
In the film Where the Heart Is, Ashley Judd plays Lexie Coop, a mom of five children. As you can imagine, her life is chaotic. In a scene I’ll always remember from the movie, she says to her friend Novalee, played by Natalie Portman: “Mind if I drive real slow on the way home? I’d like to pretend it’s a vacation.” Watching that movie as a teenager, I laughed at its ridiculousness.
But now, as a mother in my mid-30s, not only do I understand what she meant by that, I do the exact same thing. It’s what I did driving to the MelaMama Maternal Wellness center in my hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana.
MelaMama just opened its doors in December 2022.
I drove down my favorite tree- and mansion- lined street in the city to reach a quaint neighborhood where MelaMama — a house turned into a sanctuary — is located.
MelaMama is a nonprofit that primarily offers lactation services and postpartum education to underrepresented moms, but also serves as a haven for women who just need a break and a bit of self-care.
When you first walk in, there’s a sunroom on your left and a massage chair on the right. Sierra Woods, the owner of the center, was ending a meeting with a client as I was coming in. After she ushered her out, I walked into the living room. Sierra put on a jazz playlist and a soothing moving image on the television screen, setting the mood for relaxation.
Above the couch in the living room, I noticed a collage wall featuring Black women breastfeeding their babies. Woods is also an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, with a mission to encourage and support Black women as they embark on their breastfeeding journeys.
Woods, a mother of two, began her career in public health. After her college graduation, she worked with a home visiting company and found she had a real passion for working with mothers. Through her passion for mothers and babies, she realized that she needed to become a nurse.
'I really wanted my center to feel like home,' Sierra says.

“While in nursing school I had a baby and decided to breastfeed,” Sierra explained. “I had so many issues with breastfeeding. It was really hard for me to find a Black lactation consultant. When I finally found one, I was so excited. I realized the need. We needed more Black people in lactation.”
But more than just the health of the baby, Sierra, who eventually became a postpartum nurse, is concerned about the health of mothers as well.
“With my center, I really wanted it to feel like home. Sometimes I find that when you go to the doctor’s offices, you already have white coat syndrome,” Sierra explained. “I actually found a house. I want people to come freely, sit down. We have a massage chair and a couch. I wanted to paint a picture of relaxation.”
In addition to the sunroom and massage chair, Sierra’s sister also offers natural nail manicures, so moms can visit the center for a bit of pampering as well.
Sierra plans to eventually offer mental health support services for BIPOC mothers.

During my trip, I indulged primarily in the massage chair. My sister bought me a massage this past Mother’s Day but I haven’t found or made the time to use it. But the massage chair hit my lower back/booty with the type of specialization that might have been a little weird to request of a professional.
I was only at the center for an hour but I got to indulge in some adult conversation with Sierra, and even read a book it has taken me too long to finish.
It wouldn’t have taken much for me to relax. Simply being out of the house, away from my child with the opportunity to think only about myself for an hour and some change, was more than enough. But MelaMama certainly helped by fostering a relaxing atmosphere.
And in the future, Sierra plans to expand her service to Black mothers even further, especially with the increased rates of postpartum depression for Black women.
Postpartum depression in Black women often goes undiagnosed and untreated.
The American Psychological Association conjectures that 1 in 7 women experience postpartum depression. But that number is merely an estimate because so many women do not recognize symptoms of postpartum depression and don’t always seek treatment even when they do.
That is particularly true for Black women. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women are more likely to experience postpartum depression than white women, but are less likely to receive treatment for it.
Sierra knows that the gap in treatment is partially due to lack of access and that some of it is cultural.
Even in our families, if you talk to an older person or a parent about it, they might say, "Oh girl, everybody goes through that. Just keep going. Just keep pushing through,” Sierra said. “We just say these things but really that mom could be struggling and needs more help than that.”
Sierra hopes that MelaMama will be a place of refuge for those mothers. And as someone who experienced the center for myself, I can say she’s well on her way.