LAKEPORT — Mother-Wise, is a Lake County nonprofit group that connects moms with the best social, health and physical resources Lake County has to offer. Their logo states; “Helping moms build strong families.”
Faith Hornby, the nonprofit’s business administrator, said “We’re busier than ever. Depression is rising all throughout the U.S. due to the pandemic. We help moms who need that extra help. We have check-in calls weekly; in both English and Spanish. We want to know if the mothers, both pre and post natal, need resources. We’re here and we’re essential and helping moms, just in a different way right now due to COVID.”
Every Thursday, Mother Wise has a 9 AM to 9:30 AM Zoom meeting called ‘Coffee Talk with Mother-Wise’, “for mothers wanting to connect and start the day off with positivity.”
Some of the posts that Mother-Wise has on its social media are: Advice for tummy time for baby and how it “increases a baby’s motor skills and is essential for development for back, neck and arm muscles.” Tips on what’s important the first few weeks of the baby’s life: buying baby gear that is practical rather than cute. Not stressing about being tidy because the first few weeks are all about convenience. Using hand-me-downs rather than insisting on brand-new expensive items. Connecting with other new moms. Remembering to breathe. An article on why it’s OK to not breastfeed. What to pack for the hospital “go bag.” How to deal with the new father’s postpartum depression. To name a few.
Mother-Wise also has a full-donation closet for the baby, with contactless curbside pickup.
Hornby cites that 36% of pregnant mothers in a women’s hospital study had significant levels of depression in 2020 and that prior to the pandemic, rates of perinatal depression were about 15% to 20%. “There has been over a 20% increase of perinatal depression due to the pandemic. All of our staff is trained, or are currently being trained, in Postpartum Support International for Maternal Mental Health. We also offer Spanish speaking support.”
“Our mission statement,” she said, is: ‘Together we can make a difference to normalize conversation of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and check in with mothers who are raising our future.’”
A Mother-Wise board member, Melissa Simons, who went to Mother-Wise after having her now 8-year-old son, said, “I had only heard of baby blues not postpartum depression. At the time I had been working in the behavioral health field and I was going to my doctor who just wasn’t equipped to deal with postpartum depression. I turned to Mother-Wise and used them basically once a week. It was really nice to be around other moms. What they’re doing is so important and essential. There’s just not enough information about having a baby or about postpartum depression. The Mother-Wise mothers were the girlfriends that stuck by my side even when I was pushing everyone away. It took me a long time for me to enjoy my son’s first year. I was depressed for two years.”
Simons sighed. “It was the perfect storm. I had two children back to back and didn’t let my body repair. It was a huge adjustment.”
“Mother-Wise is trying educate the community,” Simons said. “They’re not just for moms. They are so supportive of the whole family, including the dads. They inform of things to watch out for.”
Kirsten Perkins discovered Mother-Wise walking down Main Street with her then 3-month-old daughter. She said she saw their logo on the window and peeked inside. The director at the time saw her and welcomed them in with open arms, explained the program to her and sent her home with a little rocker for the baby.
Perkins said, “I started regularly attending the mom groups when my oldest was about 6-months-old. We continued to attend almost every week until they had to close the office because of COVID. My oldest daughter was 3 and my youngest was 1 at that point. So they have guided me through the majority of my oldest’s life, my pregnancy and infancy of my second daughter.”
“Mother-Wise,” Perkins continued, “helped me find the perfect therapist. They went above and beyond when I had a really rough experience with another therapist who basically swept my anxiety and depression under the rug. I would like other moms to know how valuable Mother-Wise is. I honestly don’t know how I possibly could have survived being a new mother, a tandem feeding mother, a mother of two, without the love and support that was so generously given to me. I met every single one of my mom friends through Mother-Wise and my daughters have irreplaceable friendships that were discovered there as well. Simply knowing that I wasn’t alone and the difficult feelings I had were pretty common, and fixable, made so much of a difference inside of me.”
Perkins said having a peaceful place, free of judgment to sit down with other struggling mothers made her entire week easier because the members supported each other, swapped parenting tips and simply just loved one another.
“My life has been drastically changed in the best way because of this program and I hope every mother in our county has the ability to experience this type of “village” support and togetherness,” she said. “Although Mother-Wise is unable to have in person groups right now, they are doing Zoom groups so we can still gather in the best way we can to support one another.”
Hornby said they are now accepting applications for 2021-2022 board members. Meetings take place once a month via zoom. They can apply through the website, www.mother-wise.org
