Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center to host free community baby shower

Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center used a community baby shower to do more than celebrate new arrivals. The free event, hosted Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Scott Bieler Training Center on the NFMMC campus at 621 10th St. in Niagara Falls, brought expectant parents, new families and community members into the hospital’s maternity pipeline with Fidelis Care as partner. Advance registration was encouraged.

Inside the training center, the hospital opened up its maternity footprint in practical terms. Guests could tour the OB/GYN office, the labor and delivery floor and the P3 Center, while meeting women’s health providers and care teams, gathering maternal-health information, and connecting with community resources. Refreshments and giveaways rounded out the afternoon, but the real draw was access: the kind of face-to-face introduction that can make prenatal and postpartum care feel less distant and more navigable.

That was the point of the event. NFMMC has framed its maternity work around early outreach, and the baby shower fit that strategy neatly by giving families a chance to learn where care starts and where support continues after birth. The P3 Center, which focuses on family planning, preconception, pregnancy and parenting, is a free resource for women and offers home-based case management designed to help women and children overcome barriers to care. The center’s programming also includes breastfeeding support groups, community baby showers and family events at no cost.

The hospital has also tied the P3 Center to broader maternal-health work in Niagara County. That includes the Uplifting Birth Equity Maternal Health Hub, launched at the center to improve maternal health outcomes and address disparities across the region, and the Every Woman and Child Counts doula program, which NFMMC says is housed there. Together, those services show a system building around pregnancy before complications or care gaps have a chance to widen.

NFMMC’s maternity page describes the Mary C. Dyster Women’s Pavilion as a place where many women in Niagara County choose to deliver, with private inpatient accommodations and an emphasis on early and ongoing pregnancy care. Founded in 1895, Niagara Falls Memorial has long cast itself as a community anchor, and Saturday’s baby shower showed how that role now extends beyond delivery rooms: into prevention, education and the first conversations that shape a healthier start for families.