In 2017, when I was a mother of an 18 month old toddler, my colleague and fellow mother Jane Tuomola and I decided to set up an English-language mothers group in Helsinki. We ran our first session before we even had an office, using facilities in the Kalliola Settlementtitalo in November 2017. Little did I know that I would be still running the group through Compass Psychology seven years later!
We have had many different instructors and locations for the groups, as well as hundreds of mothers and babies during the years, but a few constants have remained:
- It has always been a 4 week group, meeting in the morning on Tuesdays with tea, coffee and cake on offer to the mothers in a calm, baby friendly environment
- We run the group every 3 months in February, May, August and November. We have now run the group 28 times since 2017! Even during COVID times we kept running the groups, using online sessions or meetings in parks to keep going
- The group is for first-time mothers of newborn babies (those babies born within about 4 months of the group starting date) and for those mothers who are not from Finland
- We run an annual picnic in August for all the mothers of the previous 12 months to help facilitate wider mum-networks in Finland, and also so we can see how the babies have grown!
I am so proud that the group has kept going for so long, and I’m very grateful to all the wonderful people involved in running it – from the amazing Nicola of Purna Yoga, who has been on board since the very first group, to the wonderful Maria of Mumfulnessme/The Nest Doulas, and including all the people in between: students/interns of Compass Psychology, psychologists in the practice (particularly Dr Jane Tuomola and Dr Hatty Francis-Ehnholm), volunteer professionals (Jonelle Hawea (nurse), Samantha Leckie (maternal and child chiropractor), Veera (doula at Doulakka) and Dora (lactation consultant).
And the best people of all – the mothers and their babies! It would not be an exaggeration to say that nearly every week or every month I am thanked again by a mother who participated in the group and found the experience “life changing”. The mothers all say that while they were nervous about meeting others and uncertain about how they might find the mothers group, but that in the end it was the other mothers going through the same experiences that made the group incredibly important for them. It is so helpful for them to be able to share the experience of being a new mother, caring for a baby and doing all of it while living in Finland, usually far from family and friends.
Once I was walking down the street in summertime in Helsinki and suddenly a woman ran barefoot out of a shop to chase me down to the street corner – it was a mother participant in one of the groups and she was running up to me to thank me for the new mothers’ group!
It is rare to have such a rewarding and amazing job, so I’m really glad that Compass Psychology has managed to keep going with this concept. In Australia where I am from it is part of the standard care, so I was very surprised to find that it was not part of the usually excellent maternal care in Finland. But now it seems to be something of an institution, and it has also inspired a few other organisations to run similar events (The Nest and Luckan, for example).
If you want to learn more, I highly recommend you read the NMG page on the website – there you can also find a link to a lengthy podcast that I did on the topic with the Birthing in Finland founder Dannielle Bensky.
Also, we now have a second time mother’s group which is running for the first time in October! We have often had mothers request a group for their second (or third or fourth) child and I am really glad we are able to run this group for these mothers now. Please also check out the webpage for this if you would like to know more.
