are good, she said her organization has been acting as a fail-safe for the hundreds of low-income parents who could not get a car seat through the state's program.

"What we're finding is that many people are falling through the cracks," said Schmidt. "It's not once in a while it's very common that people either don't know about these programs because they're kept kind of secretive to conserve their inventory, because there's a limited number of seats, or families don't qualify or they're turned away for one reason or the other. We're trying to sort of be that parachute that catches all those folks because not having a car seat is not an option."

In 2024, Mom Starts Here received 470 requests for car seats and with the funding it had, staffers were able to accommodate 240 qualified requests.

With a $60,000 donation from The Little Family Foundation, this year, they have the budget to meet the number of qualifying requests they had last year.

"That's a huge deal," said Schmidt. "It means we're not turning families away. It means that more and more children are going to be born to moms that are a little bit less stressed. That's why we're here. But, it is also scary because it's not ongoing. It's not forever."

With funding always in flux and the importance of material support in reducing maternal stress, Schmidt worries about the implications of delaying help.

"We need to stop gatekeeping around essential items that have implications for the safety of moms and babies," said Schmidt. "They should be guaranteed, and we need to find a way to make that happen."

Mom Starts Here also provides parents with access to diapers, baby clothing, toiletries and more at their nine baby item network locations. They recently opened one in Utica and have plans to open more across the state.