My name is Bronwyn Bay. 
 

Entering motherhood for me was like stepping into another dimension.  There was so much frustration and contradicting advice it made my head spin. I absolutely loved being at home with my girl but I was shocked when I was made redundant from my job as an administrator only 4 months into my maternity leave.  I was even more shocked to find out that 3 other mums I knew were also made redundant on maternity leave.  It turned out this situation was very common.  Loop holes in employment law make it simple enough to do. 

I turned my focus on being at home and relishing my girl but financial pressures soon dictated that I would have to find a job and return to work.  With the cost of childcare, I was going to have to work full time to make it financially worth it.  I was heartbroken.  Our family soon adjusted and before long our second girl was on her way.  With the belief that I had motherhood down, I soon found out that every child is different and sometimes, the complete opposite of what you're used to.  On top of that, I now had a toddler struggling to adjust to sharing my attention.  It all became a bit much and I slid into postnatal depression. 

With the support of a loving family I was able to get through my depression but was soon faced with the sad realisation that again, I would need to return to work to keep the bills paid and food on the table.  After yet another hard night of no sleep and dragging myself off to work I stopped for a moment and said out loud "does it have to be this hard?".  An idea entered my mind to see if I couldn't create a support network of mums in my local area.  That was the birth of 'It Takes A Village...' 

Mostly it serves as an online forum but we also get together for a range of different events from clothing swaps to parenting workshops to celebrating Diwali.  The creation of the initiative has been my joy and my passion.  My vision for the initiative is to create a space within which mums can connect and grow a more caring community that looks out for each other. 

 

That's why I started this community initiative: because mums need their village and it's there - we've just lost sight of each other.  This network is calling mums home, back to each other. Although I've started this network,  it belongs to all of us - and all of us are responsible for making it work.

 

This initiative is for all mums - young, old and in-between - because the challenges of motherhood don't go away over time, they just get taller, start going to school or driving.

 

We are an East Auckland based community initiative - but if you are a mum who lives in another area of Auckland or even NZ, feel free to join us.  "No mum left behind" is one of our mottos.

 

So get in touch and join our family!

 

With love, Bronwyn Bay