Having a Baby? Buy Clothes and Learn What to Expect While You're Expecting at New Downtown Store

The opening of Destination Maternity Corporation's 26th store in downtown Walnut Creek gave birth to an unexpected sidewalk traffic jam on Thursday. 

Luckily, the mothers (and few fathers) wielding strollers were roller derby adept, managing to fit a lot of action into a small space—perhaps the very definition of pregnancy?

The new store, offering apparel for expectant mothers and a Learning Studio, created in conjunction with John Muir Health, aims to be a resource for everything babies--and expectant moms. Activities and classes in the Learning Studio are led by certified instructors and range from Pregnancy Nutrition to Cord Blood Banking to Baby Boot Camp.

On opening day, Harvey Karp, a pediatrician, child development expert and popular author, whose The Happiest Baby On the Block dvd has saved thousands of parents from despair, was the guest speaker.

"As a pediatrician, I had a chance to get my ideas, then practice and refine them," he says.  The bedrock of his teaching revolves around "the calming reflex," an off-on switch to turn off crying and turn on sleep.  The "secret" is "deeply biological and connected to repetitive soothing instincts—not gas or burping," according to Dr. Karp.

For Stuart Leibach, Destination Maternity's vice president of stores, the "secret" is in location. 

"It's about convenience," he says, "bringing all that relates to maternity to one place."  To achieve that purpose, the company consolidated, closing nearby stores in Walnut Creek and Concord to create the new model.

On the retail floor, customers were already making themselves at home: settling into the store's comfy chairs, guiding their kids to the play area, exchanging the wealth of information experienced moms know and new moms crave. 

Karen Sondeno fit both categories; with Gunnar, 3, and 2-month old Brodie.  "I'm excited about the products and the classes," she says.

Mary, of Lafayette, whose daughter declined to give her name (and whose granddaughter was otherwise occupied with a toy), was animated.  "There are not a lot of maternity stores in Napa," her daughter said.  Maintaining her anonymity, she did share that she was 4 months along and was studying the other mothers attentively.

The new, one-stop shopping phenomenon on Locust and Mt. Diablo Boulevard is sure to please both parents and local officials.  They might even want to hold off on narrowing Mt. Diablo Boulevard from four lanes to two, as has been proposed at recent City Council meetings; after all, those strollers need room to cruise.

Destination Maternity is located at 1604 Mt. Diablo Blvd. Titles of classes, offered in conjunction with John Muir Health, include Meditation and Relaxation for Expectant Mothers, Pregnancy Nutrition, Shopping for Car Seats, Sibling Celebration, and Low-Tech Childbirth. For information on times, go to the John Muir Health page on classes and support groups.