Hello!
We are planning two projects for 2018:
・One Stop Family Pop Up project
・Stop Gap pilot project
Let us first tell you who we are.
We are Christine Serdjenian Yearwood
and Rica Takashima.
Christine Serdjenian Yearwood is the Founder and CEO of UP-STAND.
The UP-STAND movement works
to improve accessibility
for pregnant women and caregivers
across the United States.
We met by chance at an Astoria
community market at the end of 2016,
and we have since started two projects together.
Purpose:
We are a group of mothers
–
We bring attention
to the accommodations that pregnant women
and families need in
order to make New York City more family-friendly and accessible.
Working together, we can
draw attention to this cause,
increase awareness about
our movements, and provide practical follow-up information
and materials to
support pregnant women and families.
Our first Pop Up!
MOMpreneurs’ Show & Tell Event at
Astoria Park
June 2017
A family-friendly interactive art show using a Peekaboo-sculpture and a wearable-sculpture.
Our practical accommodations: Diaper changing station, and lactation tent.
We also provided a priority seating area and stroller parking section.
Christine’s story:
After giving birth and starting the UP-STAND movement, I listened to countless pregnancy horror stories about a lack of accommodations and inaccessible spaces - Trying to find a store that would offer a restroom, health complications from being expected to perform dangerous work, standing too long with circulation issues, carrying something too heavy, fainting from exhaustion or motion sickness, and being shoved in line or onto crowded trains.
Pregnancy can change a woman’s body in extreme ways: Fatigue, nausea, backaches and headaches, dizziness, a shifting center of gravity and imbalance, carpal tunnel syndrome and a poor grip, leg cramps, sciatica, and blurry vision. Many women experience these health complications starting before pregnancy is visible and lasting through labor and delivery.
Many people are also unaware of these typical changes, and are even less aware of the serious complications women can experience during pregnancy.
New York treats pregnancy as something that may be accommodated as a courtesy, but has almost zero institutional, practical support to make public spaces and transportation accessible. The same goes for parents trying to participate in our social and economic lives with children in tow. Our movement encourages people and places to change these norms by providing family-friendly accommodations as policy whenever possible.
Rica’s story:
The reason I am doing this is because when I was pregnant years ago, I experienced many things that I had never imagined before. My sense of taste became sensitive and I could clearly differentiate between organic and non-organic vegetables and other produce. I cooked more at home.
My sense of smell had become sensitive as well. I was concerned about the smell of detergents and bleach. I started to use natural, safe detergents such as baking soda and soap. I was concerned about the bad smell of pollution in urban cities and got used to spending time in the park and the suburbs. After giving birth, I lost the this sensitivity and returned to the way my senses had been before pregnancy, but since that time I began to think about recycling, organic foods, and the environment more seriously. I started to tell my story to people, and wish people think more about pregnant women, babies and the environment to improve our communities.
