Mums build a village of support and friendship

A GROUP of more than 120 Surf Coast mums has found a wonderful way to support each other through isolation.

The Surf Coast Pandemic Babes Facebook page was established by Nadine Jakowlew as a way of connecting new and expectant mums during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nadine, herself a first-time mum to seven-month-old Matt, said the lack of social interaction in the early months of motherhood was taking a toll on her mental health and she wondered whether others were feeling the same.

She tossed up the idea of a Facebook page for a couple of months and finally decided to go outside her comfort zone to reach out to other women via the Surfcoast Community page.

“I posted it late one night and within 24 hours I had nearly 90 member requests, which was ridiculous,” she says.

“It was almost instant and the requests just kept coming through, which was great.

“Sometimes you think ‘am I the only one feeling this isolated?’ but there were so many mums who felt the same that I wished I had done it earlier.”

Now the Torquay-based group operates like a small and supportive village.

“The generosity has been pretty amazing with people offering to give away things for free and offering to drop things off at people’s houses locally, especially when it was doorstop deliveries only,” Nadine says.

“That’s pretty nice when you have a newborn.”

It also provided an opportunity for mums with babies of a similar age to form friendships and share their experiences at each new stage their babies go through such as sleeping and starting solids.

“The social interaction was also really important to me,” Nadine says.

“My son hadn’t seen any babies, really. He is nearly seven months and I think the first time was when he was six months.”

One mum who joined the group, Skye Staude, describes it as a lifeline.

Skye had her second child, a son named Alby, two weeks before the first lockdown started.

“I’ve just been feeling quite isolated myself because all of my family are in Sydney so I’ve been finding it quite tough,” she says.

“There are other mums with family interstate or overseas so to be able to meet people who are in similar situations has been amazing.

“It has connected all of these women who otherwise wouldn’t have connected if it wasn’t for COVID and people have been using it as a support and reference page during that time.”

Skye said as the restrictions eased, she saw an opportunity to form another branch for mums with bubs in the six to eight-month “There is now about 15 of us who have set up our own mother’s group through that and we regularly catch-up now that restrictions have eased,” she says.

“Nadine had the idea of setting up this group and now these really tight friendships have formed in a time where we didn’t have access to supports other mums would normally have.”

But Nadine is reluctant to take any credit for the group’s success.

“Anyone can make a Facebook group – it really is the ladies in the group who put themselves out there to meet other mums who deserve the credit,” she says.

“Everyone is doing a great job of surviving a year none of us could have predicted.”