Postpartum support for Jewish mothers

Ensuring mothers get the support they need to thrive with their baby is seen as an important factor to preventing post-natal depression.

Raizel Fogel understood this need and created Haven for mothers and babies – supporting women who recently had babies and were suffering from, or were at risk of suffering from distress and postnatal depression. While it is a free service run in Fogel’s home, Haven is seeking a permanent residence for its next steps.

Speaking to The AJN about her motivation, Fogel said, “I’m a doula in the Jewish community, and I service a lot of women in hospitals all over Melbourne. I have found that there’s a very big lack of support for mothers after birth. Everything is sort of geared up towards the actual birth, and then there’s nothing available for mothers to support them. So, when I’ve seen a mother that’s really been struggling, I’ve invited them into our home. We built a purpose-built room … it’s got a bathroom, and I give three meals a day, and I just see how mothers sort of come back to themselves and bond with their babies.”

Fogel believes this problem grows when hospitals rush women home after birth, and as many mothers can’t afford private health insurance that can provide extra supports.

“Often women even haven’t registered that they’ve given birth and they’ve got this little baby, which they know very little about, with no support … When you’ve just come home with a newborn, you don’t know what to do. So, we would really love to have a place … I feel that if we had a place where it’s not in a private home, it would be so much more beneficial and more people would use the service.”

Paediatrician Dr Sam Menahem is also backing the initiative, telling The AJN, “It’s very clear that the mothers that use this centre find it very helpful.”

He notes that while there are services for postpartum women who are unwell with drug addiction, psychosis or severe depression, “There’s no centre for ‘good enough’ mothers.”

Fogel noted that Masada Hospital’s sleep school is for babies from around six months of age, which can be too late for a mother having difficulties caring for her newborn.

An academic study on Haven was recently published in the International Journal of Pregnancy & Child Birth, conducted by Menahem, Maggie Kirkman, Margaret Hay, Jane Fisher and the late Raie Goodwach. Commenting on the research Fisher said, “The study found that many women who have recently given birth are discharged from hospital with unmet needs for practical, and emotional care. Many do not have family support. The Haven has provided a highly valued service to a selected group of women for whom a period of quiet residential care in a domestic setting is welcomed. Others preferred supportive services in their own home or to have access to a place where they could go for the day and receive care and education. Health professionals held concerns about the potential risks of a service that is not formally credentialled and about the sustainability of a service that relies on volunteers.”

Fogel and Menahem are looking to develop Haven into a quality postpartum centre to provide mothers and their babies with support many desperately need. They have registered Haven as a not-for-profit with DGR status, and they are seeking a residence from philanthropists to enable its free use by the Jewish community.

For enquiries contact: samuel.menahem@monash.edu