How It Started

 

Adriana Guerra wanted her kids to understand childbirth. Without going into all the gory details. It was 2007; the Edmonton mom was pregnant with her third child and planning a home birth.  How would she prepare her young family for the big event?

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“I saw a birthing doll from Brazil,” Guerra says, “and I thought, that’s a great idea, I’ll make one for my own children to explain it to them.”

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Using a needle and thread, Guerra fashioned a homemade pregnant doll, plus infant, that her children could play with. At the time, Guerra was studying to be a doula, or birth coach. When her fellow students saw the doll, they wanted one for themselves, to use as a teaching tool.

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Guerra saw an opportunity. After the birth of her daughter, Alaia, she started up MamAmor Dolls in 2008, a company that makes educational birthing and breastfeeding dolls. MamAmor is a hybrid of “mama” and “amor,” the Spanish words for “mother” and “love.”