For the first time in over a decade, The Womb Room isn’t in Hampden.

The staple for pregnant people and new parents was one of several small businesses displaced by a November fire that mostly tore through the third floor and attic of the historic building known as The Castle. The visibly charred landmark is likely years from rebuilding.

In the meantime, the popular spot for prenatal yoga, birth doulas and infant care classes is in limbo, operating out of a temporary space 3 miles away in Govans. Though its devoted following drives from as far as Frederick and Washington, Hampden has always been home. Owner Karen Kindig is determined to return.

Kindig was home with her kids when a massage therapist at The Womb Room told her the fire alarm had gone off and The Castle was evacuating. Ten minutes later, he sent a video of the roof engulfed in flames.

“I just lost it,” Kindig said. “It was just extremely hard to watch everything you’ve built potentially being burnt to the ground.”

Kindig bought The Womb Room in 2019 and moved it into The Castle in 2022 after it outgrew a smaller space on The Avenue. It’s become a place parents are willing to follow “wherever we go,” Kindig said, even when classes went virtual during the pandemic. That’s because its wellness services are approachable, not clinical, she said, and most of the staff has firsthand experience with the challenges of new parenthood.

“They’ve been through it. They know how hard it is,” Kindig said.

After the fire, supporters raised over $11,000 through a GoFundMe, which said the studio experienced “significant water damage” from fire hoses.

The Womb Room briefly moved online. About a week later, in-person sessions restarted on the second floor of the Accelerator Space, a building on Benninghaus Road that primarily hosts weddings and other private events. It was the slow season for Accelerator, co-founder Eben Altmann said, which allowed it to make the space available quickly.

Kindig said her community loves the wood floors, skylight, gas fireplace and space to spread out. But, whenever the Accelerator has an event booked in the 1,400-square foot room, Kindig and her staff have to move all of the studio’s equipment out and then back in. Spring is peak season, which means it’ll happen more often.

Parking was better at The Castle, as was its location; people who used to walk or bike now have to get in a car. Brooke Lacock-Nisly used to go three times a week when the studio was in Hampden. It was easy to take her 6-month-old to baby-and-me yoga in a stroller. Her loyalty ran deep. She gave birth on a Monday with a Womb Room doula and was at the studio for a baby item swap the following Saturday.

She had just signed up for postnatal yoga and baby-and-me classes when the fire upended her plans. Though she’s stayed close with a group of Womb Room moms on WhatsApp, she’s basically stopped going since returning to work.

“Having The Womb Room in Hampden allowed me to be very deeply ingrained in the community,” Lacock-Nisly said. “And since they’ve moved it’s been a lot harder.”

There are exercise classes at places like the Y, but Lacock-Nisly said it’s not the same.

“My body is still healing in a lot of different ways, and The Womb Room was able to cater to knowing what my body was going through,” she said, “just having more of a gentle and thoughtful exercise experience than just a generic Y class would have.”

It’s unclear when The Castle will reopen or whether The Womb Room will have a place there. The Womb Room ended its lease after the fire. Kindig is looking for something new.

A permanent home would need to be about 1,200 square feet, Kindig said. To offer services such as massage therapy, acupuncture and pelvic floor physical therapy, she’d like the new studio to have smaller treatment rooms, too.

Although Kindig doesn’t want to stray far from Hampden, she also knows parents will come “no matter where we are” so they don’t feel alone.

“Everyone’s kind of desperate for a community of people who are going through it just like they are,” Kindig said.

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.