MONDAY is the day for mums who don't cope as well as they would like with their roles as new mothers.
Whether they suffer postnatal depression or various forms of anxiety they know they will get support at Kingsgrove Community Centre's Poppy Playgroup.
There they can share their experiences with mothers who understand where they're coming from and they can tap into professional help to keep them on the right track.
The problem is you feel very alone and don't know where to turn, said Hana Begovic, one of the first women to use this service and now one of its employees.
Mrs Begovic had postnatal depression with her first child, now 5, and it returned after her second child was born 16 months ago.
She described it as anxiety rather than classic depression — a state of constant fear that something would happen to the child or to her.
"I never thought I'd harm the baby but I did worry there would be an accident," she said.
"I felt myself going into a deep hole where I was emotional and teary and full of excessive fear."
Luckily for Mrs Begovic she tapped into the medical system where she received appropriate referrals to mental care — and to the Poppy group.
"I was scared coming to the playgroup and I was ashamed and embarrassed because I thought I'd be judged.
"But at Poppy I got hope, social connectedness and the realisation that I wasn't alone. Poppy empowered me and I started flourishing."
With her welcoming and inspiring personality, Mrs Begovic was the obvious choice when a part-time peer support worker position became available.
There are many similar stories in the group, including Paula's who said Poppy saved her life.
The Argentinian mother-of-two came to Sydney with her English husband and felt totally isolated.
"With no family support I felt lonely, and with no sleep I was finding it hard to cope with everyday life," she said.
"I didn't want to get out of bed."
Paula now looks forward to Mondays. "It's great to chat to someone who understands."
Referring to recent news stories about dumped babies, Kingsgrove Community Centre manager Anne Farah-Hill said services such as Poppy were vital as a lifeline to women who weren't coping.
"If we get them early we can prevent something bad happening," she said.
She said Poppy came about because Early Childhood Services, also operating out of Kingsgrove, noted some of their clients needed ongoing and specialised help. As a result a group of health and community organisations united and pooled their resources to set up Poppy, a program initially trialled on the south coast.
"We were able to identify an issue and do something about it," Mrs Farah-Hill said.
Ideally they would like the service to be funded by the government in the long term but they fear that given the present political climate their days could be numbered.
"Usually the first things to be cut are the grass-roots community services," she said.
Have you used Poppy?
