McChesney started Isis over six years ago, offering merchandise, services, classes and social networking to parents in the area. Prior to that she worked for many years in the health care industry, including policy research at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Q: How has the industry changed over the years?

A: The products that are available to help parents have babies and adjust to life with children have become much more robust. There are plenty of gimmicky, unnecessary things out there, but there are also genuinely helpful products.

On one hand that’s a challenge in a tough economy; there’s stuff out there you want to buy. On the other hand, compared to other things in life like mortgage and cars, these are luxuries that can make life easier for a parent and they seem to be quite worth it.

Another trend, even in a tough economy, you only have your first baby once. Whether you have your first baby in a great economy or your first baby in a terrible economy you still need to prioritize that life-changing event because it is so big.

Q: Has the economy affected the baby retail business?

A: Not meaningfully. When you have a baby you’re going to do what you need to do to do it right. We’ve tried to have more moderately priced items and moderately priced services.

Q: Isis is featured on Facebook and Twitter. There are many parent blogs and an emerging number of forums for advice and feedback. How important to parents is social networking, especially in a city like Boston?

A: Traditionally, young families had more of a support structure than they do today. Particularly in urban areas, in Boston, people are more likely to be separated from their families. They don’t have their mom or sister or sister-in-law law nearby to lend advice, lend products and so forth.

I think that’s been replaced by community, friends.

Q: Has anything at Isis or within the community become more popular as a result of the economy?

A: We run a lot of free classes, open to the public, and we try to offer more value because we know times are hard.

Our instructors do try to help people with low to no-cost enrichment ideas for the home - making shakers out of pasta and beans, making your own playdough. There’s plenty you can do to enrich your child without spending money.

We have found in the tough economy that applications into using [the Isis Maternity Fund for deals on services] is higher than it has been before.