By Katherine Schutzman
For The Diamondback
On an overcast September morning, Meg Smolinski prepared to lead a group of new parents and their babies on a tour of gardens at the University of Maryland.
In her work as outreach and education coordinator for the university’s Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, Smolinski organizes campus volunteer groups and tours of gardens for students and faculty.
“Walk with an Arborist and Your Baby” tours premiered in January 2020 when Smolinski returned to work after her daughter’s birth. Smolinski experienced postpartum depression during her parental leave and wanted to create a space for new parents to decompress.
“I thought about how I could use my position to help alleviate that isolation and loneliness that new parents can often feel during parental leave by providing a very low stakes, easy entry for new parents,” Smolinski said.
She hosted just two tours before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Last fall, Smolinksi reintroduced the program with “new vigor and life,” she said.
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Smolinski guided her first tour group this semester on a leisurely stroll through the university’s Garden of Reflection and Remembrance at the Memorial Chapel Friday and identified unique trees and plants along the way.
Smolinski is an extension education masters student and was selected for the Do Good Accelerator Fellowship Program. Through this program, she dedicated time to market and receive feedback on her tours, which are the focus of her thesis.
Lindsay Barranco, the experiential learning coordinator at this university’s applied agriculture institute, accompanied Smolinski on Friday to the group’s meeting place on the Memorial Chapel’s steps. The two friends met while enrolled in the applied agriculture institute.
Barranco said she is glad Smolinski revived her initiative to help people struggling with depression after childbirth.
“She wanted people to gather, to come in, to be able to see these spaces, to feel comfortable in them, to feel a sense of peace in them,” Barranco said.
While the tour was slated to begin at 10 a.m., Smolinski waited to begin until the majority of those who registered for the tour arrived. She emphasized to Friday’s attendees her compassion for late arrivals, nursing or crying, and her wish to make the walks a judgment-free environment.
Although Friday’s group was comprised entirely of mothers and babies, the tours are open to any parental figure of a new child. Families have attended with two parents and grandparents have come with their grandchildren on tours, Smolinski said.
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Mary Rose Conroy, one of six mothers on Friday’s tour, attended one of the earliest sessions with her son when she was on maternity leave more than two years ago.
Now, after the birth of her daughter, she continues to enjoy the peacefulness of the campus gardens.
“I thought the campus was really beautiful, and Meg was just so relatable,” Conroy said. “I liked how she was bringing a subject I knew nothing about kind of down to earth and making it easy to understand and appreciate.”
Jeralynn Miller and her daughter, Martie, attended the tour after Conroy recommended it through their mutual group for new parents.
Spending her morning with a group of other new parents can provide comfort and help her ward off the isolation that often accompanies early parenthood, Miller said. Talking to new mothers reminds her that others share her experience, she added.
“To talk a little bit about that, or just get outside into nature, I kind of find that to be a grounding experience,” Miller said. “It’s nice to remember that we’re not alone.”
Smolinski will continue to host walks for new parents and their babies throughout the fall on Fridays at 10 a.m.
