"BaBs has given me a sense of belonging"

Petra Hoffmann

I am a recent immigrant to Australia, having moved here with my Australian husband and 9 weeks old first born son Cian. I had no connection with Australian maternity services at the time of our landing, and was unsure of how I would fit into the system. I had had a home birth with an independent midwife in the UK and was somewhat concerned that the main stream medical child health system in Australia would not best serve my needs.
An incredibly lucky coincidence resolved my concerns within the first months of our arrival in Australia. While my husband and I browsed a clothes store in Melbourne, with our son carried in a sling, we started to talk to another mother who also carried her infant in one. She invited us to a BaBs meeting in Box Hill, and Cian and I have been going to the meetings ever since. Even my husband attended a few times before he found a job here.
I found the mix of mothers of different backgrounds, some with one, some with six children from newborn (some still pregnant) to toddlers extremely stimulating. I was delighted to find women who shared my passion for breast feeding and natural parenting methods. The presence of midwives I frankly took as a luxury. In all, this meant that I could ask virtually any question and raise any concern surrounding pregnancy, birth and parenting in Australia. From finding a GP that shared our philosophies via borrowing strollers to arranging baby swimming lessons, I had a question for almost every meeting, and always found help.
But this only describes the practical side of BaBs. In moments when being an immigrant and first time mother, living crammed into the guest room in her mother-in-law's house, and with her relatives on the other side of the globe became tough, the value of the emotional support I experienced during the BaBs meetings was and is inestimable. We share worries and high points, and I have found much comfort and understanding there. I feel that I can always pick up the phone or email fellow BaBsers and help is just a couple of suburbs away. Sometimes it even extends across the network of the different Melbourne BaBs groups. In the six months that we have lived in Australia I have formed several friendships that extend well beyond the weekly BaBs meetings.
In both its "practical" and the "emotional" function, BaBs has given me a sense of belonging. We are seriously considering a second baby now. I hope I will then be one of the pregnant mothers with a toddler running around the room, welcoming new first timers into the group.