Creating a Caring Community, One Card at a Time

On May 1, the MLK Community Health Foundation will once again launch a Happy Birthday Campaign, calling our community of friends to join us in cheering on healthy families in South Los Angeles by sending a free birthday card to new mothers and their babies born at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital (MLKCH).

Last year, hundreds of people from across the country sent birthday cards to new parents and babies at MLKCH. The staff and patients at MLKCH were touched by the kindness and encouragement of your messages. “I wish you a beautiful life – una vida maraviosa!” wrote Linda G. on her card.

Smiling Latinx couple at maternity event

Sending a card might seem like a simple gesture, but MLKCH nurses tell us it’s meaningful for the new moms who receive the cards along with a packet of information when they are discharged from the hospital. Gloria Santillana, Clinical Supervisor, Postpartum reports that when mothers receive these cards, it’s a wonderful moment. She’s heard many mothers say they’ll cherish the cards from strangers. Said one mother, "This is beautiful. I'll put the card in my baby's album."

Each card becomes part of MLKCH’s commitment to supporting the new moms—from pre-birth baby showers, to coaching on breastfeeding, to our partnership with First 5 LA’s Welcome Baby program which provides home visits to new parents.

During the month of May, select a free card online and customize it with a message in English or Spanish. The foundation will print the cards, and nurses in Maternal and Child Health will bring them to our new moms throughout the year.

By promoting the campaign on social media, building in social share requests, and calling on you, our current foundation supporters, to spread the word among your networks, the foundation hopes to reach new audiences to achieve these important goals: grow our family of friends, build awareness of the hospital’s outstanding maternity services, and engage the community in helping to make a difference in a family’s life.

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