Local Business Let Mommy Sleep Advocates for Change at The White House Summit on Working Families

June 24, 2014 - PRLog -- Local businesswoman, Denise Stern, President and founder of Let Mommy Sleep (http://www.letmommysleep.com) was selected to attend the elite White House Summit on Working Families. (http://workingfamiliessummit.org) The summit at the Omni Hotel in Washington D.C. on June 23, 2014 featured keynotes from President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President and Dr. Biden, U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez, many other distinguished leaders and paneled sessions with renowned national business owners.  Key issues discussed were workplace flexibility, equal pay, childcare, leave, early childhood education and the need to for this country to help families meet their work and home obligations. Stern was honored to represent the challenges of new working families and women entrepreneurs.

“It is important for new parents’ voices to be heard,” says Stern, “Since beginning my company, I have worked with nearly a thousand new families and common concerns continue to be that parents in this generation do not have family support because Grandma and Grandpa are still in the workforce themselves, and these same parents are often up against the clock of little or no maternity/paternity leave. Adding to these worries, we currently have the shortest postpartum hospital stays in history.”

Denise started Let Mommy Sleep out of the very personal experience of having medical complications when her twin daughters were born, a son who was merely 17 months old, and husband with no paternity leave. “I was a new mom falling off the cliff due to lack of confidence, poor health and no rest,” says Stern, “Here in the richest, most powerful country in the world we’re conditioned to accept that feeling like an unhealthy failure is not only normal, but a right of motherhood passage.”

During the summit, President Obama cited that some women in this country can’t even get a paid day off to give birth calling it a “pretty low bar.”  He mentioned that these issues, affecting the amount of time parents can spend with their children, shouldn’t be characterized primarily as women’s issues but rather family issues.  In fact, 60 percent of working families in the U.S. today have both parents in the household working.

“What struck me the most about the summit was the seriousness in all the participants,” Stern adds, “Usually a one day conference is focused on motivation and broad strokes. The Working Families Summit brought together Americans focused on affecting change and provided specific resources.”

Let Mommy Sleep employs only registered nurses and clinically trained caregivers, providing evidence based education and badly needed rest to parents struggling in the early days of parenthood.  LMS has grown by leaps and bounds, with gross sales in 2013 up 66% from 2012.   The company’s nationwide expansion plans have been noted by The Washington Post. Through outreach, education and overnight baby nurse services, Let Mommy Sleep continues to lead the local postpartum and perinatal care industry and is recognized as an outstanding woman-owned business by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.