Service for new mothers seeks backing

Aspiring Australian entrepreneurs take their chances pitching business ideas and products on the Shark Tank TV program on Channel 10 weekly.

They hope one or more of the Sharks (investors) will love their idea enough to back it with a big financial injection.

Raizel Fogel, co-owner of the kosher catering business Eshel, has not appeared on the show, but as one of the founders of Haven for New Mothers and Babies, a registered charity, she is dedicating her life to caring for women in the days immediately after giving birth following their discharge from hospital.

And now she is hunting for her Shark.

Fogel said although she is not sure the Shark would get a monetary return on their investment, maybe a “non-financial ‘helping those who need’ feeling”.

Fogel told The AJN there is a huge need to support women and their newborns.

“Many mothers [and families] cannot afford private health insurance anymore, so they go public, which is a wonderful system, but a system that does not keep you in hospital long.

“I was with a woman last night, and the public hospital in which she was giving birth asked her, ‘Would you like to leave straight after the birth?’ How does a mother answer after a nine-month pregnancy and undergoing giving birth?”

Fogel explains that Haven is an intermediary place to stay, in a purpose-built addition to her own family home, where mothers can just focus on their baby and themselves.

“They are given good meals and lots of rest and can sit in the garden in the sunshine and just take a few days or a week, whatever they need, to get to use to their senses after a nine-month pregnancy and a birth,” she said.

Fogel, a qualified Doula, thinks a lot of people who could use her facility do not because maybe they feel there is a stigma attached.

“Whereas if it was a facility for everyone across the board, rich, poor, capable, not so capable, I think it would be much more popular and well received and utilised,” she said.

“I, and the rest of the board, at Haven for New Mothers and Babies, are putting the call out for financial support to take our organisation to the next stage,” Fogel added.

For more information contact – raizel@eshel.com.au